RFC 2169 (rfc2169) - Page 2 of 9

A Trivial Convention for using HTTP in URN Resolution

RFC 2169                 HTTP in URN Resolution                June 1997


   that specification are Z3950, THTTP, RCDS, HDL, and RWHOIS. (That
   list is expected to grow over time). The NAPTR specification also
   lists a variety of resolution services, such as N2L (given a URN,
   return a URL); N2R (Given a URN, return the named resource), etc.

   This document specifies the "THTTP" (Trivial HTTP) resolution
   protocol.  THTTP is a simple convention for encoding resolution
   service requests and responses as HTTP 1.0 or 1.1 requests and
   responses. The primary goal of THTTP is to have a URN resolution
   protocol that can easily be added to existing HTTP daemons. Other
   resolution protocols are expected to arise over time, so this
   document serves a secondary purpose of illustrating the information
   that needs to be specified for a URN resolution protocol. One of the
   resolution protocols we expect to be developed is an extension of
   HTTP with new methods for the resolution services. Therefore, we use
   "THTTP" as the identifier for this protocol to leave "HTTP" for later
   developments.

   The reader is assumed to be familiar with the HTTP/1.0 [2] and 1.1
   [3] specifications. Implementors of this specification should be
   familiar with CGI scripts, or server-specific interfaces, for
   database lookups.

2.0 General Approach:
=====================

   The general approach used to encode resolution service requests in
   THTTP is quite simple:

       GET /uri-res/?  HTTP/1.0

   For example, if we have the URN "urn:foo:12345-54321" and want a URL,
   we would send the request:

       GET /uri-res/N2L?urn:foo:12345-54321 HTTP/1.0

   The request could also be encoded as an HTTP 1.1 request. This would
   look like:

       GET /uri-res/N2L?urn:foo:12345-54321 HTTP/1.1
       Host: 

   Responses from the HTTP server follow standard HTTP practice. Status
   codes, such as 200 (OK) or 404 (Not Found) shall be returned.  The
   normal rules for determining cachability, negotiating formats, etc.
   apply.





Daniel                        Experimental