564044 - Support Link header

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox Graveyard :: Account Manager, defect)

Description

[Dan Mills [:thunder]]

From the mailing list:

https://groups.google.com/group/mozilla-labs-online-identity/browse_thread/thread/da35eaf57109f4d6

(forwarding proposal from Mark Nottingham)

The Web Linking draft proposes a general "Link" header, which is explicitly designed to support the use case of linking to external resources in an HTTP header.  It is about to become an RFC.

The latest draft is available here:
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-nottingham-http-link-header/

I propose that we adopt Link instead of X-Account-Manangement in the next draft of the Account Management specification.  

We would need to register with the IANA registry of Link types; I propose that we use "acct-mgmt" as our relation key.

Note that the Link specification requires that parsers resolve relative URLs; this point is not clearly defined in the current AMCD spec and adoption of the Link spec would make it a requirement.  (And note that per 5.1 of the Link spec, the base of the content is not applied)

Example:

Old syntax:
X-Account-Management: http://site.com/meta/accounts.xml

New syntax:
Link: <http://site.com/meta/accounts.xml>; rel="acct-mgmt"


IANA registry syntax:

Relation Name: acct-mgmt
Description: Refers to an account management control document.
Reference: [TBD]

Use of the "anchor" attribute:

The Link draft includes language that allows an "anchor" attribute on the Link header.  This would imply that the Link header in a response is asserting the account management details for some other URL.  My current belief is that this can't be handled securely and that we should disallow the use of the "anchor" attribute on acct-mgmt links.

Comment 1

[Dan Mills [:thunder]]

Done:

http://hg.mozilla.org/users/edward.lee_engineering.uiuc.edu/account-central/rev/c07290db285b

With followups:

http://hg.mozilla.org/users/edward.lee_engineering.uiuc.edu/account-central/rev/50111b471bab
http://hg.mozilla.org/users/edward.lee_engineering.uiuc.edu/account-central/rev/379cd59bb342