RFC 6839: Additional Media Type Structured Syntax Suffixes | RFC Editor

Skip to content Primary navigationThe RFC SeriesFor AuthorsAbout UsHomeRFC 6839 View as: Plain Text, Compact HTML Info RFC 6839: Additional Media Type Structured Syntax Suffixesmedia typesJanuary 2013. T. Hansen, A. MelnikovInformationalSubscribe5 subscribed Add to Set Read aloud This RFC was updated, see RFC 7303.Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) T. Hansen Request for Comments: 6839 AT&T Laboratories Updates: 3023 A. Melnikov Category: Informational Isode Ltd ISSN: 2070-1721 January 2013 Additional Media Type Structured Syntax Suffixes Abstract A content media type name sometimes includes partitioned meta- information distinguished by a structured syntax to permit noting an attribute of the media as a suffix to the name. This document defines several structured syntax suffixes for use with media type registrations. In particular, it defines and registers the "+json", "+ber", "+der", "+fastinfoset", "+wbxml" and "+zip" structured syntax suffixes, and provides a media type structured syntax suffix registration form for the "+xml" structured syntax suffix. Status of This Memo This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes. This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has received public review and has been approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741. Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6839. Hansen & Melnikov Informational [Page 1] RFC 6839 Additional Media Type Suffixes January 2013 Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2013 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. When to Use These Structured Syntax Suffixes . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Initial Structured Syntax Suffix Definitions . . . . . . . . . 4 3.1. The +json Structured Syntax Suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.2. The +ber Structured Syntax Suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.3. The +der Structured Syntax Suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.4. The +fastinfoset Structured Syntax Suffix . . . . . . . . 7 3.5. The +wbxml Structured Syntax Suffix . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.6. The +zip Structured Syntax Suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4.1. The +xml Structured Syntax Suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 6.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Hansen & Melnikov Informational [Page 2] RFC 6839 Additional Media Type Suffixes January 2013 1. Introduction [RFC3023] created the +xml suffix convention that can be used when defining names for media types whose representation uses XML underneath. That is, they could have been successfully parsed as if the media type had been application/xml in addition to their being parsed as their media type that is using the +xml suffix. [RFC6838] defines the media type "Structured Syntax Suffix Registry" to be used for such structured syntax suffixes. A variety of structured syntax suffixes have already been used in some media type registrations, in particular "+json", "+der", "+fastinfoset", and "+wbxml". This document defines and registers these structured syntax suffixes in the Structured Syntax Suffix Registry, along with "+ber" and "+zip". In addition, this document updates [RFC3023] to formally register the "+xml" structured syntax suffix according to the procedure defined in [RFC6838]. The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]. 2. When to Use These Structured Syntax Suffixes Each of the structured syntax suffixes defined in this document is appropriate for use when the media type identifies the semantics of the protocol payload. That is, knowing the semantics of the specific media type provides for more specific processing of the content than that afforded by generic processing of the underlying representation. At the same time, using the suffix allows receivers of the media types to do generic processing of the underlying representation in cases where they do not need to perform special handling of the particular semantics of the exact media type, and there is no special knowledge needed by such a generic processor in order to parse that underlying representation other than what would be needed to parse any example of that underlying representation. Hansen & Melnikov Informational [Page 3] RFC 6839 Additional Media Type Suffixes January 2013 3. Initial Structured Syntax Suffix Definitions 3.1. The +json Structured Syntax Suffix [RFC4627] defines the "application/json" media type. The suffix "+json" MAY be used with any media type whose representation follows that established for "application/json". The media type structured syntax suffix registration form follows. See [RFC6838] for definitions of each of the registr