The Profile URI Registry
draft-lanthaler-profile-registry-05

Abstract

This document defines a registry for profile URIs to be used in specifications standardizing profiles.

Status of This Memo

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This Internet-Draft will expire on July 25, 2014.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Registration Process
• 3. Example Registration Request
• 4. IANA Considerations
• 4.1. Initial Registry Contents
• 5. Security Considerations
• 6. Change Log
• 6.1. From -04 to -05
• 6.2. From -03 to -04
• 6.3. From -02 to -03
• 6.4. From -01 to -02
• 6.5. From -00 to -01
• 7. Acknowledgements
• 8. Normative References
• Author's Address

1. Introduction

Profiles, as defined by [RFC6906], can be used to signal support for additional semantics, such as constraints, conventions, extensions, or any other aspects that do not alter the basic media type semantics. Profiles are identified by a URI and can thus be created without central coordination.

Similarly to media types and link relation types it is, in some cases, beneficial to centrally manage profile URIs to ensure interoperability and decrease the coupling between clients and servers. This allows the independent evolution of clients and servers as both are coupled to these central contracts instead of being coupled to each other. Therefore, this document establishes an IANA registry for profile URIs.

2. Registration Process

All elements in this registry require a URI in order to be registered. The meaning of the profile URI should be documented in a permanent and readily available public specification in sufficient detail so that interoperability between independent implementations is possible (see the registration template in Section 4).

An exemplary registration request can be found in Section 3.

3. Example Registration Request

The following is an example registration request for the profile URI http://example.com/profiles/example.

This is a request to IANA to please register the profile URI "http://example.com/profiles/example" in the Profile URI Registry according [this document].

• Profile URI: http://example.com/profiles/example
• Common Name: Exemplary Profile URI
• Description: An exemplary profile URI registration.
• Specification Document: [this document]

4. IANA Considerations

This document establishes the Profile URI registry. The registration procedure for new entries requires a request in the form of the following template and is "First Come First Served" per [RFC5226]. Instructions for a registrant to request the registration of a profile URI are in Section 2.

The underlying registry data (e.g., the XML file) must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info).

The registration template is:

• Profile URI: The URI that identifies the registered profile.
• Common Name: The name by which the profile being registered is generally known.
• Description: A relatively short description of the profile. For simple profiles, this might be all the documentation that is required and there might be no reference document. In those cases, be sure this description adequately documents the profile and is suitable for interoperable implementation.
• Specification Document: Reference to the document that specifies the URI, preferably including a URI that can be used to retrieve a copy of the document. An indication of the relevant sections may also be included. This is recommended, but can be left blank if the "Description" field provides sufficient documentation.
• Notes: [optional]

4.1. Initial Registry Contents

The Profile URI registry's initial contents are:

• Profile URI: urn:example:profile-uri
• Common Name: Exemplary Profile
• Description: A profile to be used in examples.
• Specification Document: [this document]

• Profile URI: http://dublincore.org/documents/2008/08/04/dc-html/
• Common Name: Dublin Core HTML meta data profile
• Description: A set of conventions by which a Dublin Core metadata description set can be can be represented within an (X)HTML Web page using (X)HTML elements and attributes.
• Specification Document: [DC-HTML]

• Profile URI: http://www.w3.org/ns/json-ld#expanded
• Common Name: Expanded JSON-LD
• Description: A profile URI to request or signal expanded JSON-LD document form.
• Specification Document: [JSON-LD]

• Profile URI: http://www.w3.org/ns/json-ld#compacted
• Common Name: Compacted JSON-LD
• Description: A profile URI to request or signal compacted JSON-LD document form.
• Specification Document: [JSON-LD]

• Profile URI: http://www.w3.org/ns/json-ld#flattened
• Common Name: Flattened JSON-LD
• Description: A profile URI to request or signal flattened JSON-LD document form.
• Specification Document: [JSON-LD]

5. Security Considerations

There are no additional security considerations beyond those already inherent to using URIs. Security considerations for URIs in general can be found in [RFC3986].

6. Change Log

Note to RFC Editor: Please remove this section before publication.

6.1. From -04 to -05

• Change registration process from "Specification Required" to "First Come First Served".
• Update JSON-LD reference.
• Update acknowledgements.

6.2. From -03 to -04

• Change title from "The IETF Profile URI Registry" to just "The Profile URI Registry".
• Update JSON-LD reference.

6.3. From -02 to -03

• Seed registry with the profile URIs defined in [DC-HTML] and [JSON-LD].

6.4. From -01 to -02

• Do not establish a new IETF URN Sub-namespace anymore.

6.5. From -00 to -01

• Use HTTP URI instead of URN in example registration request to make it clearer that not only URNs can be registered.
• Move security considerations to the end.

7. Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dave Cridland, Barry Leiba, and Nevil Brownlee for valuable comments and suggestions.

8. Normative References

Author's Address