Defining the data model of HTTP messages, not just the format - Nicholas J. Car
Channel: The ASF
Date: 2021-10-12

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Replicated A presentation from ApacheCon@Home 2021
https://apachecon.com/acah2021

Current Internet protocols (mainly IETF & W3C standards) provide standard ways describe many aspects of HTTP messages, for example the _format_, _language_, _cache time_ etc. Until recently there has been no standard, or even candidate, to define the _data model_ of messages either requested (by a client) or supplied (by a server).

Content Negotiation by Profile is a dual proposed IETF RFQ [1] & W3C Recommendation [2]. It provides mechanics for requesting and supplying HTTP messages that conform to _profiles_ which are identified data models.

This extremely simple proposed extension to HTTP Headers has profound implications for the Internet: clients can request resources that meet their content needs, not just formats they can parse. Servers can tell clients what data models they support for representations of resources. The indication of profile conformance can be used for automated content validation too.

This presentation will overview the motivation for these proposed standards and explain their potential impact, if adopted. Demonstration systems and data built since the initiation of these proposals will be shown.

[1] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-svensson-profiled-representations-01
[2] https://w3c.github.io/dx-connegp/connegp/