Hypertext Transfer Protocol Bis (httpbis)
-----------------------------------------

Charter
Last Modified: 2011-12-09

Current Status: Active Working Group

Chair(s):
    Mark Nottingham  <[email protected]>

Applications Area Director(s):
    Pete Resnick  <[email protected]>
    Peter Saint-Andre  <[email protected]>

Applications Area Advisor:
    Peter Saint-Andre  <[email protected]>

Mailing Lists:
    General Discussion:[email protected]
    To Subscribe:      [email protected]
        In Body:       subscribe
    Archive:           http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http-wg/

Description of Working Group:

HTTP is one of the most successful and widely-used protocols on the
Internet today. However, its specification has several editorial issues.
Additionally, after years of implementation and extension, several
ambiguities have become evident, impairing interoperability and the
ability to easily implement and use HTTP.

The working group will refine RFC2616 to:
* Incorporate errata and updates (e.g., references, IANA registries,
 ABNF)
* Fix editorial problems which have led to misunderstandings of the
 specification
* Clarify conformance requirements
* Remove known ambiguities where they affect interoperability
* Clarify existing methods of extensibility
* Remove or deprecate those features that are not widely implemented and
 also unduly affect interoperability
* Where necessary, add implementation advice
* Document the security properties of HTTP and its associated mechanisms
 (e.g., Basic and Digest authentication, cookies, TLS) for common
 applications

It will also incorporate the generic authentication framework from RFC
2617, without obsoleting or updating that specification's definition of
the Basic and Digest schemes.

Finally, it will incorporate relevant portions of RFC 2817 (in
particular, the CONNECT method and advice on the use of Upgrade), so
that that specification can be moved to Historic status.

In doing so, it should consider:
* Implementer experience
* Demonstrated use of HTTP
* Impact on existing implementations and deployments

The Working Group must not introduce a new version of HTTP and should
not add new functionality to HTTP. The WG is not tasked with producing
new methods, headers, or extension mechanisms, but may introduce new
protocol elements if necessary as part of revising existing
functionality which has proven to be problematic.

The Working Group's specification deliverables are:
* A document (or set of documents) that is suitable to supersede RFC
 2616 and move RFC 2817 to Historic status
* A document cataloguing the security properties of HTTP

Goals and Milestones:

  Done         First HTTP Revision Internet Draft

  Done         First HTTP Security Properties Internet Draft

  Nov 2010       Request Last Call for HTTP Revision

  Nov 2010       Request Last Call for HTTP Security Properties

  Apr 2011       Submit HTTP Revision to IESG for consideration as a Draft
               Standard

  Apr 2011       Submit HTTP Security Properties to IESG for consideration as
               Informational


Internet-Drafts:

Posted Revised         I-D Title   <Filename>
------ ------- --------------------------------------------
Dec 2007 Jan 2012   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging-18.txt>
               HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing

Dec 2007 Jan 2012   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics-18.txt>
               HTTP/1.1, part 2: Message Semantics

Dec 2007 Jan 2012   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p3-payload-18.txt>
               HTTP/1.1, part 3: Message Payload and Content Negotiation

Dec 2007 Jan 2012   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p4-conditional-18.txt>
               HTTP/1.1, part 4: Conditional Requests

Dec 2007 Jan 2012   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p5-range-18.txt>
               HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses

Dec 2007 Jan 2012   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p6-cache-18.txt>
               HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching

Dec 2007 Jan 2012   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p7-auth-18.txt>
               HTTP/1.1, part 7: Authentication

Aug 2008 Jan 2012   <draft-ietf-httpbis-method-registrations-07.txt>
               Initial Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Method Registrations

Nov 2010 Aug 2011   <draft-ietf-httpbis-authscheme-registrations-02.txt>
               Initial Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Authentication
               Scheme Registrations

Request For Comments:

 RFC   Stat Published     Title
------- -- ----------- ------------------------------------
RFC6266 PS   Jun 2011    Use of the Content-Disposition Header Field in the
                      Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)