XEP-0104: HTTP Scheme for URL Data

1. Introduction
2. Requirements
3. Basic Usage
    3.1. Providing Authentication
    3.2. Providing Cookies
    3.3. Providing Headers
4. Implementation Notes
    4.1. Cookies
    4.2. Headers
5. Formal Description
    5.1. Overview
    5.2. <auth/> Element
    5.3. <auth-param/> Element
    5.4. <cookie/> Element
    5.5. <header/> Element
    5.6. XML Schema
6. Security Considerations
    6.1. Authentication Information
7. IANA Considerations
8. XMPP Registrar Considerations

Appendices
    A: Document Information
    B: Author Information
    C: Legal Notices
    D: Relation to XMPP
    E: Discussion Venue
    F: Requirements Conformance
    G: Notes
    H: Revision History

3.1 Providing Authentication

At a minimum, this document allows for an entity to indicate what authentication scheme is in use:

Example 1. Indicating auth scheme

<message to='client@domain.com'>
  <url-data xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data'
      xmlns:http='http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data/scheme/http'
      target='http://www.jabber.org/members/index.php'>
    <http:auth scheme='basic'/>
  </url-data>
</message>
    

To provide additional parameters (such as a realm and username/password), the <auth-param/> element is used:

<message to='client@domain.com'>
  <url-data xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data'
      xmlns:http='http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data/scheme/http'
      target='http://www.jabber.org/members/index.php'>
    <http:auth scheme='basic'>
      <http:auth-param name='realm' value='www.jabber.org'/>
      <auth-param name='username' value='defaultuser'/>
      <auth-param name='password' value='defaultpwd'/>
    </http:auth>
  </url-data>
</message>
    

3.2 Providing Cookies

Cookie information is provided by the <cookie/> element. This element can provide all of the information of the "Set-Cookie" response header [3]. The simplest usage is:

<message to='client@domain.com'>
  <url-data xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data'
      xmlns:http='http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data/scheme/http'
      target='http://www.jabber.org/members/index.php'>
    <http:cookie name='jsessionid' value='1243asd234190sa32ds'/>
  </url-data>
</message>
    

The above cookie is considered "transient", and will terminate when the HTTP session ends. Additional information about the cookie can be provided:

<message to='client@domain.com'>
  <url-data xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data'
      xmlns:http='http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data/scheme/http'
      target='http://www.jabber.org/members/index.php'>
    <http:cookie name='jsessionid'
        domain='jabber.org'
        max-age='1234000'
        path='/members'
        comment='Web Session Identifier'
        version='1.0'
        secure='false'
        value='1243asd234190sa32ds'/>
  </url-data>
</message>
    

As demonstrated, the <cookie/> provides all the attributes provided by the "Set-Cookie" header. The only attributes required are "name" and "value".

3.3 Providing Headers

In some cases, arbitrary headers are necessary. They are provided using the <header/> element:

<message to='client@domain.com'>
  <url-data xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data'
      xmlns:http='http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data/scheme/http'
      target='http://www.jabber.org/members/index.php'>
    <http:header name='Custom-Data' value='some custom data'/>
  </url-data>
</message>
    

4.1 Cookies

Entities receiving cookie information SHOULD following the state management guidelines from RFC 2109 [4]. In particular, the interpretation of the "persistence details" attribute values from <cookie/> is that defined in section 4.2.2 of RFC 1209.

The attributes provided by <cookie/> MUST NOT be "pre-escaped" for HTTP message headers. it is the responsibility of the receiving entity to properly encode cookie information into the "cookie" message header, including any character escaping.

4.2 Headers

The <header/> element only provides those message headers used for an HTTP request. There is currently no mechanism to convey HTTP response headers.

The name and value attributes from <header/> MUST NOT be "pre-escaped" for HTTP message headers. It is the responsibility of the receiving entity to properly encode message headers, including any character escaping.

5.1 Overview

The namespace for this structure is "http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data/scheme/http". Because this namespace is intended to supplement the <url-data/> element, this namespace SHOULD be declared within the <url-data/> element using the "http" namespace prefix (as demonstrated in the examples above). This namespace MUST only be applied when the "target" attribute in <url-data/> uses the scheme "http" or "https".

5.2 <auth/> Element

The <auth/> element provides authentication information, including scheme. The contents of this element detail any additional parameters for authentication.

The "scheme" attribute describes the HTTP authentication scheme to use. This attribute MUST be present, and MUST be the name of an HTTP authentication scheme (such as "basic").

5.3 <auth-param/> Element

The <auth-param/> element provides authentication parameters. This element has attributes for the parameter name and value.

The "name" attribute specifies the (logical) name of the authentication parameter. This attribute MUST be present, and MUST be applicable to the given scheme, although "realm" is always a valid parameter.

The "value" attribute specifies the value for this authentication parameter. This attribute MUST be present, but MAY be empty if a value is not required.

5.4 <cookie/> Element

The <cookie/> element provides client cookie data. This element has attributes for the cookie name and value, as well as the persistence details.

The "name" attribute specifies the name of the cookie. This attribute MUST be present, and MUST NOT be empty. It corresponds to the "name" in the "name=value" syntax.

The "value" attribute specifies the value for the cookie. This attribute MUST be present, but MAY be empty if a value is not required. It corresponds to the "value" in the "name=value" syntax.

The "comment" attribute provides the description of the cookie, as would be provided via the "Set-Cookie" header. This attribute is OPTIONAL.

The "domain" attribute provides the applicable domain of the cookie, as would be provided via the "Set-Cookie" header. This attribute is OPTIONAL.

The "path" attribute provides the applicable HTTP path of the cookie, as would be provided via the "Set-Cookie" header. This attribute is OPTIONAL.

The "max-age" attribute provides the maximum age for the cookie, as would be provided via the "Set-Cookie" header. This attribute is OPTIONAL, and MUST be a non-negative integer. If not specified, the default value is "0".

The "secure" attribute indicates if this cookie is only offered in secure environments, as would be provided via the "Set-Cookie" header. This attribute is OPTIONAL, and MUST be a boolean value of "true" or "false". The default value is "false".

The "version" attribute provides the version of the cookie, as would be provided via the "Set-Cookie" header. This attribute is OPTIONAL, and SHOULD be "1.0" unless otherwise needed. If not specified, the default value is "1.0".

5.5 <header/> Element

The <header/> element provides generic request and entity header information, to be included in the connection attempt. This element is ONLY for message headers included in the HTTP request; it SHOULD NOT be used for message headers included in the HTTP response. The attributes for this element are the name and value of the header.

The "name" attribute specifies the name of the header. This attribute MUST be present, and MUST conform to the "field-name" pattern for RFC 2616. It corresponds to the "name" in the (simplified) "name: value" header syntax.

The "value" attribute specifies the value of the header. This attribute MUST be present, and MUST conform to the "field-value" pattern for RFC 2616. It MAY empty if a value is not required. It corresponds to the "value" in the (simplified) "name: value" header syntax.

5.6 XML Schema

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<xs:schema
    xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'
    targetNamespace='http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data/scheme/http'
    xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/url-data/scheme/http'
    elementFormDefault='qualified'>
  
  <xs:element name='auth'>
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:attribute name='scheme' use='required' type='xs:string'/>
      <xs:element name='auth-param' minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='unbounded'>
        <xs:complexType>
          <xs:simpleContent>
            <xs:extension base='xs:string'>
              <xs:attribute name='name' use='required' type='xs:string'/>
              <xs:attribute name='value' use='required' type='xs:string'/>
            </xs:extension>
          </xs:simpleContent>
        </xs:complexType>
      </xs:element>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>
  
  <xs:element name='cookie'>
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:attribute name='name' use='required' type='xs:string'/>
      <xs:attribute name='value' use='required' type='xs:string'/>
      <xs:attribute name='comment' use='optional' type='xs:string'/>
      <xs:attribute name='domain' use='optional' type='xs:string'/>
      <xs:attribute name='max-age' use='optional' type='xs:integer'/>
      <xs:attribute name='path' use='optional' type='xs:string'/>
      <xs:attribute name='secure' use='optional' type='xs:boolean'/>
      <xs:attribute name='version' use='optional' type='xs:string'/>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>
  
  <xs:element name='header'>
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:simpleContent>
        <xs:extension base='xs:string'>
          <xs:attribute name='name' use='required' type='xs:string'/>
          <xs:attribute name='value' use='required' type='xs:string'/>
        </xs:extension>
      </xs:simpleContent>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>

</xs:schema>
    

6.1 Authentication Information

This document allows complete authentication information to be passed. This information is only as secure as the connection-path between the provider and acceptor.

Matthew Miller

Email: linuxwolf@outer-planes.net
JabberID: linuxwolf@outer-planes.net

Copyright

Permissions

Disclaimer of Warranty

Limitation of Liability

IPR Conformance

1. XEP-0103: URL Address Information <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0103.html>.

2. RFC 2616: Hypertext Transport Protocol -- HTTP/1.1 <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616>.

3. "Set-Cookie" is a message header for the HTTP response, and the <header/> element represents only message headers for HTTP requests. Therefore, cookies are handled differently.

4. RFC 2109: HTTP State Mangement Mechanism <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2109>.

5. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the central coordinator for the assignment of unique parameter values for Internet protocols, such as port numbers and URI schemes. For further information, see <http://www.iana.org/>.

6. The XMPP Registrar maintains a list of reserved protocol namespaces as well as registries of parameters used in the context of XMPP extension protocols approved by the XMPP Standards Foundation. For further information, see <http://xmpp.org/registrar/>.

Version 0.3 (2004-01-20)

Version 0.2 (2003-09-19)

Version 0.1 (2003-06-30)