URI-related Internet Drafts

Discussion of these and related topics takes place on the URI working group mailing list <uri@w3.org>. A hypertext archive of the mailing list is available.

"An '.ipv6' Top Level Pseudo-Domain",
L. Masinter, J. Gettys, B. Carpenter, 16 Apr 1999.: <draft-masinter-url-ipv6-02.txt>
Abstract: The normal textual representation for IPv6 addresses as a set of colon-separated hexadecimal numbers does not work well with most deployed URL-parsing software. This document describes an alternate format which will pass unharmed through most URL-parsing software.

"Internationalized Uniform Resource Identifiers (IURI)",
L. Masinter, M. Duerst, 28 Jun 1999.: <draft-masinter-url-i18n-04.txt>
Abstract: URIs [RFC 2396] are defined as sequences of characters chosen from a limited subset of the repertoire of ASCII characters both for transmission in network protocols and representation in spoken and written human communication.
This document defines IURIs (Internationalized URIs) as a sequence of characters from the repertorie of the UCS (Universal Character Set). A mapping of IURIs to URIs and guidelines for the use and deployment of IURIs in various elements of software that deal with URIs are given.

"Handling Internationalized Query Components in URLs",
M. Duerst, 30 Jul 1997.: <draft-duerst-query-i18n-00.txt>
Abstract: HTTP and HTML provide the facility to query the user and return the results. This is usually done in the query component of an URL. This mechanisms works with full satisfaction for characters of the us- ascii repertoire. Due to the lack of an agreed encoding for other characters, the situation is much less satisfactory for characters outside the us-ascii repertoire.

"Requirements for Human Friendly Identifiers",
M. Mealling, 02 Oct 1998.: <draft-mealling-human-friendly-identifier-req-00.txt>
Abstract: This document includes a set of requirements for an identifier that is engineered for human consumption. While the identifier is still machine consumable, the services and capabilities of the underlying system are designed with humans in mind. This includes concepts of geographic and context specific constraints, non-uniqueness, and natural language match semantics.

New URL Scheme Proposals

"A FTP URL Format",
J. Casey, 09 Jan 1997.: <draft-casey-url-ftp-00.txt>
Abstract: This document defines the format of Uniform Resource Locators (URL) for the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) using the general URL syntax defined in RFC xxxx, "Uniform Resource Locators (URL)".
It is a one of a suite of documents which replace RFC 1738, "Uniform Resource Locators", and RFC 1808, "Relative Uniform Resource Locators".

"A Gopher URL Format",
M. Krishnan, J. Casey, 04 Dec 1996.: <draft-murali-url-gopher.txt>
Abstract: This document defines the format of Uniform Resource Locators (URL) for the Gopher and Gopher+ protocols using the general URL syntax defined in RFC xxxx, "Uniform Resource Locators (URL)".
It is a one of a suite of documents which replace RFC 1738, "Uniform Resource Locators", and RFC 1808, "Relative Uniform Resource Locators".

"The 'news' URL scheme",
A. Gilman, 05 Mar 1998.: <draft-gilman-news-url-01.txt>
Abstract: This document defines the format of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) identifying news messages and groups. The syntax of 'news' URLs from RFC 1738 is extended to allow specification of the site from which the message is to be sought and to incorporate protections via 'snews' URLs. This combines into the 'news' scheme enough capability so that the previously-proposed 'nntp' scheme can be retired and URL usage simplified.

"The hnews URL scheme",
T. Stockwell, 17 Jun 1998.: <draft-stockwell-hnews-url-00.txt>
Abstract: HNEWS [1] is an HTTP-tunneling variant of the NNTP news protocol. This document defines the format of Uniform Resource Locators(URLs) identifying news messages and groups provided by HNEWS servers. The syntax of 'hnews' URLs is designed to be compatible with the current common usage of the 'news' URL scheme. Specifically, the 'hnews' URL scheme is designed according to recommendations made in [NEWS_URL_SCHEME]. [NEWS_URL_SCHEME] is based on the general specification of all URL schemes in 'Uniform Resource Locators (URL): Generic Syntax and Semantics' [RFC URI SYNTAX].

"The RWhois Uniform Resource Locator",
S. Williamson, M. Mealling, 02 Aug 1997.: <draft-mealling-rwhoisurl-01.txt>
Abstract: RWhois is an Internet directory access protocol, defined in RFC1714 [1] and RFC2167 [3]. This document describes a format for an RWhois Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that will allow Internet clients to have direct access to the RWhois protocol. An RWhois URL will represent a single query to an RWhois server.

"WHOIS++ URL Specification",
M. Hamilton, 13 Mar 1998.: <draft-ietf-asid-whois-url-02.txt>
Abstract: This document defines a new Uniform Resource Locator (URL) scheme "whois++", which provides a convention within the URL framework for referring to WHOIS++ servers and the data held within them.

"SDP URL Scheme",
K. Fujikawa, 07 Aug 1998.: <draft-fujikawa-sdp-url-01.txt>
Abstract: This document describes a format for an Session Description Protocol Uniform Resource Locator (SDP URL) which will allow Internet clients to have direct access to multimedia sessions.

"The service: URL Scheme",
E. Guttman, 22 Nov 1996.: <draft-ietf-svrloc-service-scheme-00.txt>
Abstract: The service: URL scheme is used to provide service access information for arbitrary network services. These URLs provide an extensible framework for client based network software to obtain configuration information required to make use of network services. A service: URL may be accompanied by a set of well defined attributes which define the characteristics of the service. These attributes may convey protocol configuration information to client software or service characteristics meaningful to end users. This document describes how to define and standardize new service types and attributes for use with the service: scheme and provides examples.

"irc: URL scheme",
M. Mirashi, 26 Aug 1996.: <draft-mirashi-url-irc-01.txt>
Abstract: A new URL scheme "irc:" is defined. The irc URL scheme is used to refer to either IRC (Internet Relay Chat) servers or individual entities (channels or people) on IRC servers.

"Videotex URL Specification",
D. Mavrakis, H. Layec, K. Kartmann, 20 May 1997.: <draft-mavrakis-videotex-url-spec-01.txt>
Abstract: A new URL scheme, "videotex" is defined. It allows videotex client software or terminals to connect to videotex services compliant to the ITU-T and ETSI videotex standards.

"Requirements TV Broadcast URI Schemes",
W. ten Kate, G. Thomas, C. Finseth, 18 Nov 1998.: <draft-tenkate-tvweb-uri-reqs-00.txt>
Abstract: This document lists the requirements posed to URI schemes for use in TV Broadcast environments. The document summarizes the outcome of discussions on this subject by the W3C TV-Web Interest Group [1].

"Uniform Resource Identifiers for Television Broadcasts",
D. Zigmond, M. Vickers, 07 Jan 2000.: <draft-zigmond-tv-url-03.txt>
Abstract: World-Wide Web browsers are starting to appear on a variety of consumer electronic devices, such as television sets and television set-top boxes, which are capable of receiving television programming from either terrestrial broadcast, satellite broadcast, or cable. In this context there is a need to reference television broadcasts using the URI format described in [RFC 2396]. This document describes a widely-implemented URI scheme to refer to such broadcasts.

"URLs for GSM Short Message Service",
A. Vaha-Sipila, 19 May 1999.: <draft-antti-gsm-sms-url-04.txt>
Abstract: This document specifies a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) scheme 'gsm-sms' for specifying a recipient for an alphanumeric message (Short Message) in a GSM-based mobile phone system. Short Messages are two-way paging messages that can be sent from a suitable equipped computer or a phone.

"URLs for Telephone Calls",
A. Vaha-Sipila, 29 Dec 1999.: <draft-antti-telephony-url-12.txt>
Abstract: This document specifies URL (Uniform Resource Locator) schemes 'tel', 'fax' and 'modem' for specifying the location of a terminal in the phone network and the connection types (modes of operation) that can be used to connect to that entity. This specification covers voice calls (normal phone calls, answering machines and voice messaging systems), facsimile (telefax) calls and data calls, both for POTS and digital/mobile subscribers.

"Conversational Multimedia URLs",
P. Cordell, 23 Dec 1997.: <draft-cordell-sg16-conv-url-00.txt>
Abstract: The evolving technologies for real-time conversation over the Internet require URLs to provide user contact information. As there are many protocols (including some that are not Internet based) that can be used for inter-user conversation, this document describes a two stage transaction process for obtaining a URL that can be used to initiate conversation. The first stage involves retrieving a list of protocol specific URLs in a MIME encoded file. The MIME type enables an appropriate application to be launched which will analyse the presented URLs and select the most appropriate one. The second stage involves interpreting the protocol specific URL and initiating the conversation. The protocol specific URLs are encoded in a URL form so that they can be embedded directly into HTML pages. This allows the first stage to be omitted. The document describes the format of the MIME encoded list of URLs, and the format of a number of protocol specific URLs.

"Stream URI Scheme",
F. Kenji, K. Shinobu, T. Tsuyoshi, 03 Jan 2000.: <draft-fujikawa-stream-uri-00.txt>
Abstract: This document describes the Stream Uniform Resource Identifier which allows Internet clients to have direct access to multimedia streams.

"An SMTP URL Interface",
R. Earhart, 29 Dec 1997.: <draft-earhart-url-smtp-00.txt>
Abstract: It is occasionally useful to be able to reference a generic server to be used for message submission. URLs provide a good mechanism for refering to arbitrary network resources. The SMTP URL scheme allows a URL to specify an SMTP server, thus allowing other protocols to use a general ''URL to be used for message delivery'' in place of an explicit reference to SMTP.

"The 'eid' URL Scheme",
C. Finseth, 02 Apr 1999.: <draft-finseth-url-00.txt>
Abstract: This document defines a new URL scheme, 'eid'. This scheme provides a mechanism by which the local application can reference data that has been obtained by other, non-URL scheme means. The scheme is intended to provide a general escape mechanism to allow access to information for applications that are too specialized to justify their own schemes.