New MHTML drafts

Two new MHTML drafts have recently been published. Since we have rather
late discovered and had to handle discrepancies between MHTML and HTTP 1.1,
it would be valuable if someone in the HTTP group had time to review
these drafts.

If you write comments on them, send the comments to
IETF working group on HTML in e-mail <mhtml@segate.sunet.se>
or to both that mailing list and the HTTP mailing list. Do not send
comments only to the HTTP mailing list.

Below are excerpts from the announcements of the two new drafts:

--- --- ---

A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.
This draft is a work item of the MIME Encapsulation of Aggregate HTML
Documents Working Group of the IETF.

        Title           : MIME Encapsulation of Aggregate Documents, such as
                          HTML (MHTML)
        Author(s)       : N. Shelness, A. Hopmann, J. Palme
        Filename        : draft-ietf-mhtml-rev-05.txt
        Pages           : 27
        Date            : 16-Feb-98

HTML [RFC 1866] defines a powerful means of specifying multimedia
documents. These multimedia documents consist of a text/html root
resource (object)and other subsidiary resources (image, video clip,
applet, etc. objects) referenced by Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)
within the text/html root resource. When an HTML multimedia document is
retrieved by a browser, each of these component resources is
individually retrieved in real time from a location, and using a
protocol, specified by each URI.

In order to transfer a complete HTML multimedia document in a single e-
mail message, it is necessary to:- a) aggregate a text/html root
resource and all of the subsidiary resources it references into a
single composite message structure, and b) define a means by which URIs
in the text/html root can reference subsidiary resources within that
composite message structure.

This document does both. It a) defines the use of a MIME
multipart/related structure to aggregate a text/html root resource and
the subsidiary resources it references, and b) specifies two MIME
content-headers (Content-Base and Content-Location) that allow URIs in
a multipart/related text/html root body part to reference subsidiary
resources in other body parts of the same multipart/related structure.

While initially designed to support e-mail transfer of complete multi-
resource HTML multimedia documents, these conventions can also be
employed by other transfer protocols such as HTTP and FTP to retrieve a
complete multi-resource HTML multimedia document in a single transfer
or for storage and archiving of complete HTML-documents.

Differences between this and a previous version of this standard, which
was published as RFC 2110, are summarized in chapter 13.

Internet-Drafts are available by anonymous FTP.  Login with the username
"anonymous" and a password of your e-mail address.  After logging in,
type "cd internet-drafts" and then
        "get draft-ietf-mhtml-rev-05.txt".
A URL for the Internet-Draft is:
ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-mhtml-rev-05.txt

--- --- ---

A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts
directories.  This draft is a work item of the MIME Encapsulation of
Aggregate HTML Documents Working Group of the IETF.

        Title           : Sending HTML in MIME, an informational
                          supplement to the RFC:  MIME Encapsulation of
                          Aggregate HTML Documents (MHTML)
        Author(s)       : J. Palme
        Filename        : draft-ietf-mhtml-info-09.txt
        Pages           : 20
        Date            : 16-Feb-98

The memo ''MIME Encapsulation of Aggregate HTML Documents (MHTML)''
(draft-ietf-mhtml-rev-05.txt) specifies how to send packaged aggregate
HTML objects in MIME format. This memo is an accompanying informational
document, intended to be an aid to developers. This document is not an
Internet standard.

Issues discussed are implementation methods, caching strategies,
problems with rewriting of URIs, making messages suitable both for
mailers which can and which cannot handle Multipart/related and handling
recipients which do not have full Internet connectivity.

Internet-Drafts are available by anonymous FTP.  Login with the username
"anonymous" and a password of your e-mail address.  After logging in,
type "cd internet-drafts" and then
        "get draft-ietf-mhtml-info-09.txt".
A URL for the Internet-Draft is:
ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-mhtml-info-09.txt

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacob Palme <jpalme@dsv.su.se> (Stockholm University and KTH)
for more info see URL: http://www.dsv.su.se/~jpalme

Received on Wednesday, 18 February 1998 12:30:30 UTC