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Official Standards Documents

RFC 1736
Functional Recommendations for Internet Resource Locators (Informational)

This document specifies a minimum set of requirements for Internet resource locators, which convey location and access information for resources. Typical examples of resources include network accessible documents, WAIS databases, FTP servers, and Telnet destinations.

RFC 1737
Functional Recommendations for Internet Resource Names (Informational)

This document specifies a minimum set of requirements for Uniform Resource Names (URNs), but does not propose any particular URN format. Some proposed formats for URNs are discussed in the proposals mentioned below.

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Corporate Specifications

There are no corporate-based specifiations for resource locators.

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Standards Proposals

draft-ietf-urn-naptr-01.txt
Resolution of Uniform Resource Identifiers using the Domain Name System

This document describes a new DNS Resource Record, NAPTR (Naming Authority PoinTeR), that provides rules for mapping parts of URIs to domain names. By changing the mapping rules, we can change the host that is contacted to resolve a URI. This will allow a more graceful handling of URLs over long time periods, and forms the foundation for a new proposal for Uniform Resource Names.

draft-ietf-urn-syntax-01.txt
URN Syntax

Uniform Resource Names (URNs) are intended to serve as persistent resource identifiers. This document sets forward the canonical syntax for URNs. Support for both existing legacy and new namespaces is discussed. Requirements for URN presentation and transmission are presented. Finally, there is a discussion of URN equivalence and how to determine it.

draft-ietf-urn-http-conv-00.txt
Conventions for the Use of HTTP for URN Resolution

This draft establishes conventions for encoding URN resolution requests and responses in HTTP 1.0 (and 1.1) requests and responses. The primary goal of this draft is to define a convention that is simple to implement and will allow existing HTTP servers to easily add support for URN resolution. We expect that the resolution databases that arise will be useful when more sophisticated resolution protocols are developed later.

draft-ietf-urn-req-frame-00.txt
Requirements and a Framework for URN Resolution Systems

This document addresses the issues of the discovery of local URN resolution services that in turn will directly translate URNs into URLs and URCs. The document falls into three major parts, the assumptions underlying the work, the requirements in order to be a viable URN-resolution-service discovery service or UDS, and a framework for designing UDSs. The requirements fall into three major areas: evolvability, usability, and security and privacy.

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References/See Also

URNs, URIs and URCs -- Local documentation

The local documentation page on Uniform Resource Names (URNs), Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) and Uniform Resource Characteristics (URCs). These concepts are strongly related to URLs.

http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Addressing
IETF URI Working Group Notes (Group is now closed)

This site contains notes from the IETF URI working group, including lists of RFC and Internet drafts, as well as referencs to related working groups and informal working documents. Although the group has closed, this site still contains up-to-date reference material.

http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/urn-charter.html
IETF URN Working Group Notes

The The goal of this working group is to define both a Uniform Resource Name (URN) framework and an initial set of components that fit this framework. This site gives an overview of the groups mandate, and provides a list of Internet Drafts that have been prepared by group members.

http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Addressing
W3C Notes on Addressing Issues

A collection of notes by the W3C on addressing issues, including URLs. A good place to find information on addressing issues.