Issue 470: identifying XOP packages (proposal)

I had an AI to propose a new approach to identifying XOP packages that 
takes into account the feedback we received regarding the 
multipart/related start-info parameter.

Below, I've made such a proposal for changes to the XOP specification. 
In doing so, I note that there is one disadvantage to the over the 
current approach; it does not accommodate the "action" parameter on the 
XOP Document's media type; that is, there is no place to convey this 
information in the MIME package.

I can think of a few ways around this;
   1) We could decide that this information is not important (even in 
the current approach, this information is hidden in the root part; it's 
not available at the top level)
   2) We could allow other parameters to magically "show through" the 
XOP media type
   3) We could stay with the current approach of requiring every 
application to register a XOP media type.

#2 is the most expedient, but I'm not sure it's good practice.

Also, in passing I note that whatever we do, our examples' "type" 
parameters need to be quoted, in my reading of RFC2387 (the BNF doesn't 
say it needs to, but the prose below does, as do all of their 
examples).


* Section 1.2 Example
In Example 2, change:
[[[Content-Type: Multipart/Related;boundary=MIME_boundary;
               
type=application/soap_xop+xml;start="<mymessage.xml@example.org>"]]]
to:
[[[Content-Type: multipart/related;boundry=MIME_boundary;
		type="application/xop+xml";start="mymessage.xml@example.org>";
		startinfo="application/soap+xml"]]]

Change:
[[[Content-Type: application/soap_xop+xml; charset=UTF-8]]]
to:
[[[Content-type: application/xop+xml; charset=UTF-8; 
type="application/soap+xml"]]]

* Section 3.1 Creating XOP Packages
In bullet 5, change "appropriate XOP-specific media type" to 
"application/xop+xml media type"

* Section 4.1 MIME Multipart/Related XOP Packages
Replace the second paragraph with:
"""The root MIME part is the root of the XOP Package, and MUST be a 
serialisation of the XOP Infoset using any W3C Recommendation-level 
version of XML (e.g., [XML 1.0], [XML 1.1]), and MUST be identified 
with a media type of "application/xop+xml" (as defined below). The 
"start-info" parameter of the package's media type MUST contain the 
media type associated with the content's XML serialisation (i.e., it 
will contain the same value as that of the root part's "type" 
parameter)."""

* Section 5 Identifying XOP Packages
Replace the section with: """
XOP Documents, when used in MIME-like systems, are identified with the 
"application/xop+xml" media type, with the required "type" parameter 
conveying the original XML serialisation's associated media type.

For example, a XOP Package using MIME Multipart/Related packaging to 
seralize a SOAP 1.2 message [SOAP1.2] would label the package itself 
with the "multipart/related" media type, and the root part with the 
"application/xop+xml" media type, along with a "type" parameter 
containing "application/soap+xml".

5.1 Registration
MIME media type name:
	application
MIME subtype name:
	xop+xml
Required parameters:
	* "type"
	This parameter conveys the media type associated with the XML 
serialisation of the XOP Infoset.
Optional parameters:
	* "charset"
	 This parameter has identical semantics to the charset parameter of 
the application/xml media type as  specified in RFC 3023 [RFC 3023].
Encoding Considerations:
	 Identical to those of application/xml as described in RFC 3023 [RFC 
3023], section 3.2.
Security Consideration:
	In addition to application-specific considerations, XOP has the same 
security considerations described in RFC 3023  [RFC 3023], section 10.
Interoperability Considerations:
	There are no known interoperability issues.
Published Specification:
	This document.
Applications which use this media type:
	No known applications currently use this media type.
Additional Information:
	File extension:
		XOP
	Fragment Identifiers:
		Identical to that of application/xml as described in RFC3023 [RFC3023]
	Base URI:
		As specified in RFC 3023 [RFC 3023], section 6.
	Macintosh File Type code:
		TEXT
Person and email address to contact for further information:
	Mark Nottingham <mnot@pobox.com>
Intended usage:
	COMMON
Author/Change controller:
	The XOP specification is a work product of the World Wide Web 
Consortium's XML Protocol Working Group. The W3C has change control 
over this specification.
"""


--
Mark Nottingham   Principal Technologist
Office of the CTO   BEA Systems

Received on Tuesday, 27 July 2004 19:09:01 UTC