<pre>Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                       J. Gregorio
Request for Comments: 6570                                        Google
Category: Standards Track                                    R. Fielding
ISSN: 2070-1721                                                    Adobe
                                                               M. Hadley
                                                                   MITRE
                                                           M. Nottingham
                                                               Rackspace
                                                              D. Orchard
                                                          Salesforce.com
                                                              March 2012


                              <span class="h1">URI Template</span>

Abstract

   A URI Template is a compact sequence of characters for describing a
   range of Uniform Resource Identifiers through variable expansion.
   This specification defines the URI Template syntax and the process
   for expanding a URI Template into a URI reference, along with
   guidelines for the use of URI Templates on the Internet.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in <a href="./rfc5741#section-2">Section&nbsp;2 of RFC 5741</a>.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   <a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6570">http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6570</a>.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/bcp/bcp78">BCP 78</a> and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (<a href="http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info">http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info</a>) 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



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   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.

Table of Contents

   <a href="#section-1">1</a>. Introduction ....................................................<a href="#page-3">3</a>
      <a href="#section-1.1">1.1</a>. Overview ...................................................<a href="#page-3">3</a>
      <a href="#section-1.2">1.2</a>. Levels and Expression Types ................................<a href="#page-5">5</a>
      <a href="#section-1.3">1.3</a>. Design Considerations ......................................<a href="#page-9">9</a>
      <a href="#section-1.4">1.4</a>. Limitations ...............................................<a href="#page-10">10</a>
      <a href="#section-1.5">1.5</a>. Notational Conventions ....................................<a href="#page-11">11</a>
      <a href="#section-1.6">1.6</a>. Character Encoding and Unicode Normalization ..............<a href="#page-12">12</a>
   <a href="#section-2">2</a>. Syntax .........................................................<a href="#page-13">13</a>
      <a href="#section-2.1">2.1</a>. Literals ..................................................<a href="#page-13">13</a>
      <a href="#section-2.2">2.2</a>. Expressions ...............................................<a href="#page-13">13</a>
      <a href="#section-2.3">2.3</a>. Variables .................................................<a href="#page-14">14</a>
      <a href="#section-2.4">2.4</a>. Value Modifiers ...........................................<a href="#page-15">15</a>
           <a href="#section-2.4.1">2.4.1</a>. Prefix Values ......................................<a href="#page-15">15</a>
           <a href="#section-2.4.2">2.4.2</a>. Composite Values ...................................<a href="#page-16">16</a>
   <a href="#section-3">3</a>. Expansion ......................................................<a href="#page-18">18</a>
      <a href="#section-3.1">3.1</a>. Literal Expansion .........................................<a href="#page-18">18</a>
      <a href="#section-3.2">3.2</a>. Expression Expansion ......................................<a href="#page-18">18</a>
           <a href="#section-3.2.1">3.2.1</a>. Variable Expansion .................................<a href="#page-19">19</a>
           <a href="#section-3.2.2">3.2.2</a>. Simple String Expansion: {var} .....................<a href="#page-21">21</a>
           <a href="#section-3.2.3">3.2.3</a>. Reserved Expansion: {+var} .........................<a href="#page-22">22</a>
           <a href="#section-3.2.4">3.2.4</a>. Fragment Expansion: {#var} .........................<a href="#page-23">23</a>
           <a href="#section-3.2.5">3.2.5</a>. Label Expansion with Dot-Prefix: {.var} ............<a href="#page-24">24</a>
           <a href="#section-3.2.6">3.2.6</a>. Path Segment Expansion: {/var} .....................<a href="#page-24">24</a>
           <a href="#section-3.2.7">3.2.7</a>. Path-Style Parameter Expansion: {;var} .............<a href="#page-25">25</a>
           <a href="#section-3.2.8">3.2.8</a>. Form-Style Query Expansion: {?var} .................<a href="#page-26">26</a>
           <a href="#section-3.2.9">3.2.9</a>. Form-Style Query Continuation: {&amp;var} ..............<a href="#page-27">27</a>
   <a href="#section-4">4</a>. Security Considerations ........................................<a href="#page-27">27</a>
   <a href="#section-5">5</a>. Acknowledgments ................................................<a href="#page-28">28</a>
   <a href="#section-6">6</a>. References .....................................................<a href="#page-28">28</a>
      <a href="#section-6.1">6.1</a>. Normative References ......................................<a href="#page-28">28</a>
      <a href="#section-6.2">6.2</a>. Informative References ....................................<a href="#page-29">29</a>
   <a href="#appendix-A">Appendix A</a>. Implementation Hints ..................................<a href="#page-30">30</a>













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<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-1" href="#section-1">1</a>.  Introduction</span>

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-1.1" href="#section-1.1">1.1</a>.  Overview</span>

   A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) [<a href="./rfc3986" title="&quot;Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax&quot;">RFC3986</a>] is often used to
   identify a specific resource within a common space of similar
   resources (informally, a "URI space").  For example, personal web
   spaces are often delegated using a common pattern, such as

     http://example.com/~fred/
     http://example.com/~mark/

   or a set of dictionary entries might be grouped in a hierarchy by the
   first letter of the term, as in

     http://example.com/dictionary/c/cat
     http://example.com/dictionary/d/dog

   or a service interface might be invoked with various user input in a
   common pattern, as in

     http://example.com/search?q=cat&amp;lang=en
     http://example.com/search?q=chien&amp;lang=fr

   A URI Template is a compact sequence of characters for describing a
   range of Uniform Resource Identifiers through variable expansion.

   URI Templates provide a mechanism for abstracting a space of resource
   identifiers such that the variable parts can be easily identified and
   described.  URI Templates can have many uses, including the discovery
   of available services, configuring resource mappings, defining
   computed links, specifying interfaces, and other forms of
   programmatic interaction with resources.  For example, the above
   resources could be described by the following URI Templates:

     http://example.com/~{username}/
     http://example.com/dictionary/{term:1}/{term}
     http://example.com/search{?q,lang}

   We define the following terms:

   expression:  The text between '{' and '}', including the enclosing
      braces, as defined in <a href="#section-2">Section 2</a>.

   expansion:  The string result obtained from a template expression
      after processing it according to its expression type, list of
      variable names, and value modifiers, as defined in <a href="#section-3">Section 3</a>.




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   template processor:  A program or library that, given a URI Template
      and a set of variables with values, transforms the template string
      into a URI reference by parsing the template for expressions and
      substituting each one with its corresponding expansion.

   A URI Template provides both a structural description of a URI space
   and, when variable values are provided, machine-readable instructions
   on how to construct a URI corresponding to those values.  A URI
   Template is transformed into a URI reference by replacing each
   delimited expression with its value as defined by the expression type
   and the values of variables named within the expression.  The
   expression types range from simple string expansion to multiple
   name=value lists.  The expansions are based on the URI generic
   syntax, allowing an implementation to process any URI Template
   without knowing the scheme-specific requirements of every possible
   resulting URI.

   For example, the following URI Template includes a form-style
   parameter expression, as indicated by the "?" operator appearing
   before the variable names.

     http://www.example.com/foo{?query,number}

   The expansion process for expressions beginning with the question-
   mark ("?") operator follows the same pattern as form-style interfaces
   on the World Wide Web:

     http://www.example.com/foo{?query,number}
                               \_____________/
                                  |
                                  |
             For each defined variable in [ 'query', 'number' ],
             substitute "?" if it is the first substitution or "&amp;"
             thereafter, followed by the variable name, '=', and the
             variable's value.

   If the variables have the values

     query  := "mycelium"
     number := 100

   then the expansion of the above URI Template is

     http://www.example.com/foo?query=mycelium&amp;number=100

   Alternatively, if 'query' is undefined, then the expansion would be

     http://www.example.com/foo?number=100



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   or if both variables are undefined, then it would be

     http://www.example.com/foo

   A URI Template may be provided in absolute form, as in the examples
   above, or in relative form.  A template is expanded before the
   resulting reference is resolved from relative to absolute form.

   Although the URI syntax is used for the result, the template string
   is allowed to contain the broader set of characters that can be found
   in Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI) references [<a href="./rfc3987" title="&quot;Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs)&quot;">RFC3987</a>].
   Therefore, a URI Template is also an IRI template, and the result of
   template processing can be transformed to an IRI by following the
   process defined in <a href="./rfc3987#section-3.2">Section&nbsp;3.2 of [RFC3987]</a>.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-1.2" href="#section-1.2">1.2</a>.  Levels and Expression Types</span>

   URI Templates are similar to a macro language with a fixed set of
   macro definitions: the expression type determines the expansion
   process.  The default expression type is simple string expansion,
   wherein a single named variable is replaced by its value as a string
   after pct-encoding any characters not in the set of unreserved URI
   characters (<a href="#section-1.5">Section 1.5</a>).

   Since most template processors implemented prior to this
   specification have only implemented the default expression type, we
   refer to these as Level 1 templates.

   .-----------------------------------------------------------------.
   | Level 1 examples, with variables having values of               |
   |                                                                 |
   |             var   := "value"                                    |
   |             hello := "Hello World!"                             |
   |                                                                 |
   |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Op       Expression            Expansion                        |
   |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
   |     | Simple string expansion                       (Sec 3.2.2) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {var}                 value                            |
   |     |    {hello}               Hello%20World%21                 |
   `-----------------------------------------------------------------'

   Level 2 templates add the plus ("+") operator, for expansion of
   values that are allowed to include reserved URI characters
   (<a href="#section-1.5">Section 1.5</a>), and the crosshatch ("#") operator for expansion of
   fragment identifiers.




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   .-----------------------------------------------------------------.
   | Level 2 examples, with variables having values of               |
   |                                                                 |
   |             var   := "value"                                    |
   |             hello := "Hello World!"                             |
   |             path  := "/foo/bar"                                 |
   |                                                                 |
   |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Op       Expression            Expansion                        |
   |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
   |  +  | Reserved string expansion                     (Sec 3.2.3) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {+var}                value                            |
   |     |    {+hello}              Hello%20World!                   |
   |     |    {+path}/here          /foo/bar/here                    |
   |     |    here?ref={+path}      here?ref=/foo/bar                |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  #  | Fragment expansion, crosshatch-prefixed       (Sec 3.2.4) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    X{#var}               X#value                          |
   |     |    X{#hello}             X#Hello%20World!                 |
   `-----------------------------------------------------------------'

   Level 3 templates allow multiple variables per expression, each
   separated by a comma, and add more complex operators for dot-prefixed
   labels, slash-prefixed path segments, semicolon-prefixed path
   parameters, and the form-style construction of a query syntax
   consisting of name=value pairs that are separated by an ampersand
   character.

   .-----------------------------------------------------------------.
   | Level 3 examples, with variables having values of               |
   |                                                                 |
   |             var   := "value"                                    |
   |             hello := "Hello World!"                             |
   |             empty := ""                                         |
   |             path  := "/foo/bar"                                 |
   |             x     := "1024"                                     |
   |             y     := "768"                                      |
   |                                                                 |
   |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Op       Expression            Expansion                        |
   |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
   |     | String expansion with multiple variables      (Sec 3.2.2) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    map?{x,y}             map?1024,768                     |
   |     |    {x,hello,y}           1024,Hello%20World%21,768        |
   |     |                                                           |



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   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  +  | Reserved expansion with multiple variables    (Sec 3.2.3) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {+x,hello,y}          1024,Hello%20World!,768          |
   |     |    {+path,x}/here        /foo/bar,1024/here               |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  #  | Fragment expansion with multiple variables    (Sec 3.2.4) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {#x,hello,y}          #1024,Hello%20World!,768         |
   |     |    {#path,x}/here        #/foo/bar,1024/here              |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  .  | Label expansion, dot-prefixed                 (Sec 3.2.5) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    X{.var}               X.value                          |
   |     |    X{.x,y}               X.1024.768                       |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  /  | Path segments, slash-prefixed                 (Sec 3.2.6) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {/var}                /value                           |
   |     |    {/var,x}/here         /value/1024/here                 |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  ;  | Path-style parameters, semicolon-prefixed     (Sec 3.2.7) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {;x,y}                ;x=1024;y=768                    |
   |     |    {;x,y,empty}          ;x=1024;y=768;empty              |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  ?  | Form-style query, ampersand-separated         (Sec 3.2.8) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {?x,y}                ?x=1024&amp;y=768                    |
   |     |    {?x,y,empty}          ?x=1024&amp;y=768&amp;empty=             |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  &amp;  | Form-style query continuation                 (Sec 3.2.9) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    ?fixed=yes{&amp;x}        ?fixed=yes&amp;x=1024                |
   |     |    {&amp;x,y,empty}          &amp;x=1024&amp;y=768&amp;empty=             |
   |     |                                                           |
   `-----------------------------------------------------------------'

   Finally, Level 4 templates add value modifiers as an optional suffix
   to each variable name.  A prefix modifier (":") indicates that only a
   limited number of characters from the beginning of the value are used
   by the expansion (<a href="#section-2.4.1">Section 2.4.1</a>).  An explode ("*") modifier



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   indicates that the variable is to be treated as a composite value,
   consisting of either a list of names or an associative array of
   (name, value) pairs, that is expanded as if each member were a
   separate variable (<a href="#section-2.4.2">Section 2.4.2</a>).

   .-----------------------------------------------------------------.
   | Level 4 examples, with variables having values of               |
   |                                                                 |
   |             var   := "value"                                    |
   |             hello := "Hello World!"                             |
   |             path  := "/foo/bar"                                 |
   |             list  := ("red", "green", "blue")                   |
   |             keys  := [("semi",";"),("dot","."),("comma",",")]   |
   |                                                                 |
   | Op       Expression            Expansion                        |
   |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
   |     | String expansion with value modifiers         (Sec 3.2.2) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {var:3}               val                              |
   |     |    {var:30}              value                            |
   |     |    {list}                red,green,blue                   |
   |     |    {list*}               red,green,blue                   |
   |     |    {keys}                semi,%3B,dot,.,comma,%2C         |
   |     |    {keys*}               semi=%3B,dot=.,comma=%2C         |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  +  | Reserved expansion with value modifiers       (Sec 3.2.3) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {+path:6}/here        /foo/b/here                      |
   |     |    {+list}               red,green,blue                   |
   |     |    {+list*}              red,green,blue                   |
   |     |    {+keys}               semi,;,dot,.,comma,,             |
   |     |    {+keys*}              semi=;,dot=.,comma=,             |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  #  | Fragment expansion with value modifiers       (Sec 3.2.4) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {#path:6}/here        #/foo/b/here                     |
   |     |    {#list}               #red,green,blue                  |
   |     |    {#list*}              #red,green,blue                  |
   |     |    {#keys}               #semi,;,dot,.,comma,,            |
   |     |    {#keys*}              #semi=;,dot=.,comma=,            |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  .  | Label expansion, dot-prefixed                 (Sec 3.2.5) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    X{.var:3}             X.val                            |
   |     |    X{.list}              X.red,green,blue                 |



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   |     |    X{.list*}             X.red.green.blue                 |
   |     |    X{.keys}              X.semi,%3B,dot,.,comma,%2C       |
   |     |    X{.keys*}             X.semi=%3B.dot=..comma=%2C       |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  /  | Path segments, slash-prefixed                 (Sec 3.2.6) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {/var:1,var}          /v/value                         |
   |     |    {/list}               /red,green,blue                  |
   |     |    {/list*}              /red/green/blue                  |
   |     |    {/list*,path:4}       /red/green/blue/%2Ffoo           |
   |     |    {/keys}               /semi,%3B,dot,.,comma,%2C        |
   |     |    {/keys*}              /semi=%3B/dot=./comma=%2C        |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  ;  | Path-style parameters, semicolon-prefixed     (Sec 3.2.7) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {;hello:5}            ;hello=Hello                     |
   |     |    {;list}               ;list=red,green,blue             |
   |     |    {;list*}              ;list=red;list=green;list=blue   |
   |     |    {;keys}               ;keys=semi,%3B,dot,.,comma,%2C   |
   |     |    {;keys*}              ;semi=%3B;dot=.;comma=%2C        |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  ?  | Form-style query, ampersand-separated         (Sec 3.2.8) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {?var:3}              ?var=val                         |
   |     |    {?list}               ?list=red,green,blue             |
   |     |    {?list*}              ?list=red&amp;list=green&amp;list=blue   |
   |     |    {?keys}               ?keys=semi,%3B,dot,.,comma,%2C   |
   |     |    {?keys*}              ?semi=%3B&amp;dot=.&amp;comma=%2C        |
   |     |                                                           |
   |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------|
   |  &amp;  | Form-style query continuation                 (Sec 3.2.9) |
   |     |                                                           |
   |     |    {&amp;var:3}              &amp;var=val                         |
   |     |    {&amp;list}               &amp;list=red,green,blue             |
   |     |    {&amp;list*}              &amp;list=red&amp;list=green&amp;list=blue   |
   |     |    {&amp;keys}               &amp;keys=semi,%3B,dot,.,comma,%2C   |
   |     |    {&amp;keys*}              &amp;semi=%3B&amp;dot=.&amp;comma=%2C        |
   |     |                                                           |
   `-----------------------------------------------------------------'

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-1.3" href="#section-1.3">1.3</a>.  Design Considerations</span>

   Mechanisms similar to URI Templates have been defined within several
   specifications, including WSDL [<a href="#ref-WSDL" title="&quot;Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 2.0 Part 1: Core Language&quot;">WSDL</a>], WADL [<a href="#ref-WADL" title="&quot;Web Application Description Language&quot;">WADL</a>], and OpenSearch
   [<a href="#ref-OpenSearch" title="&quot;OpenSearch 1.1&quot;">OpenSearch</a>].  This specification extends and formally defines the



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   syntax so that URI Templates can be used consistently across multiple
   Internet applications and within Internet message fields, while at
   the same time retaining compatibility with those earlier definitions.

   The URI Template syntax has been designed to carefully balance the
   need for a powerful expansion mechanism with the need for ease of
   implementation.  The syntax is designed to be trivial to parse while
   at the same time providing enough flexibility to express many common
   template scenarios.  Implementations are able to parse the template
   and perform the expansions in a single pass.

   Templates are simple and readable when used with common examples
   because the single-character operators match the URI generic syntax
   delimiters.  The operator's associated delimiter (".", ";", "/", "?",
   "&amp;", and "#") is omitted when none of the listed variables are
   defined.  Likewise, the expansion process for ";" (path-style
   parameters) will omit the "=" when the variable value is empty,
   whereas the process for "?" (form-style parameters) will not omit the
   "=" when the value is empty.  Multiple variables and list values have
   their values joined with "," if there is no predefined joining
   mechanism for the operator.  The "+" and "#" operators will
   substitute unencoded reserved characters found inside the variable
   values; the other operators will pct-encode reserved characters found
   in the variable values prior to expansion.

   The most common cases for URI spaces can be described with Level 1
   template expressions.  If we were only concerned with URI generation,
   then the template syntax could be limited to just simple variable
   expansion, since more complex forms could be generated by changing
   the variable values.  However, URI Templates have the additional goal
   of describing the layout of identifiers in terms of preexisting data
   values.  Therefore, the template syntax includes operators that
   reflect how resource identifiers are commonly allocated.  Likewise,
   since prefix substrings are often used to partition large spaces of
   resources, modifiers on variable values provide a way to specify both
   the substring and the full value string with a single variable name.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-1.4" href="#section-1.4">1.4</a>.  Limitations</span>

   Since a URI Template describes a superset of the identifiers, there
   is no implication that every possible expansion for each delimited
   variable expression corresponds to a URI of an existing resource.
   Our expectation is that an application constructing URIs according to
   the template will be provided with an appropriate set of values for
   the variables being substituted, or at least a means of validating
   user data-entry for those values.





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<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-11" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


   URI Templates are not URIs: they do not identify an abstract or
   physical resource, they are not parsed as URIs, and they should not
   be used in places where a URI would be expected unless the template
   expressions will be expanded by a template processor prior to use.
   Distinct field, element, or attribute names should be used to
   differentiate protocol elements that carry a URI Template from those
   that expect a URI reference.

   Some URI Templates can be used in reverse for the purpose of variable
   matching: comparing the template to a fully formed URI in order to
   extract the variable parts from that URI and assign them to the named
   variables.  Variable matching only works well if the template
   expressions are delimited by the beginning or end of the URI or by
   characters that cannot be part of the expansion, such as reserved
   characters surrounding a simple string expression.  In general,
   regular expression languages are better suited for variable matching.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-1.5" href="#section-1.5">1.5</a>.  Notational Conventions</span>

   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 [<a href="./rfc2119" title="&quot;Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels&quot;">RFC2119</a>].

   This specification uses the Augmented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF)
   notation of [<a href="./rfc5234" title="&quot;Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF&quot;">RFC5234</a>].  The following ABNF rules are imported from
   the normative references [<a href="./rfc5234" title="&quot;Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF&quot;">RFC5234</a>], [<a href="./rfc3986" title="&quot;Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax&quot;">RFC3986</a>], and [<a href="./rfc3987" title="&quot;Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs)&quot;">RFC3987</a>].

     ALPHA          =  %x41-5A / %x61-7A   ; A-Z / a-z
     DIGIT          =  %x30-39             ; 0-9
     HEXDIG         =  DIGIT / "A" / "B" / "C" / "D" / "E" / "F"
                       ; case-insensitive

     pct-encoded    =  "%" HEXDIG HEXDIG
     unreserved     =  ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / "." / "_" / "~"
     reserved       =  gen-delims / sub-delims
     gen-delims     =  ":" / "/" / "?" / "#" / "[" / "]" / "@"
     sub-delims     =  "!" / "$" / "&amp;" / "'" / "(" / ")"
                    /  "*" / "+" / "," / ";" / "="

     ucschar        =  %xA0-D7FF / %xF900-FDCF / %xFDF0-FFEF
                    /  %x10000-1FFFD / %x20000-2FFFD / %x30000-3FFFD
                    /  %x40000-4FFFD / %x50000-5FFFD / %x60000-6FFFD
                    /  %x70000-7FFFD / %x80000-8FFFD / %x90000-9FFFD
                    /  %xA0000-AFFFD / %xB0000-BFFFD / %xC0000-CFFFD
                    /  %xD0000-DFFFD / %xE1000-EFFFD

     iprivate       =  %xE000-F8FF / %xF0000-FFFFD / %x100000-10FFFD




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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-1.6" href="#section-1.6">1.6</a>.  Character Encoding and Unicode Normalization</span>

   This specification uses the terms "character", "character encoding
   scheme", "code point", "coded character set", "glyph", "non-ASCII",
   "normalization", "protocol element", and "regular expression" as they
   are defined in [<a href="./rfc6365" title="&quot;Terminology Used in Internationalization in the IETF&quot;">RFC6365</a>].

   The ABNF notation defines its terminal values to be non-negative
   integers (code points) that are a superset of the US-ASCII coded
   character set [<a href="#ref-ASCII" title="&quot;Coded Character Set - 7-bit American Standard Code for Information Interchange&quot;">ASCII</a>].  This specification defines terminal values as
   code points within the Unicode coded character set [<a href="#ref-UNIV6" title="&quot;The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0.0&quot;">UNIV6</a>].

   In spite of the syntax and template expansion process being defined
   in terms of Unicode code points, it should be understood that
   templates occur in practice as a sequence of characters in whatever
   form or encoding is suitable for the context in which they occur,
   whether that be octets embedded in a network protocol element or
   glyphs painted on the side of a bus.  This specification does not
   mandate any particular character encoding scheme for mapping between
   URI Template characters and the octets used to store or transmit
   those characters.  When a URI Template appears in a protocol element,
   the character encoding scheme is defined by that protocol; without
   such a definition, a URI Template is assumed to be in the same
   character encoding scheme as the surrounding text.  It is only during
   the process of template expansion that a string of characters in a
   URI Template is REQUIRED to be processed as a sequence of Unicode
   code points.

   The Unicode Standard [<a href="#ref-UNIV6" title="&quot;The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0.0&quot;">UNIV6</a>] defines various equivalences between
   sequences of characters for various purposes.  Unicode Standard Annex
   #15 [<a href="#ref-UTR15" title="&quot;Unicode Normalization Forms&quot;">UTR15</a>] defines various Normalization Forms for these
   equivalences.  The normalization form determines how to consistently
   encode equivalent strings.  In theory, all URI processing
   implementations, including template processors, should use the same
   normalization form for generating a URI reference.  In practice, they
   do not.  If a value has been provided by the same server as the
   resource, then it can be assumed that the string is already in the
   form expected by that server.  If a value is provided by a user, such
   as via a data-entry dialog, then the string SHOULD be normalized as
   Normalization Form C (NFC: Canonical Decomposition, followed by
   Canonical Composition) prior to being used in expansions by a
   template processor.

   Likewise, when non-ASCII data that represents readable strings is
   pct-encoded for use in a URI reference, a template processor MUST
   first encode the string as UTF-8 [<a href="./rfc3629" title="&quot;UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646&quot;">RFC3629</a>] and then pct-encode any
   octets that are not allowed in a URI reference.




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<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-13" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-2" href="#section-2">2</a>.  Syntax</span>

   A URI Template is a string of printable Unicode characters that
   contains zero or more embedded variable expressions, each expression
   being delimited by a matching pair of braces ('{', '}').

     URI-Template  = *( literals / expression )

   Although templates (and template processor implementations) are
   described above in terms of four gradual levels, we define the URI-
   Template syntax in terms of the ABNF for Level 4.  A template
   processor limited to lower-level templates MAY exclude the ABNF rules
   applicable only to higher levels.  However, it is RECOMMENDED that
   all parsers implement the full syntax such that unsupported levels
   can be properly identified as such to the end user.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-2.1" href="#section-2.1">2.1</a>.  Literals</span>

   The characters outside of expressions in a URI Template string are
   intended to be copied literally to the URI reference if the character
   is allowed in a URI (reserved / unreserved / pct-encoded) or, if not
   allowed, copied to the URI reference as the sequence of pct-encoded
   triplets corresponding to that character's encoding in UTF-8
   [<a href="./rfc3629" title="&quot;UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646&quot;">RFC3629</a>].

     literals      =  %x21 / %x23-24 / %x26 / %x28-3B / %x3D / %x3F-5B
                   /  %x5D / %x5F / %x61-7A / %x7E / ucschar / iprivate
                   /  pct-encoded
                        ; any Unicode character except: CTL, SP,
                        ;  DQUOTE, "'", "%" (aside from pct-encoded),
                        ;  "&lt;", "&gt;", "\", "^", "`", "{", "|", "}"

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-2.2" href="#section-2.2">2.2</a>.  Expressions</span>

   Template expressions are the parameterized parts of a URI Template.
   Each expression contains an optional operator, which defines the
   expression type and its corresponding expansion process, followed by
   a comma-separated list of variable specifiers (variable names and
   optional value modifiers).  If no operator is provided, the
   expression defaults to simple variable expansion of unreserved
   values.

     expression    =  "{" [ operator ] variable-list "}"
     operator      =  op-level2 / op-level3 / op-reserve
     op-level2     =  "+" / "#"
     op-level3     =  "." / "/" / ";" / "?" / "&amp;"
     op-reserve    =  "=" / "," / "!" / "@" / "|"




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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


   The operator characters have been chosen to reflect each of their
   roles as reserved characters in the URI generic syntax.  The
   operators defined in <a href="#section-3">Section 3</a> of this specification include:

      +   Reserved character strings;

      #   Fragment identifiers prefixed by "#";

      .   Name labels or extensions prefixed by ".";

      /   Path segments prefixed by "/";

      ;   Path parameter name or name=value pairs prefixed by ";";

      ?   Query component beginning with "?" and consisting of
          name=value pairs separated by "&amp;"; and,

      &amp;   Continuation of query-style &amp;name=value pairs within
          a literal query component.

   The operator characters equals ("="), comma (","), exclamation ("!"),
   at sign ("@"), and pipe ("|") are reserved for future extensions.

   The expression syntax specifically excludes use of the dollar ("$")
   and parentheses ["(" and ")"] characters so that they remain
   available for use outside the scope of this specification.  For
   example, a macro language might use these characters to apply macro
   substitution to a string prior to that string being processed as a
   URI Template.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-2.3" href="#section-2.3">2.3</a>.  Variables</span>

   After the operator (if any), each expression contains a list of one
   or more comma-separated variable specifiers (varspec).  The variable
   names serve multiple purposes: documentation for what kinds of values
   are expected, identifiers for associating values within a template
   processor, and the literal string to use for the name in name=value
   expansions (aside from when exploding an associative array).
   Variable names are case-sensitive because the name might be expanded
   within a case-sensitive URI component.

     variable-list =  varspec *( "," varspec )
     varspec       =  varname [ modifier-level4 ]
     varname       =  varchar *( ["."] varchar )
     varchar       =  ALPHA / DIGIT / "_" / pct-encoded






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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


   A varname MAY contain one or more pct-encoded triplets.  These
   triplets are considered an essential part of the variable name and
   are not decoded during processing.  A varname containing pct-encoded
   characters is not the same variable as a varname with those same
   characters decoded.  Applications that provide URI Templates are
   expected to be consistent in their use of pct-encoding within
   variable names.

   An expression MAY reference variables that are unknown to the
   template processor or whose value is set to a special "undefined"
   value, such as undef or null.  Such undefined variables are given
   special treatment by the expansion process (<a href="#section-3.2.1">Section 3.2.1</a>).

   A variable value that is a string of length zero is not considered
   undefined; it has the defined value of an empty string.

   In Level 4 templates, a variable may have a composite value in the
   form of a list of values or an associative array of (name, value)
   pairs.  Such value types are not directly indicated by the template
   syntax, but they do have an impact on the expansion process
   (<a href="#section-3.2.1">Section 3.2.1</a>).

   A variable defined as a list value is considered undefined if the
   list contains zero members.  A variable defined as an associative
   array of (name, value) pairs is considered undefined if the array
   contains zero members or if all member names in the array are
   associated with undefined values.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-2.4" href="#section-2.4">2.4</a>.  Value Modifiers</span>

   Each of the variables in a Level 4 template expression can have a
   modifier indicating either that its expansion is limited to a prefix
   of the variable's value string or that its expansion is exploded as a
   composite value in the form of a value list or an associative array
   of (name, value) pairs.

     modifier-level4 =  prefix / explode

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-2.4.1" href="#section-2.4.1">2.4.1</a>.  Prefix Values</span>

   A prefix modifier indicates that the variable expansion is limited to
   a prefix of the variable's value string.  Prefix modifiers are often
   used to partition an identifier space hierarchically, as is common in
   reference indices and hash-based storage.  It also serves to limit
   the expanded value to a maximum number of characters.  Prefix
   modifiers are not applicable to variables that have composite values.





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<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-16" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


     prefix        =  ":" max-length
     max-length    =  %x31-39 0*3DIGIT   ; positive integer &lt; 10000

   The max-length is a positive integer that refers to a maximum number
   of characters from the beginning of the variable's value as a Unicode
   string.  Note that this numbering is in characters, not octets, in
   order to avoid splitting between the octets of a multi-octet-encoded
   character or within a pct-encoded triplet.  If the max-length is
   greater than the length of the variable's value, then the entire
   value string is used.

   For example,

     Given the variable assignments

       var   := "value"
       semi  := ";"

     Example Template     Expansion

       {var}              value
       {var:20}           value
       {var:3}            val
       {semi}             %3B
       {semi:2}           %3B

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-2.4.2" href="#section-2.4.2">2.4.2</a>.  Composite Values</span>

   An explode ("*") modifier indicates that the variable is to be
   treated as a composite value consisting of either a list of values or
   an associative array of (name, value) pairs.  Hence, the expansion
   process is applied to each member of the composite as if it were
   listed as a separate variable.  This kind of variable specification
   is significantly less self-documenting than non-exploded variables,
   since there is less correspondence between the variable name and how
   the URI reference appears after expansion.

     explode       =  "*"

   Since URI Templates do not contain an indication of type or schema,
   the type for an exploded variable is assumed to be determined by
   context.  For example, the processor might be supplied values in a
   form that differentiates values as strings, lists, or associative
   arrays.  Likewise, the context in which the template is used (script,
   mark-up language, Interface Definition Language, etc.) might define
   rules for associating variable names with types, structures, or
   schema.




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<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-17" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


   Explode modifiers improve brevity in the URI Template syntax.  For
   example, a resource that provides a geographic map for a given street
   address might accept a hundred permutations on fields for address
   input, including partial addresses (e.g., just the city or postal
   code).  Such a resource could be described as a template with each
   and every address component listed in order, or with a far more
   simple template that makes use of an explode modifier, as in

      /mapper{?address*}

   along with some context that defines what the variable named
   "address" can include, such as by reference to some other standard
   for addressing (e.g., [<a href="#ref-UPU-S42" title="&quot;International Postal Address Components and Templates&quot;">UPU-S42</a>]).  A recipient aware of the schema
   can then provide appropriate expansions, such as:

      /mapper?city=Newport%20Beach&amp;state=CA

   The expansion process for exploded variables is dependent on both the
   operator being used and whether the composite value is to be treated
   as a list of values or as an associative array of (name, value)
   pairs.  Structures are processed as if they are an associative array
   with names corresponding to the fields in the structure definition
   and "." separators used to indicate name hierarchy in substructures.

   If a variable has a composite structure and only some of the fields
   in that structure have defined values, then only the defined pairs
   are present in the expansion.  This can be useful for templates that
   consist of a large number of potential query terms.

   An explode modifier applied to a list variable causes the expansion
   to iterate over the list's member values.  For path and query
   parameter expansions, each member value is paired with the variable's
   name as a (varname, value) pair.  This allows path and query
   parameters to be repeated for multiple values, as in

     Given the variable assignments

       year  := ("1965", "2000", "2012")
       dom   := ("example", "com")

     Example Template     Expansion

       find{?year*}       find?year=1965&amp;year=2000&amp;year=2012
       www{.dom*}         www.example.com







<span class="grey">Gregorio, et al.             Standards Track                   [Page 17]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-18" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-3" href="#section-3">3</a>.  Expansion</span>

   The process of URI Template expansion is to scan the template string
   from beginning to end, copying literal characters and replacing each
   expression with the result of applying the expression's operator to
   the value of each variable named in the expression.  Each variable's
   value MUST be formed prior to template expansion.

   The requirements on expansion for each aspect of the URI Template
   grammar are defined in this section.  A non-normative algorithm for
   the expansion process as a whole is provided in <a href="#appendix-A">Appendix A</a>.

   If a template processor encounters a character sequence outside an
   expression that does not match the &lt;URI-Template&gt; grammar, then
   processing of the template SHOULD cease, the URI reference result
   SHOULD contain the expanded part of the template followed by the
   remainder unexpanded, and the location and type of error SHOULD be
   indicated to the invoking application.

   If an error is encountered in an expression, such as an operator or
   value modifier that the template processor does not recognize or does
   not yet support, or a character is found that is not allowed by the
   &lt;expression&gt; grammar, then the unprocessed parts of the expression
   SHOULD be copied to the result unexpanded, processing of the
   remainder of the template SHOULD continue, and the location and type
   of error SHOULD be indicated to the invoking application.

   If an error occurs, the result returned might not be a valid URI
   reference; it will be an incompletely expanded template string that
   is only intended for diagnostic use.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.1" href="#section-3.1">3.1</a>.  Literal Expansion</span>

   If the literal character is allowed anywhere in the URI syntax
   (unreserved / reserved / pct-encoded ), then it is copied directly to
   the result string.  Otherwise, the pct-encoded equivalent of the
   literal character is copied to the result string by first encoding
   the character as its sequence of octets in UTF-8 and then encoding
   each such octet as a pct-encoded triplet.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.2" href="#section-3.2">3.2</a>.  Expression Expansion</span>

   Each expression is indicated by an opening brace ("{") character and
   continues until the next closing brace ("}").  Expressions cannot be
   nested.






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<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-19" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


   An expression is expanded by determining its expression type and then
   following that type's expansion process for each comma-separated
   varspec in the expression.  Level 1 templates are limited to the
   default operator (simple string value expansion) and a single
   variable per expression.  Level 2 templates are limited to a single
   varspec per expression.

   The expression type is determined by looking at the first character
   after the opening brace.  If the character is an operator, then
   remember the expression type associated with that operator for later
   expansion decisions and skip to the next character for the variable-
   list.  If the first character is not an operator, then the expression
   type is simple string expansion and the first character is the
   beginning of the variable-list.

   The examples in the subsections below use the following definitions
   for variable values:

         count := ("one", "two", "three")
         dom   := ("example", "com")
         dub   := "me/too"
         hello := "Hello World!"
         half  := "50%"
         var   := "value"
         who   := "fred"
         base  := "http://example.com/home/"
         path  := "/foo/bar"
         list  := ("red", "green", "blue")
         keys  := [("semi",";"),("dot","."),("comma",",")]
         v     := "6"
         x     := "1024"
         y     := "768"
         empty := ""
         empty_keys  := []
         undef := null

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.2.1" href="#section-3.2.1">3.2.1</a>.  Variable Expansion</span>

   A variable that is undefined (<a href="#section-2.3">Section 2.3</a>) has no value and is
   ignored by the expansion process.  If all of the variables in an
   expression are undefined, then the expression's expansion is the
   empty string.

   Variable expansion of a defined, non-empty value results in a
   substring of allowed URI characters.  As described in <a href="#section-1.6">Section 1.6</a>,
   the expansion process is defined in terms of Unicode code points in
   order to ensure that non-ASCII characters are consistently pct-
   encoded in the resulting URI reference.  One way for a template



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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


   processor to obtain a consistent expansion is to transcode the value
   string to UTF-8 (if it is not already in UTF-8) and then transform
   each octet that is not in the allowed set into the corresponding pct-
   encoded triplet.  Another is to map directly from the value's native
   character encoding to the set of allowed URI characters, with any
   remaining disallowed characters mapping to the sequence of pct-
   encoded triplets that correspond to the octet(s) of that character
   when encoded as UTF-8 [<a href="./rfc3629" title="&quot;UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646&quot;">RFC3629</a>].

   The allowed set for a given expansion depends on the expression type:
   reserved ("+") and fragment ("#") expansions allow the set of
   characters in the union of ( unreserved / reserved / pct-encoded ) to
   be passed through without pct-encoding, whereas all other expression
   types allow only unreserved characters to be passed through without
   pct-encoding.  Note that the percent character ("%") is only allowed
   as part of a pct-encoded triplet and only for reserved/fragment
   expansion: in all other cases, a value character of "%" MUST be pct-
   encoded as "%25" by variable expansion.

   If a variable appears more than once in an expression or within
   multiple expressions of a URI Template, the value of that variable
   MUST remain static throughout the expansion process (i.e., the
   variable must have the same value for the purpose of calculating each
   expansion).  However, if reserved characters or pct-encoded triplets
   occur in the value, they will be pct-encoded by some expression types
   and not by others.

   For a variable that is a simple string value, expansion consists of
   appending the encoded value to the result string.  An explode
   modifier has no effect.  A prefix modifier limits the expansion to
   the first max-length characters of the decoded value.  If the value
   contains multi-octet or pct-encoded characters, care must be taken to
   avoid splitting the value in mid-character: count each Unicode code
   point as one character.

   For a variable that is an associative array, expansion depends on
   both the expression type and the presence of an explode modifier.  If
   there is no explode modifier, expansion consists of appending a
   comma-separated concatenation of each (name, value) pair that has a
   defined value.  If there is an explode modifier, expansion consists
   of appending each pair that has a defined value as either
   "name=value" or, if the value is the empty string and the expression
   type does not indicate form-style parameters (i.e., not a "?" or "&amp;"
   type), simply "name".  Both name and value strings are encoded in the
   same way as simple string values.  A separator string is appended
   between defined pairs according to the expression type, as defined by
   the following table:




<span class="grey">Gregorio, et al.             Standards Track                   [Page 20]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-21" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


      Type    Separator
                 ","     (default)
        +        ","
        #        ","
        .        "."
        /        "/"
        ;        ";"
        ?        "&amp;"
        &amp;        "&amp;"

   For a variable that is a list of values, expansion depends on both
   the expression type and the presence of an explode modifier.  If
   there is no explode modifier, the expansion consists of a comma-
   separated concatenation of the defined member string values.  If
   there is an explode modifier and the expression type expands named
   parameters (";", "?", or "&amp;"), then the list is expanded as if it
   were an associative array in which each member value is paired with
   the list's varname.  Otherwise, the value will be expanded as if it
   were a list of separate variable values, each value separated by the
   expression type's associated separator as defined by the table above.

     Example Template     Expansion

       {count}            one,two,three
       {count*}           one,two,three
       {/count}           /one,two,three
       {/count*}          /one/two/three
       {;count}           ;count=one,two,three
       {;count*}          ;count=one;count=two;count=three
       {?count}           ?count=one,two,three
       {?count*}          ?count=one&amp;count=two&amp;count=three
       {&amp;count*}          &amp;count=one&amp;count=two&amp;count=three

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.2.2" href="#section-3.2.2">3.2.2</a>.  Simple String Expansion: {var}</span>

   Simple string expansion is the default expression type when no
   operator is given.

   For each defined variable in the variable-list, perform variable
   expansion, as defined in <a href="#section-3.2.1">Section 3.2.1</a>, with the allowed characters
   being those in the unreserved set.  If more than one variable has a
   defined value, append a comma (",") to the result string as a
   separator between variable expansions.








<span class="grey">Gregorio, et al.             Standards Track                   [Page 21]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-22" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


     Example Template     Expansion

       {var}              value
       {hello}            Hello%20World%21
       {half}             50%25
       O{empty}X          OX
       O{undef}X          OX
       {x,y}              1024,768
       {x,hello,y}        1024,Hello%20World%21,768
       ?{x,empty}         ?1024,
       ?{x,undef}         ?1024
       ?{undef,y}         ?768
       {var:3}            val
       {var:30}           value
       {list}             red,green,blue
       {list*}            red,green,blue
       {keys}             semi,%3B,dot,.,comma,%2C
       {keys*}            semi=%3B,dot=.,comma=%2C

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.2.3" href="#section-3.2.3">3.2.3</a>.  Reserved Expansion: {+var}</span>

   Reserved expansion, as indicated by the plus ("+") operator for Level
   2 and above templates, is identical to simple string expansion except
   that the substituted values may also contain pct-encoded triplets and
   characters in the reserved set.

   For each defined variable in the variable-list, perform variable
   expansion, as defined in <a href="#section-3.2.1">Section 3.2.1</a>, with the allowed characters
   being those in the set (unreserved / reserved / pct-encoded).  If
   more than one variable has a defined value, append a comma (",") to
   the result string as a separator between variable expansions.




















<span class="grey">Gregorio, et al.             Standards Track                   [Page 22]</span></pre>
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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


     Example Template        Expansion

       {+var}                value
       {+hello}              Hello%20World!
       {+half}               50%25

       {base}index           http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fhome%2Findex
       {+base}index          http://example.com/home/index
       O{+empty}X            OX
       O{+undef}X            OX

       {+path}/here          /foo/bar/here
       here?ref={+path}      here?ref=/foo/bar
       up{+path}{var}/here   up/foo/barvalue/here
       {+x,hello,y}          1024,Hello%20World!,768
       {+path,x}/here        /foo/bar,1024/here

       {+path:6}/here        /foo/b/here
       {+list}               red,green,blue
       {+list*}              red,green,blue
       {+keys}               semi,;,dot,.,comma,,
       {+keys*}              semi=;,dot=.,comma=,

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.2.4" href="#section-3.2.4">3.2.4</a>.  Fragment Expansion: {#var}</span>

   Fragment expansion, as indicated by the crosshatch ("#") operator for
   Level 2 and above templates, is identical to reserved expansion
   except that a crosshatch character (fragment delimiter) is appended
   first to the result string if any of the variables are defined.

     Example Template     Expansion

       {#var}             #value
       {#hello}           #Hello%20World!
       {#half}            #50%25
       foo{#empty}        foo#
       foo{#undef}        foo
       {#x,hello,y}       #1024,Hello%20World!,768
       {#path,x}/here     #/foo/bar,1024/here
       {#path:6}/here     #/foo/b/here
       {#list}            #red,green,blue
       {#list*}           #red,green,blue
       {#keys}            #semi,;,dot,.,comma,,
       {#keys*}           #semi=;,dot=.,comma=,







<span class="grey">Gregorio, et al.             Standards Track                   [Page 23]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-24" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.2.5" href="#section-3.2.5">3.2.5</a>.  Label Expansion with Dot-Prefix: {.var}</span>

   Label expansion, as indicated by the dot (".") operator for Level 3
   and above templates, is useful for describing URI spaces with varying
   domain names or path selectors (e.g., filename extensions).

   For each defined variable in the variable-list, append "." to the
   result string and then perform variable expansion, as defined in
   <a href="#section-3.2.1">Section 3.2.1</a>, with the allowed characters being those in the
   unreserved set.

   Since "." is in the unreserved set, a value that contains a "." has
   the effect of adding multiple labels.

     Example Template     Expansion

       {.who}             .fred
       {.who,who}         .fred.fred
       {.half,who}        .50%25.fred
       www{.dom*}         www.example.com
       X{.var}            X.value
       X{.empty}          X.
       X{.undef}          X
       X{.var:3}          X.val
       X{.list}           X.red,green,blue
       X{.list*}          X.red.green.blue
       X{.keys}           X.semi,%3B,dot,.,comma,%2C
       X{.keys*}          X.semi=%3B.dot=..comma=%2C
       X{.empty_keys}     X
       X{.empty_keys*}    X

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.2.6" href="#section-3.2.6">3.2.6</a>.  Path Segment Expansion: {/var}</span>

   Path segment expansion, as indicated by the slash ("/") operator in
   Level 3 and above templates, is useful for describing URI path
   hierarchies.

   For each defined variable in the variable-list, append "/" to the
   result string and then perform variable expansion, as defined in
   <a href="#section-3.2.1">Section 3.2.1</a>, with the allowed characters being those in the
   unreserved set.

   Note that the expansion process for path segment expansion is
   identical to that of label expansion aside from the substitution of
   "/" instead of ".".  However, unlike ".", a "/" is a reserved
   character and will be pct-encoded if found in a value.





<span class="grey">Gregorio, et al.             Standards Track                   [Page 24]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-25" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


     Example Template     Expansion

       {/who}             /fred
       {/who,who}         /fred/fred
       {/half,who}        /50%25/fred
       {/who,dub}         /fred/me%2Ftoo
       {/var}             /value
       {/var,empty}       /value/
       {/var,undef}       /value
       {/var,x}/here      /value/1024/here
       {/var:1,var}       /v/value
       {/list}            /red,green,blue
       {/list*}           /red/green/blue
       {/list*,path:4}    /red/green/blue/%2Ffoo
       {/keys}            /semi,%3B,dot,.,comma,%2C
       {/keys*}           /semi=%3B/dot=./comma=%2C

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.2.7" href="#section-3.2.7">3.2.7</a>.  Path-Style Parameter Expansion: {;var}</span>

   Path-style parameter expansion, as indicated by the semicolon (";")
   operator in Level 3 and above templates, is useful for describing URI
   path parameters, such as "path;property" or "path;name=value".

   For each defined variable in the variable-list:

   o  append ";" to the result string;

   o  if the variable has a simple string value or no explode modifier
      is given, then:

      *  append the variable name (encoded as if it were a literal
         string) to the result string;

      *  if the variable's value is not empty, append "=" to the result
         string;

   o  perform variable expansion, as defined in <a href="#section-3.2.1">Section 3.2.1</a>, with the
      allowed characters being those in the unreserved set.













<span class="grey">Gregorio, et al.             Standards Track                   [Page 25]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-26" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


     Example Template     Expansion

       {;who}             ;who=fred
       {;half}            ;half=50%25
       {;empty}           ;empty
       {;v,empty,who}     ;v=6;empty;who=fred
       {;v,bar,who}       ;v=6;who=fred
       {;x,y}             ;x=1024;y=768
       {;x,y,empty}       ;x=1024;y=768;empty
       {;x,y,undef}       ;x=1024;y=768
       {;hello:5}         ;hello=Hello
       {;list}            ;list=red,green,blue
       {;list*}           ;list=red;list=green;list=blue
       {;keys}            ;keys=semi,%3B,dot,.,comma,%2C
       {;keys*}           ;semi=%3B;dot=.;comma=%2C

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.2.8" href="#section-3.2.8">3.2.8</a>.  Form-Style Query Expansion: {?var}</span>

   Form-style query expansion, as indicated by the question-mark ("?")
   operator in Level 3 and above templates, is useful for describing an
   entire optional query component.

   For each defined variable in the variable-list:

   o  append "?" to the result string if this is the first defined value
      or append "&amp;" thereafter;

   o  if the variable has a simple string value or no explode modifier
      is given, append the variable name (encoded as if it were a
      literal string) and an equals character ("=") to the result
      string; and,

   o  perform variable expansion, as defined in <a href="#section-3.2.1">Section 3.2.1</a>, with the
      allowed characters being those in the unreserved set.


     Example Template     Expansion

       {?who}             ?who=fred
       {?half}            ?half=50%25
       {?x,y}             ?x=1024&amp;y=768
       {?x,y,empty}       ?x=1024&amp;y=768&amp;empty=
       {?x,y,undef}       ?x=1024&amp;y=768
       {?var:3}           ?var=val
       {?list}            ?list=red,green,blue
       {?list*}           ?list=red&amp;list=green&amp;list=blue
       {?keys}            ?keys=semi,%3B,dot,.,comma,%2C
       {?keys*}           ?semi=%3B&amp;dot=.&amp;comma=%2C



<span class="grey">Gregorio, et al.             Standards Track                   [Page 26]</span></pre>
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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.2.9" href="#section-3.2.9">3.2.9</a>.  Form-Style Query Continuation: {&amp;var}</span>

   Form-style query continuation, as indicated by the ampersand ("&amp;")
   operator in Level 3 and above templates, is useful for describing
   optional &amp;name=value pairs in a template that already contains a
   literal query component with fixed parameters.

   For each defined variable in the variable-list:

   o  append "&amp;" to the result string;

   o  if the variable has a simple string value or no explode modifier
      is given, append the variable name (encoded as if it were a
      literal string) and an equals character ("=") to the result
      string; and,

   o  perform variable expansion, as defined in <a href="#section-3.2.1">Section 3.2.1</a>, with the
      allowed characters being those in the unreserved set.


     Example Template     Expansion

       {&amp;who}             &amp;who=fred
       {&amp;half}            &amp;half=50%25
       ?fixed=yes{&amp;x}     ?fixed=yes&amp;x=1024
       {&amp;x,y,empty}       &amp;x=1024&amp;y=768&amp;empty=
       {&amp;x,y,undef}       &amp;x=1024&amp;y=768

       {&amp;var:3}           &amp;var=val
       {&amp;list}            &amp;list=red,green,blue
       {&amp;list*}           &amp;list=red&amp;list=green&amp;list=blue
       {&amp;keys}            &amp;keys=semi,%3B,dot,.,comma,%2C
       {&amp;keys*}           &amp;semi=%3B&amp;dot=.&amp;comma=%2C

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-4" href="#section-4">4</a>.  Security Considerations</span>

   A URI Template does not contain active or executable content.
   However, it might be possible to craft unanticipated URIs if an
   attacker is given control over the template or over the variable
   values within an expression that allows reserved characters in the
   expansion.  In either case, the security considerations are largely
   determined by who provides the template, who provides the values to
   use for variables within the template, in what execution context the
   expansion occurs (client or server), and where the resulting URIs are
   used.






<span class="grey">Gregorio, et al.             Standards Track                   [Page 27]</span></pre>
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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


   This specification does not limit where URI Templates might be used.
   Current implementations exist within server-side development
   frameworks and within client-side javascript for computed links or
   forms.

   Within frameworks, templates usually act as guides for where data
   might occur within later (request-time) URIs in client requests.
   Hence, the security concerns are not in the templates themselves, but
   rather in how the server extracts and processes the user-provided
   data within a normal Web request.

   Within client-side implementations, a URI Template has many of the
   same properties as HTML forms, except limited to URI characters and
   possibly included in HTTP header field values instead of just message
   body content.  Care ought to be taken to ensure that potentially
   dangerous URI reference strings, such as those beginning with
   "javascript:", do not appear in the expansion unless both the
   template and the values are provided by a trusted source.

   Other security considerations are the same as those for URIs, as
   described in <a href="./rfc3986#section-7">Section&nbsp;7 of [RFC3986]</a>.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-5" href="#section-5">5</a>.  Acknowledgments</span>

   The following people made contributions to this specification: Mike
   Burrows, Michaeljohn Clement, DeWitt Clinton, John Cowan, Stephen
   Farrell, Robbie Gates, Vijay K. Gurbani, Peter Johanson, Murray S.
   Kucherawy, James H. Manger, Tom Petch, Marc Portier, Pete Resnick,
   James Snell, and Jiankang Yao.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-6" href="#section-6">6</a>.  References</span>

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.1" href="#section-6.1">6.1</a>.  Normative References</span>

   [<a id="ref-ASCII">ASCII</a>]       American National Standards Institute, "Coded Character
                 Set - 7-bit American Standard Code for Information
                 Interchange", ANSI X3.4, 1986.

   [<a id="ref-RFC2119">RFC2119</a>]     Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
                 Requirement Levels", <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/bcp/bcp14">BCP 14</a>, <a href="./rfc2119">RFC 2119</a>, March 1997.

   [<a id="ref-RFC3629">RFC3629</a>]     Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
                 10646", STD 63, <a href="./rfc3629">RFC 3629</a>, November 2003.

   [<a id="ref-RFC3986">RFC3986</a>]     Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter,
                 "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax",
                 STD 66, <a href="./rfc3986">RFC 3986</a>, January 2005.




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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


   [<a id="ref-RFC3987">RFC3987</a>]     Duerst, M. and M. Suignard, "Internationalized Resource
                 Identifiers (IRIs)", <a href="./rfc3987">RFC 3987</a>, January 2005.

   [<a id="ref-RFC5234">RFC5234</a>]     Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
                 Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, <a href="./rfc5234">RFC 5234</a>, January 2008.

   [<a id="ref-RFC6365">RFC6365</a>]     Hoffman, P. and J. Klensin, "Terminology Used in
                 Internationalization in the IETF", <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/bcp/bcp166">BCP 166</a>, <a href="./rfc6365">RFC 6365</a>,
                 September 2011.

   [<a id="ref-UNIV6">UNIV6</a>]       The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode Standard, Version
                 6.0.0", (Mountain View, CA: The Unicode Consortium,
                 2011.  ISBN 978-1-936213-01-6),
                 &lt;<a href="http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.0.0/">http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.0.0/</a>&gt;.

   [<a id="ref-UTR15">UTR15</a>]       Davis, M. and M. Duerst, "Unicode Normalization Forms",
                 Unicode Standard Annex # 15, April 2003,
                 &lt;<a href="http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr15/tr15-23.html">http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr15/</a>
                 <a href="http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr15/tr15-23.html">tr15-23.html</a>&gt;.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.2" href="#section-6.2">6.2</a>.  Informative References</span>

   [<a id="ref-OpenSearch">OpenSearch</a>]  Clinton, D., "OpenSearch 1.1", Draft 5, December 2011,
                 &lt;<a href="http://www.opensearch.org/Specifications/OpenSearch">http://www.opensearch.org/Specifications/OpenSearch</a>&gt;.

   [<a id="ref-UPU-S42">UPU-S42</a>]     Universal Postal Union, "International Postal Address
                 Components and Templates", UPU S42-1, November 2002,
                 &lt;<a href="http://www.upu.int/en/activities/addressing/standards.html">http://www.upu.int/en/activities/addressing/</a>
                 <a href="http://www.upu.int/en/activities/addressing/standards.html">standards.html</a>&gt;.

   [<a id="ref-WADL">WADL</a>]        Hadley, M., "Web Application Description Language",
                 World Wide Web Consortium Member Submission
                 SUBM-wadl-20090831, August 2009,
                 &lt;<a href="http://www.w3.org/Submission/2009/SUBM-wadl-20090831/">http://www.w3.org/Submission/2009/</a>
                 <a href="http://www.w3.org/Submission/2009/SUBM-wadl-20090831/">SUBM-wadl-20090831/</a>&gt;.

   [<a id="ref-WSDL">WSDL</a>]        Weerawarana, S., Moreau, J., Ryman, A., and R.
                 Chinnici, "Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
                 Version 2.0 Part 1: Core Language", World Wide Web
                 Consortium Recommendation REC-wsdl20-20070626,
                 June 2007, &lt;<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/REC-wsdl20-20070626">http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/</a>
                 <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/REC-wsdl20-20070626">REC-wsdl20-20070626</a>&gt;.









<span class="grey">Gregorio, et al.             Standards Track                   [Page 29]</span></pre>
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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="appendix-A" href="#appendix-A">Appendix A</a>.  Implementation Hints</span>

   The normative sections on expansion describe each operator with a
   separate expansion process for the sake of descriptive clarity.  In
   actual implementations, we expect the expressions to be processed
   left-to-right using a common algorithm that has only minor variations
   in process per operator.  This non-normative appendix describes one
   such algorithm.

   Initialize an empty result string and its non-error state.

   Scan the template and copy literals to the result string (as in
   <a href="#section-3.1">Section 3.1</a>) until an expression is indicated by a "{", an error is
   indicated by the presence of a non-literals character other than "{",
   or the template ends.  When it ends, return the result string and its
   current error or non-error state.

   o  If an expression is found, scan the template to the next "}" and
      extract the characters in between the braces.

   o  If the template ends before a "}", then append the "{" and
      extracted characters to the result string and return with an error
      status indicating the expression is malformed.

   Examine the first character of the extracted expression for an
   operator.

   o  If the expression ended (i.e., is "{}"), an operator is found that
      is unknown or unimplemented, or the character is not in the
      varchar set (<a href="#section-2.3">Section 2.3</a>), then append "{", the extracted
      expression, and "}" to the result string, remember that the result
      is in an error state, and then go back to scan the remainder of
      the template.

   o  If a known and implemented operator is found, store the operator
      and skip to the next character to begin the varspec-list.

   o  Otherwise, store the operator as NUL (simple string expansion).

   Use the following value table to determine the processing behavior by
   expression type operator.  The entry for "first" is the string to
   append to the result first if any of the expression's variables are
   defined.  The entry for "sep" is the separator to append to the
   result before any second (or subsequent) defined variable expansion.
   The entry for "named" is a boolean for whether or not the expansion
   includes the variable or key name when no explode modifier is given.
   The entry for "ifemp" is a string to append to the name if its
   corresponding value is empty.  The entry for "allow" indicates what



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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


   characters to allow unencoded within the value expansion: (U) means
   any character not in the unreserved set will be encoded; (U+R) means
   any character not in the union of (unreserved / reserved / pct-
   encoding) will be encoded; and, for both cases, each disallowed
   character is first encoded as its sequence of octets in UTF-8 and
   then each such octet is encoded as a pct-encoded triplet.

   .------------------------------------------------------------------.
   |          NUL     +      .       /       ;      ?      &amp;      #   |
   |------------------------------------------------------------------|
   | first |  ""     ""     "."     "/"     ";"    "?"    "&amp;"    "#"  |
   | sep   |  ","    ","    "."     "/"     ";"    "&amp;"    "&amp;"    ","  |
   | named | false  false  false   false   true   true   true   false |
   | ifemp |  ""     ""     ""      ""      ""     "="    "="    ""   |
   | allow |   U     U+R     U       U       U      U      U     U+R  |
   `------------------------------------------------------------------'

   With the above table in mind, process the variable-list as follows:

   For each varspec, extract a variable name and optional modifier from
   the expression by scanning the variable-list until a character not in
   the varname set is found or the end of the expression is reached.

   o  If it is the end of the expression and the varname is empty, go
      back to scan the remainder of the template.

   o  If it is not the end of the expression and the last character
      found indicates a modifier ("*" or ":"), remember that modifier.
      If it is an explode ("*"), scan the next character.  If it is a
      prefix (":"), continue scanning the next one to four characters
      for the max-length represented as a decimal integer and then, if
      it is still not the end of the expression, scan the next
      character.

   o  If it is not the end of the expression and the last character
      found is not a comma (","), append "{", the stored operator (if
      any), the scanned varname and modifier, the remaining expression,
      and "}" to the result string, remember that the result is in an
      error state, and then go back to scan the remainder of the
      template.

   Lookup the value for the scanned variable name, and then

   o  If the varname is unknown or corresponds to a variable with an
      undefined value (<a href="#section-2.3">Section 2.3</a>), then skip to the next varspec.






<span class="grey">Gregorio, et al.             Standards Track                   [Page 31]</span></pre>
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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


   o  If this is the first defined variable for this expression, append
      the first string for this expression type to the result string and
      remember that it has been done.  Otherwise, append the sep string
      to the result string.

   o  If this variable's value is a string, then

      *  if named is true, append the varname to the result string using
         the same encoding process as for literals, and

         +  if the value is empty, append the ifemp string to the result
            string and skip to the next varspec;

         +  otherwise, append "=" to the result string.

      *  if a prefix modifier is present and the prefix length is less
         than the value string length in number of Unicode characters,
         append that number of characters from the beginning of the
         value string to the result string, after pct-encoding any
         characters that are not in the allow set, while taking care not
         to split multi-octet or pct-encoded triplet characters that
         represent a single Unicode code point;

      *  otherwise, append the value to the result string after pct-
         encoding any characters that are not in the allow set.

   o  else if no explode modifier is given, then

      *  if named is true, append the varname to the result string using
         the same encoding process as for literals, and

         +  if the value is empty, append the ifemp string to the result
            string and skip to the next varspec;

         +  otherwise, append "=" to the result string; and

      *  if this variable's value is a list, append each defined list
         member to the result string, after pct-encoding any characters
         that are not in the allow set, with a comma (",") appended to
         the result between each defined list member;

      *  if this variable's value is an associative array or any other
         form of paired (name, value) structure, append each pair with a
         defined value to the result string as "name,value", after pct-
         encoding any characters that are not in the allow set, with a
         comma (",") appended to the result between each defined pair.





<span class="grey">Gregorio, et al.             Standards Track                   [Page 32]</span></pre>
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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


   o  else if an explode modifier is given, then

      *  if named is true, then for each defined list member or array
         (name, value) pair with a defined value, do:

         +  if this is not the first defined member/value, append the
            sep string to the result string;

         +  if this is a list, append the varname to the result string
            using the same encoding process as for literals;

         +  if this is a pair, append the name to the result string
            using the same encoding process as for literals;

         +  if the member/value is empty, append the ifemp string to the
            result string; otherwise, append "=" and the member/value to
            the result string, after pct-encoding any member/value
            characters that are not in the allow set.

      *  else if named is false, then

         +  if this is a list, append each defined list member to the
            result string, after pct-encoding any characters that are
            not in the allow set, with the sep string appended to the
            result between each defined list member.

         +  if this is an array of (name, value) pairs, append each pair
            with a defined value to the result string as "name=value",
            after pct-encoding any characters that are not in the allow
            set, with the sep string appended to the result between each
            defined pair.

   When the variable-list for this expression is exhausted, go back to
   scan the remainder of the template.

















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<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6570">RFC 6570</a>                      URI Template                    March 2012</span>


Authors' Addresses

   Joe Gregorio
   Google

   EMail: joe@bitworking.org
   URI:   <a href="http://bitworking.org/">http://bitworking.org/</a>


   Roy T. Fielding
   Adobe Systems Incorporated

   EMail: fielding@gbiv.com
   URI:   <a href="http://roy.gbiv.com/">http://roy.gbiv.com/</a>


   Marc Hadley
   The MITRE Corporation

   EMail: mhadley@mitre.org
   URI:   <a href="http://mitre.org/">http://mitre.org/</a>


   Mark Nottingham
   Rackspace

   EMail: mnot@mnot.net
   URI:   <a href="http://www.mnot.net/">http://www.mnot.net/</a>


   David Orchard
   Salesforce.com

   EMail: orchard@pacificspirit.com
   URI:   <a href="http://www.pacificspirit.com/">http://www.pacificspirit.com/</a>
















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