Network Working Group
Independent Submission                                   I. Dzmanashvili

Expires: April 19,
Request for Comments: 6861                                  January 2013
Category: Informational
ISSN: 2070-1721

            The Create-Form "create-form" and Edit-Form "edit-form" Link Relations
               draft-ioseb-dzmanashvili-link-relation-08

Abstract

   RFC 5988 [RFC5988] defined the way standardized a means of indicating the relationships between
   resources on the Web.  This specification defines link relation types which
   that may be used to express the relationships between a resource and
   an input form for constructing data submissions.

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   This Internet-Draft document is submitted in full conformance with not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 19, 2013.
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6861.

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Table of Contents

   1. Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 ....................................................2
   2. Notational Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 ..........................................2
   3. Link Relations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 ..................................................3
      3.1. The "create-form" Link Relation Type  . . . . . . . . . . . 3 .......................3
           3.1.1. Using the "create-form" Link Relation . . . . . . . . . 3 ...............3
      3.2. The "edit-form" Link Relation Type  . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 .........................3
           3.2.1. Using the "edit-form" Link Relation . . . . . . . . . . 4 .................4
      3.3.  Error Handling Error-Handling Example  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .....................................4
   4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .............................................4
      4.1. The Link Relation Registration "create-form"  . . . . . . . 5 ...............4
      4.2. The Link Relation Registration "edit-form"  . . . . . . . . 5 .................5
   5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 .........................................5
   6. Internationalisation Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 .............................5
   7. Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 ............................................5
   Appendix A. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 .......................................6

1.  Introduction

   RFC 5988 [RFC5988] defined the way standardized a means of indicating the
   relationships between resources on the Web.  This specification
   defines link relation types which that may be used to express the
   relationships between a resource and an input form for constructing
   data submissions.

   The "create-form" and "edit-form" link relations are intentionally
   generic, and they can be used with multiple media types in a wide
   variety of use cases.

2.  Notational Conventions

   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].

3.  Link Relations

   The following link relations are defined.

3.1.  The "create-form" Link Relation Type

   When included in a response, the "create-form" link relation
   indicates a target resource that represents a form that can be used
   to append a new member to the link context.

   <html>
     <ul>
       <li>Entry Description 1</li>
       <li>Entry Description 2</li>
     </ul>
     <a href="..." rel="create-form">[Add New Entry]</a>
   </html>

   or, expressed as a Link header

   Link: <...>; rel="create-form"; title="Add New Entry"

3.1.1.  Using the "create-form" Link Relation

   If the form representation includes a submission URI URI, this URI MUST
   be used to submit the form.  The context URI SHOULD be used
   otherwise.

   If the form representation includes a submission method method, this method
   MUST be used for submit requests.  HTTP's POST method SHOULD be used
   otherwise.

3.2.  The "edit-form" Link Relation Type

   When included in a response, the "edit-form" link relation indicates
   a target resource that represents a form that can be used for
   updating the context resource.

   <html>
    ...
    <ul>
      <li>
        Entry Description 1
        <a href="..." rel="edit-form">[Edit Entry]</a>
      </li>
    </ul>
    ...
   </html>
   or, expressed as a Link header

   Link: <...>; rel="edit-form"; title="Edit Entry"

3.2.1.  Using the "edit-form" Link Relation

   If the form representation includes a submission URI URI, this URI MUST
   be used to submit the form.  The context URI SHOULD be used
   otherwise.

   If the form representation includes a submission method method, this method
   MUST be used for submit requests.  HTTP's PUT method SHOULD be used
   otherwise.

3.3.  Error Handling  Error-Handling Example

   When submitting forms in unsupported media type format, service may
   respond to the client with HTTP's 415 Unsupported Media Type status
   code.

     HTTP/1.1 415 Unsupported Media Type
     Link: <...>; rel="create-form"; title="Create new entry"
     Content-Type: text/html
     Content-Length: ...

     <html>
       Use <a href="..." rel="create-form">
         this form
       </a> to create a new entry.
     </html>

4.  IANA Considerations

   IANA is asked to register has registered the "create-form" and "edit-form" link relations
   below as per [RFC5988].

4.1.  The Link Relation Registration "create-form"

   Relation Name:

      create-form

   Description:

      The target IRI points to a resource where a submission form can be
      obtained.

   Security considerations:

      Automated agents should take care when this relation crosses
      administrative domains (e.g., the URI has a different authority
      than the current document).

   Reference:

      See Section 3.

4.2.  The Link Relation Registration "edit-form"

   Relation Name:

      edit-form

   Description:

      The target IRI points to a resource where a submission form for
      editing the associated resource can be obtained.

   Security Considerations:

      Automated agents should take care when this relation crosses
      administrative domains (e.g., the URI has a different authority
      than the current document).

   Reference:

      See Section 3.

5.  Security Considerations

   See Section 7 of RFC5988 RFC 5988 [RFC5988].

6.  Internationalisation Considerations

   See Section 8 of RFC5988 RFC 5988 [RFC5988].

7.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC5988]  Nottingham, M., "Web Linking", RFC 5988, October 2010.

Appendix A.  Acknowledgements

   The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions of Jan
   Algermissen.

Author's Address

   Ioseb Dzmanashvili

   EMail: ioseb.dzmanashvili@gmail.com