Internet Engineering Task Force P. Bryan, Ed. Internet-Draft ForgeRock Intended status: Informational February 15, 2012 Expires: August 18, 2012 A Convention for HTTP Access to JSON-Based Resources draft-pbryan-http-json-resource-02 Abstract A convention for accessing JSON representations of resources via HTTP, promoting a uniform interface across multiple disparate resources and reuse of software components. Status of this Memo This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." This Internet-Draft will expire on August 18, 2012. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2012 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 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License. Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 1] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4. Version Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5. Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5.1. Create . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5.2. Read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 5.3. Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5.4. Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 5.5. Patch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 5.6. Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 5.7. Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 6. Request Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 7. Access Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 8. Resource Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 9. Resource Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 9.1. Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 9.2. Object Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 10. Error Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 10.1. Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 11. Modifying a Resource Identifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 12. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 13. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 14. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 15. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Appendix A. Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Appendix B. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 2] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 1. Introduction JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) [RFC4627] is a common format for the representation of structured data. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) [RFC2616] is a common protocol for providing access to resources. This document codifies a convention for accessing JSON representations of resources via HTTP. This promotes a uniform interface across multiple disparate resources and reuse of conforming server and client software components. 2. 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 RFC 2119 [RFC2119]. This document expresses the structure of Request-URIs in examples using [URI-Template] syntax. 3. Resources A resource accessed through this convention is represented as a JSON value with an "application/json" (or derivative) Internet media type. An accessible resource is a member of a collection of resources. A collection of resources MUST have a unique location, which is expressed as a part of the Request-URI of HTTP requests. The server implementation determines the location of a resource collection. Each resource MUST have a unique identifier within a collection. The server implementation MAY establish restrictions on what identifiers can be used, and reject requests that have identifiers that do not conform with a 403 Forbidden status code. 4. Version Control A server MAY implement version control for resources, and use it as the basis of an optimistic concurrency control mechanism. If version control is implemented for a given resource, the server MUST expose the resource version in responses, and clients SHOULD use preconditions when performing operations that modify such resources. The server expresses the resource version in an "ETag" response Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 3] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 header, and the "_rev" metadata member in JSON object entity responses. The client expresses resource version in the "If-Match" and "If-None-Match" precondition request headers. If a server implements version control for a resource, and the version specified by a client in a request does not match the current version of the resource, then the server SHOULD respond with a 412 Precondition Failed error status code. If a server implements version control for a resource and the resource version is not specified by a client for an operation that modifies the resource, the server MAY allow the operation, or indicate an error with a 428 Precondition Required status code, per [New-Status]. The server implementation determines how a resource version is computed; it MUST ensure that different values of a given resource results in different versions. Clients SHOULD treat a resource version provided by a server as opaque. 5. Operations This convention provides a uniform set of operations, all of which are implemented through existing HTTP methods. The operations are: create, read, update, delete, patch, query, and action. The server implementation MAY conditionally implement any operation. 5.1. Create The "create" operation allows a client to create a new resource in a collection. A resource is created in one of two ways: if the client is requesting a specific identifier, then the resource is created via the HTTP PUT method; if the server is to select its own identifier, then the resource is created via the POST method. The PUT method SHOULD be preferred over POST. 5.1.1. PUT Request Using the PUT method, the identifier of the resource to create is specified in the Request-URI of the HTTP request. The server MAY override the requested identifier of the resource and select a suitable identifier of its own. To unambiguously request resource creation, the "If-None-Match" header MUST contain the value "*". If no precondition header unambiguously requests resource creation or update, the server MAY employ its own means of determining how to interpret the PUT method. Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 4] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 PUT /{collection}/{id} HTTP/1.1 Content-Type: application/json If-None-Match: * ... [JSON representation of resource to create] 5.1.2. POST Request Using the POST method, the identifier of the resource is not specified. The Request-URI of the request MUST NOT contain a query component, in order to distinguish it from the "action" operation. The server MUST select a suitable identifier for the created resource. POST /{collection} HTTP/1.1 Content-Type: application/json ... [Resource representation] 5.1.3. Response HTTP/1.1 201 Created Content-Type: application/json Location: [location of resource] ETag: "[resource version]" ... [Resource metadata object] The "Location" header field contains a URI that identifies the newly created resource. The optional "ETag" header field contains the version of the newly created resource. The resource metadata object also contains the identifier and optional version of the newly created resource. If version control is implemented for a given resource, the server MUST expose the new resource version in the ETag header of the response. 5.2. Read The "read" operation allows a client to read a representation of a resource from the server. It is implemented using the HTTP GET method. The client MUST NOT include a query component in the Request-URI, in order to distinguish it from the "query" operation. Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 5] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 If the resulting representation of the resource is a JSON object, it SHOULD contain the JSON "_id" member, and also the "_rev" member if resource version is supported by the server implementation. 5.2.1. Request GET /{collection}/{id} HTTP/1.1 ... 5.2.2. Response HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/json ETag: "[resource version]" ... [Resource representation] If version control is implemented for a given resource, the server MUST expose the resource version in the ETag header of the response. 5.3. Update The "update" operation allows a client to update the representation of a resource on the server. It is performed using the HTTP PUT method. To cause the PUT method to unambiguously request a resource update, the "If-Match" header MUST contain the current version of the resource. If no precondition header unambiguously requests resource creation or update, the server MAY employ its own means of determining how to interpret the PUT method. 5.3.1. Request PUT /{collection}/{id} HTTP/1.1 Content-Type: application/json If-Match: "[resource version]" ... [Resource representation] Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 6] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 5.3.2. Response HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/json ETag: "[resource version]" ... [Resource metadata object] If version control is implemented for a given resource, the server MUST expose the updated resource version in the ETag header of the response. 5.4. Delete The "delete" operation allows a client to delete a resource, or optionally an all resources within a collection. It is performed using the HTTP DELETE method. To delete a single resource, both the collection location and resource identifier MUST be specified in the Request-URI of the HTTP request. To delete all the resources within a collection, only the collection location MUST be specified. If deleting all resources within a collection is not supported by the server implementation, the server SHOULD respond to such requests with a 403 Forbidden error status code. 5.4.1. Request DELETE /{collection}/{id} HTTP/1.1 If-Match: "[resource version]" ... 5.4.2. Response HTTP/1.1 204 No Content ... 5.5. Patch The "patch" operation allows a client to apply a set of partial modifications to a resource on the server. This is particularly useful if the client does not have permission to modify resources in their entirety. The "patch" operation is performed using the HTTP PATCH method, per Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 7] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 [RFC5789]. The supported patch document format(s) to apply the partial modifications are determined by the server implementation. 5.5.1. Request PATCH /{collection}/{id} HTTP/1.1 Content-Type: application/json-patch If-Match: "[resource version]" ... [JSON Patch document] 5.5.2. Response HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/json ETag: "[resource version]" ... [Resource metadata object] If version control is implemented for a given resource, the server MUST expose the updated resource version in the ETag header of the response. 5.6. Query The "query" operation performs a parametric query of a resource or collection, and responds with a result. The execution of a query MUST NOT incur side effects. It is implemented using the HTTP GET method. The client MUST include a query component in the Request-URI to distinguish it from the "read" operation. To query a single resource, both the collection location and resource identifier MUST be specified in the Request-URI of the HTTP request. To query an entire collection, only the collection location MUST be specified. 5.6.1. Request GET /{collection}/{id}?{query} HTTP/1.1 ... Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 8] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 5.6.2. Response HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/json ... [JSON query result value] The structure of the query result value is determined by the server implementation. 5.7. Action The "action" operation performs a parametric action on a resource or collection, and responds with an optional result. The execution of an action MAY incur side effects. The operation is implemented via the HTTP POST request. The Request- URI MUST NOT contain a query component, in order to distinguish it from a "create" operation. The request MAY include an entity body. To perform an action on a single resource, both the collection location and resource identifier MUST be specified in the Request- URI. To perform an action on an entire collection, only the collection location MUST be specified. If the response contains a result value, then the server SHOULD respond with a 200 OK status code; otherwise it SHOULD respond with a 204 No Content status code. 5.7.1. Request POST /{component}/{id}?{query} HTTP/1.1 Content-Type: application/json ... [Optional JSON value] 5.7.2. Response HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/json ... [JSON action result value] The structure of the action result value (if any) is determined by the server implementation. If version control is implemented for a Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 9] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 resource the action is being performed on, the server MAY expose the updated resource version in the ETag header of the response. 6. Request Context A server MAY require some form of request context be established by the client prior to allowing access to resources. How such context is established, persisted and transmitted is out of the scope of this convention, and SHOULD be specified by the server implementation. If inadequate request context has been established, the server SHOULD indicate this with a 401 Unauthorized error status code, unless there is another means of indicating this condition which is consistent with the required request context. 7. Access Control The server implementation MAY enforce access control policies that restrict what resources a client can access and/or on what JSON values within each resource may be accessed. If a sufficient request context has been established, but such context does not permit the requested access to a resource, the server SHOULD indicate this with a 403 Forbidden error status code and some detail in a response error object describing the nature of the denial of access. The server implementation MAY amend representations of resources to conform to access control policies, and SHOULD specify under what conditions such amendments are applied. 8. Resource Validation The server MAY enforce validation rules on resource representations provided by the client. If such a validation fails, the server SHOULD indicate this with a 403 Forbidden error status code and some detail in a response error object describing the nature of the validation failure. 9. Resource Metadata Most responses to requests contain metadata about the resource being accessed. The metadata is included an HTTP ETag response header as well as members within a JSON object resource representation, Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 10] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 including a JSON object specifically intended to contain only metadata (referred to within this document as a "resource metadata object"). 9.1. Header ETag The current version of a resource, if version control is implemented for the resource. 9.2. Object Members "_id": string, required The identifier of the resource, relative to the collection it is a member of. "_rev": string, optional The current version of the resource, if version control is implemented for the resource. 10. Error Response In the event of an error, a 4xx or 5xx HTTP status code SHOULD BE expressed in the response, with an entity body containing an object that has minimally an "error" member. The server implementation MAY provide additional members in the error object, which provide additional context and description of the nature of the error. Any such additional members SHOULD be specified by the server implementation. { "error": string, ... } 10.1. Members "error": string, required A mnemonic error code that expresses the type of error that occurred. The error code values and their associated meanings SHOULD be specified by the server implementation. 11. Modifying a Resource Identifier The server MAY allow the update and/or patch operations to modify the Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 11] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 identifier of a resource within the collection if the resource has a JSON object representation. If such modification is disallowed, the server SHOULD respond with a 403 Forbidden status code. To indicate a request to modify the resource identifier, the "_id" metadata member should be included in the request entity and differ from the existing resource identifier in the Request-URI. If the server successfully modifies the resource identifier, instead of responding with a 200 OK status code, the server MUST respond with a 201 Created status code, with a Location header containing the URI of the newly created resource. If there is already a resource with the requested identifier, the server MUST respond with a 409 Conflict status code indicating it could not be modified. If the server rejects the identifier as invalid, the server SHOULD respond with a 403 Forbidden status code. 12. IANA Considerations This document has no IANA actions. 13. Security Considerations TBD. 14. Acknowledgements The following individuals contributed ideas, feedback and wording, which contributed to the content of this specification: Alin Brici, Andi Egloff, Kornel Lesinski, Eve Maler, David Zuelke. This convention was influenced by various projects that expose HTTP- based data access interfaces, especially those that managed JSON- based representations, notably CouchDB. 15. Normative References [New-Status] Nottingham, M. and R. Fielding, "Additional HTTP Status Codes", October 2011, . Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 12] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [RFC2616] Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H., Masinter, L., Leach, P., and T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616, June 1999. [RFC4627] Crockford, D., "The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)", RFC 4627, July 2006. [RFC5789] Dusseault, L. and J. Snell, "PATCH Method for HTTP", RFC 5789, March 2010. [URI-Template] Gregorio, J., Fielding, R., Hadley, M., Nottingham, M., and D. Orchard, "URI Template", September 2011, . Appendix A. Questions and Answers Why this convention? HTTP-based APIs seem to be repeatedly following similar patterns, but with enough differences to preclude common programmatic implementations. The intent of this convention is to provide a basic set of rules upon which a more application-specific interface can be specified (principle: DRY). Is this a RESTful interface? This convention strays from a pure REST interface, as it prescribes a specific (JSON) representation for resources, and arguably fails to adhere to the principle of hypermedia as the engine of application state (HATEOS). What kind of interface is it? It may be better classified as a resource-oriented interface. It establishes a uniform interface (set of operations), and maps between those operations and the standard methods provided by HTTP. Why are ETags coupled to resource version, not entity value? Entity tags in HTTP are intended to be used to compare two or more entities for the same resource. Since this convention establishes Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 13] Internet-Draft HTTP-JSON-Resource February 2012 an exclusive representation of the resource (JSON), entity tag should be safely associable with resource version. RFC 2616 provides some support for this view in section 14.24 by stating, "It is also used, on updating requests, to prevent inadvertent modification of the wrong version of a resource." Why are "query" and "action" operations abstract? Queries and actions are too domain-specific to allow any more specificity than is expressed in this convention. Therefore, this convention does not attempt to define query/action semantics beyond the fact that they are parametric. Why not explicitly specify a patch format? JSON Patch was explicitly referenced in an earlier draft. However, it may not be the only applicable format, and there is no strong driver (at least to date) to mandate what patch document format should be supported. Appendix B. Examples TBD. Author's Address Paul C. Bryan (editor) ForgeRock Phone: +1 604 783 1481 Email: pbryan@anode.ca Bryan Expires August 18, 2012 [Page 14]