The Vulcain Protocol

Status of This Memo

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Table of Contents

1. Terminology

The keywords MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL, when they appear in this document, are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].¶

2. Preload Header

Many formats including HTML [W3C.REC-html52-20171214], JSON-LD [W3C.REC-json-ld-20140116], Atom [RFC4287], XML [W3C.REC-xml-20081126], HAL and JSON:API allow the use of Web Linking [RFC5988] to represent references between resources.¶

The Preload HTTP header allows the client to ask the server to transmit resources linked to the main resource it will need as soon as possible. To do so, the Preload header MUST contain a selector [#selectors] referencing links to resources that SHOULD be preloaded.¶

The server MUST recursively follow links referenced by the selector. When a selector traverses several resources, all the traversed resources SHOULD be sent to the client. If several links referencing the same resource are selected, this resource MUST be sent at most once.¶

The server MAY limit the number resources that it sends in response to one request.¶

Multiple selectors can be sent by passing multiple Preload HTTP headers.¶

Considering the following resources:¶

/books¶

{
    "member": [
        "/books/1",
        "/books/2"
    ]
}

/books/1¶

{
    "title": "1984",
    "author": "/authors/1"
}

/books/2¶

{
    "title": "Homage to Catalonia",
    "author": "/authors/1"
}

/authors/1¶

{
    "givenName": "George",
    "familyName": "Orwell"
}

The Preload HTTP header can be used to ask the server to immediately push resources related to the requested one:¶

GET /books/ HTTP/2
Preload: /member/*/author

In addition to /books, the server SHOULD use HTTP/2 Server Push to push the /books/1, /books/2 and /authors/1 resources. While it is referenced twice, /authors/1 MUST be pushed only once.¶

Server Push requests generated by the server for related resources MUST include the remaining selector in a Preload HTTP header. When requesting a pushed relation, the client MUST compute the remaining selector and pass it in the Preload header.¶

Example:¶

Explicit Request:¶

GET /books/ HTTP/2
Preload: /member/*/author

Request to a relation generated by the server (for the push) and the client:¶

GET /books/1 HTTP/2
Preload: /author

3. Fields Header

The Fields HTTP header allows the client to ask the server to return only the specified fields of the requested resource, and of the preloaded related resources.¶

The Fields HTTP header MUST contain a selector (see #Selector). The server SHOULD return only the fields matching this selector.¶

Multiple Fields HTTP headers can be passed. All fields matching at least one of these headers MUST be returned. Other fields of the resource MAY be omitted.¶

Considering the following resources:¶

/books/1¶

{
    "title": "1984",
    "genre": "novel",
    "author": "/authors/1"
}

/authors/1¶

{
    "givenName": "George",
    "familyName": "Orwell"
}

And the following HTTP request:¶

GET /books/1 HTTP/2
Preload: /author
Fields: /author/familyName
Fields: /genre

The server must return a response containing the following JSON document:¶

{
    "genre": "novel",
    "author": "/authors/1"
}

And push the following filtered /authors/1 resource:¶

{
    "familyName": "Orwell"
}

Server Push requests generated by the server for related resources MUST include the remaining selector in a Fields HTTP header. When requesting a pushed relation, the client MUST compute the remaining selector and pass it in the Fields header.¶

Example:¶

Explicit Request:¶

GET /books/ HTTP/2
Fields: /member/*/author

Request to a relation generated by the server (for the push) and the client:¶

GET /books/1 HTTP/2
Fields: /author

4. Selectors

Selectors used as value of the Preload and Fields HTTP headers depend on the Content-Type of the requested resource. This specification defines default selector formats for common content-types, and a mechanism to use other selector formats.¶

The client SHOULD use the Accept HTTP header to request the resource in a format compatible with selectors used in Preload and Fields HTTP headers.¶

The client can use the Prefer HTTP header [RFC7240] with the selector preference to ask the server to use a specific selector format:¶

GET /books/1 HTTP/2
Accept: text/xml
Prefer: selector=css
Fields: brand > name

If no explicit preferences have been passed, the server MUST assume that the selector format is the default corresponding to the format of the resource.¶

The following table defines the default selector format for common formats:¶

The client and the server can negotiate the use of other selector formats using the Prefer HTTP header.¶

{
    "books": [
        {
            "title": "1984",
            "author": "George Orwell"
        },
        {
            "title": "The Handmaid's Tale",
            "author": "Margaret Atwood"
        }
    ]
}

5. Query Parameters

Another option available to clients is to utilize Request URI query-string parameters to pass preload and fields selectors. The preload and query parameters MAY be used to pass selectors corresponding respectively to the Preload and Fields HTTP headers. To pass multiple selectors, parameters can be passed multiple times.¶

Example: /books/1?fields=/title&fields=/author&preload=/author¶

When using query parameters, the server MUST pass the remaining part of the selector as parameter of the generated link.¶

Example:¶

GET /books/?preload=/member/*/author HTTP/2

{
    "member": {
        "/books/1?preload=/author",
        "/books/1?preload=/author"
    }
}

As altering the URI can have undesirable effects, using HTTP headers SHOULD be preferred. Support for query parameters is OPTIONAL. A server supporting query parameters MUST also support the corresponding HTTP headers.¶

6. Computing Links Server-Side

While using hypermedia capabilities of the HTTP protocol through Web Linking SHOULD always be preferred, sometimes links between resources are known by the server but are not provided in the HTTP response.¶

In such cases, the server can compute the link server-side in order to push the related resource. Such server-side computed links MAY be documented, for instance by providing an OpenAPI specification containing Link objects.¶

Considering the following resources and assuming that the server knows that the author field references the resources /authors/{id} resource:¶

/books/1¶

{
    "title": "1984",
    "author": 1
}

/authors/1¶

{
    "givenName": "George",
    "familyName": "Orwell"
}

In response to this request , both /books/1 and /authors/1 should be pushed:¶

GET /books/1 HTTP/2
Preload: /author

7. Security Considerations

Using the Preload header can lead to a large number of resources to be generated and pushed. The server SHOULD limit the maximum number of resources to push. The depth of the selector SHOULD also be limited by the server.¶

8. IANA considerations

The Preloadand Fields header fields will be added to the "Permanent Message Header Field Names" registry defined in [RFC3864].¶

A selector registry could also be added.¶

Author's Address