Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) A. Tamas
Request for Comments: 8589 B. Phister, Ed.
Category: Informational J-E. Rodriguez
ISSN: 2070-1721 OP3FT
April
May 2019
The 'leaptofrogans' URI Scheme
Abstract
This document describes the 'leaptofrogans' Uniform Resource
Identifier (URI) scheme, which enables applications to launch Frogans
Player on a given Frogans site. Frogans is a medium for publishing
content and services on the Internet, defined as a generic software
layer on the Internet. Frogans Player is software that enables end
users to browse Frogans sites.
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 has been approved for publication by the Internet
Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents approved by the
IESG are candidates for any level of Internet Standard; see Section 2
of RFC 7841.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8589.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2019 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
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described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Background Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1. About Frogans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2. About the OP3FT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. The Need for a New URI Scheme and Its Purpose . . . . . . . . 3
3. Selection Choice of the Scheme Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Scheme Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1. URI Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.2. IRI Usage and Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
8.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
8.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1. Background Information
1.1. About Frogans
Frogans is a medium for publishing content and services on the
Internet. From its inception in 1999, the medium was designed as a
generic software layer running on top of the original Internet
infrastructure (i.e., the TCP and IP protocols and the Domain Name
System (DNS)), alongside other existing layers such as E-mail or the
World Wide Web.
As a medium, Frogans is not meant for publishing Web sites, but
Frogans sites, a kind of site founded upon a different format,
enabling a different kind of communication between end users and
publishers of content and services.
Frogans is intended to be complementary to the World Wide Web; it is
not intended to be a replacement. This is analogous to instant
messaging, which was not intended to and did not replace E-mail.
Compared to the World Wide Web, Frogans suggests publishing content
and services that involve visual rather than text-based
communication, focused content rather than long pages, and natural
interaction rather than complex user interfaces. For further
information on the reasons for introducing Frogans on the Internet,
and for an in-depth discussion of the similarities and differences
between Frogans sites and Web sites, see [FSDL], Section 1.4
("Frogans sites and Web sites").
The technology making up the medium, i.e., the Frogans technology,
includes multiple components such as:
o An XML-based language, called Frogans Slide Description Language
[FSDL], used to develop Frogans sites.
o International identifiers, called Frogans addresses [IFAP], used
to access Frogans sites. Each Frogans site has its own Frogans
address.
o Browsing software, called Frogans Player, enabling end users to
browse Frogans sites. An end user opens a Frogans site by
entering its Frogans address in Frogans Player.
o A registry, called the Frogans Core Registry (FCR), that contains
all Frogans addresses registered by Frogans site publishers. The
registry operator, called the FCR Operator, ensures the resolution
of Frogans addresses when end users enter them in Frogans Player.
1.2. About the OP3FT
Created in 2012, the Organization for the Promotion, Protection Protection, and
Progress of Frogans Technology [OP3FT] is a dedicated, non-profit
organization whose purpose is to hold, promote, protect protect, and ensure
the progress of the Frogans technology, in the form of an open
standard, available to all, free of charge.
As part of its mission, the OP3FT develops and releases technical
specifications, reference implementations (including Frogans Player),
and various policies, which define the rights and responsibilities of
all stakeholders involved in the technology worldwide.
2. The Need for a New URI Scheme and Its Purpose
Generic software layers running on top of the original Internet
infrastructure offer mechanisms that allow enable end users to easily go
from one layer to another, in both directions. For example, end
users can easily launch their usual Web browser on a given Web page
from a message in their usual E-mail client; in the other direction,
end users can easily launch their usual E-mail client with a given
E-mail address from a Web page in their usual Web browser. This is
commonly achieved using URIs [RFC3986].
As regards Frogans as a medium, in the outgoing direction, FSDL
enables Frogans site publishers to include way-out buttons in their
Frogans sites. These buttons enable end users to launch their usual
Web browser on a given Web page, or to launch their usual E-mail
client with a given E-mail address. This is achieved by associating
a URI with each of those way-out buttons (the scheme of the URI can
be any of 'http', 'https', or 'mailto').
Conversely, in the incoming direction, Web-site publishers should
have a means to include links in their Web pages links that allow enable end
users to launch Frogans Player on a given Frogans site. Likewise,
people writing E-mail messages should have a means to include links in
their messages links that enable recipients to launch Frogans Player
on a given Frogans site. More generally, any end-user application
should be able to launch Frogans Player on a given Frogans site.
To achieve this, a new URI scheme, containing a Frogans address, is
needed.
Given that Frogans, as a medium, does not enable deep linking for
Frogans sites, there is no need for additional information in the new
URI scheme other than the Frogans address.
The use of a media type as a means to include a link on a Web page a link
that enables end users to launch Frogans Player on a given Frogans
site was tested in 2006 with the registration of the
'vnd.frogans.ltf' media type with IANA [LTF]. But use of a media
type was determined to be unsatisfactory for several reasons. First,
for any such link included on a Web page, the author of the Web page
had to create and host a .ltf file on the Web server hosting that Web
page, which was cumbersome. Furthermore, prior to creating such
links, the author had to ask the server administrator to associate
the .ltf files with the 'vnd.frogans.ltf' media type on the server.
Alternatively, the author could create a link via a redirection
service that would generate a .ltf file on the fly while associating
it with the 'vnd.frogans.ltf' media type. But that alternative
raised privacy concerns and potentially added latency for end users.
Finally, on the Web browser side, it appeared that using a media type
from a Web page to launch another application did not always work,
especially on mobile devices.
3. Selection Choice of the Scheme Name
The name chosen for the new URI scheme is 'leaptofrogans'.
This scheme name was chosen in compliance with [RFC7595], Section 3.8
("Scheme Name Considerations").
The following shorter names were discussed, but they were not chosen:
o 'ltf': this name, an acronym for "leap to Frogans", was considered
insufficiently descriptive, especially for typical end users who
have little technical knowledge.
o 'leapto': this name was considered overly general, and it is not
specifically associated with Frogans.
o 'frogans': this name was rejected because it could create
confusion between URIs based on this scheme and those Frogans
addresses that start with "frogans".
4. Scheme Syntax
Frogans addresses [IFAP] are international identifiers made up of
Unicode characters. Thus, a method for encoding non-US-ASCII
characters is necessary when the new scheme is used as a URI. The
new scheme can also be useful as an IRI [RFC3987] in contexts where
IRIs are allowed.
4.1. URI Scheme
The syntax for the 'leaptofrogans' URI scheme is:
leaptofrogans-uri = "leaptofrogans:" pct-encoded-frogans-address
where pct-encoded-frogans-address is a Frogans address compliant with
[IFAP] and whose Unicode characters are each encoded as follows:
o If the character is a US-ASCII character, do not replace it and
skip to the next character. Note that according to [IFAP], this the
US-ASCII character cannot be the U+0025 PERCENT SIGN character.
o Otherwise, apply steps 1 through 3 below:
1. Convert the character to a sequence of one or more octets
using UTF-8 [UTF-8]
2. Convert each octet to %HH, where HH is the hexadecimal
notation of the octet value. Note that this is identical to
the percent-encoding mechanism in Section 2.1 of [RFC3986].
3. Replace the original character with the resulting character
sequence (i.e., a sequence of %HH triplets).
Examples of 'leaptofrogans' URIs:
- if the Frogans address is the string of US-ASCII characters
"Network-Name*Site-Name", the URI is as follows:
leaptofrogans:Network-Name*Site-Name
- if the Frogans address is the string of Unicode characters U+7F51,
U+7EDC, U+540D, U+002A, U+7AD9, U+540D (which is a Chinese
translation of the Frogans address in the previous example), the
URI is as follows:
leaptofrogans:%E7%BD%91%E7%BB%9C%E5%90%8D*%E7%AB%99%E5%90%8D
4.2. IRI Usage and Encoding
The syntax for IRIs an IRI corresponding to the 'leaptofrogans' URI scheme
is:
leaptofrogans-iri = "leaptofrogans:" frogans-address
where frogans-address is a Frogans address compliant with [IFAP] and
encoded in UTF-8 [UTF-8].
In contexts where both URIs and IRIs are allowed, end-user
applications can use either a URI or an IRI based on the
'leaptofrogans' URI scheme when launching Frogans Player on a given
Frogans site. This is because Frogans Player must interpret both
URIs and IRIs based on the 'leaptofrogans' URI scheme. If the U+0025
PERCENT SIGN character is found in the string, then the string will
be interpreted by Frogans Player as a URI; otherwise, it will be
interpreted as an IRI.
5. Trademarks
In order to enable all users worldwide to use the Frogans technology
in a clearly defined, secure, and perpetual environment, the OP3FT
Bylaws [BYLAWS] provide for the implementation of an intellectual
property policy.
In this context, the OP3FT is the holder of the "Frogans" trademark
that is registered in France, the United States, and other countries
around the world. The right to use the "Frogans" trademark in
references or as part of initiatives in connection with the Frogans
technology is granted in the OP3FT Trademark Usage Policy [OTUP].
6. IANA Considerations
In accordance with the guidelines and registration procedures for new
URI schemes [RFC7595], IANA has registered 'leaptofrogans' URI scheme
as follows:
Scheme name: 'leaptofrogans'
Status: Permanent
Scheme syntax: See Section 4 of RFC 8589.
Scheme semantics: See Section 2 of RFC 8589.
Encoding considerations: See Section 4 of RFC 8589.
Applications/protocols that use this scheme name: Frogans Player as
well as any end-user application (such as a Web browser or an
E-mail client) wishing to launch Frogans Player on a given Frogans
site.
Interoperability considerations: There are no known interoperability
concerns related to use of the 'leaptofrogans' URI scheme.
Security considerations: See Section 7 of RFC 8589.
Contact: Alexis Tamas <mailto:alexis.tamas@op3ft.org>
Change controller: OP3FT <mailto:contact-standards@op3ft.org>
References: RFC 8589
7. Security Considerations
The author of a Web page can create a link where the true nature of
the URI is hidden in the link text that is visible to end users. The
same applies for an E-mail message and other end-user applications.
For URIs based on the 'leaptofrogans' URI scheme, the risk of
confusion is mitigated because Frogans Player must always display the
real Frogans address contained in the URI, and it requires must always require
confirmation by the end user before opening the corresponding Frogans
site.
Also, an end-user application may provide a URI containing a Frogans
address that is not valid. This does not represent a risk because,
before asking for confirmation by the end user, Frogans Player must
always verify that the Frogans address contained in the URI is
compliant with [IFAP] [IFAP], and it must always raise an error if the
Frogans address is not compliant.
8. References
8.1. Normative References
[IFAP] OP3FT, "International Frogans Address Pattern",
Version 1.1, ISBN 978-2-37313-000-3, November 2014,
<https://www.frogans.org/en/resources/ifap/access.html>.
[RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
RFC 3986, DOI 10.17487/RFC3986, January 2005,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3986>.
[RFC3987] Duerst, M. and M. Suignard, "Internationalized Resource
Identifiers (IRIs)", RFC 3987, DOI 10.17487/RFC3987,
January 2005, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3987>.
[RFC7595] Thaler, D., Ed., Hansen, T., and T. Hardie, "Guidelines
and Registration Procedures for URI Schemes", BCP 35,
RFC 7595, DOI 10.17487/RFC7595, June 2015,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7595>.
[UTF-8] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, DOI 10.17487/RFC3629, November
2003, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3629>.
8.2. Informative References
[BYLAWS] OP3FT, "Bylaws of the French Fonds de Dotation OP3FT,
Organization for the Promotion, Protection and Progress of
Frogans Technology", August July 2016,
<https://www.op3ft.org/en/resources/bylaws/access.html>.
[FSDL] OP3FT, "Frogans Slide Description Language", Version 3.0,
Preliminary Draft 7, September 2018,
<https://www.frogans.org/en/resources/fsdl/access.html>.
[LTF] IANA, "Media Types",
<https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types>.
[OP3FT] OP3FT, "Organization for the Promotion, Protection and
Progress of Frogans Technology", <https://www.op3ft.org/>.
[OTUP] OP3FT, "OP3FT Trademark Usage Policy", March 2017,
<https://www.frogans.org/en/resources/otup/access.html>.
Authors' Addresses
Alexis Tamas
OP3FT
6, Square Mozart
75016 Paris
France
Phone: +33 1 53 92 00 40
Email: alexis.tamas@op3ft.org
Benjamin Phister (editor)
OP3FT
6, Square Mozart
75016 Paris
France
Phone: +33 1 53 92 00 40
Email: benjamin.phister@op3ft.org
Jean-Emmanuel Rodriguez
OP3FT
6, Square Mozart
75016 Paris
France
Phone: +33 1 53 92 00 40
Email: jean-emmanuel.rodriguez@contrib.op3ft.org