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RFC 8288 / START HERE

Web Linking, before the details

Web Linking is a model for connections between Web resources; HTTP means Hypertext Transfer Protocol.

A Web link is a statement that one resource has a particular relationship to another. Its context is the resource being described, its target is the related resource, and its relation type tells you how they are connected.

Start the guide See the 6 chapters ↓

The idea in one picture

  1. Identify the context

  2. Read the relation

  3. Find the target

A simplified picture of the idea; the chapters explain the actual mechanisms.

Why it exists

RFC 8288 gives these relationships a shared model and defines the HTTP Link field that can carry them outside a page body. It replaces RFC 5988 and clarifies contexts, attributes and parsing. It does not make every link format interchangeable or command clients to fetch every target.

A familiar example

A fictional book response includes Link: </terms>; rel="copyright". This says that the book has copyright terms at /terms. A client can interpret that relationship without downloading /terms. A link is an assertion, not proof that its publisher has authority over every resource it names.

Helpful background

You can start here without reading another RFC. If these ideas are unfamiliar, these short introductions may help.

URI syntaxRFC 3986 · beginner overview ↗HTTPRFC 9110 · beginner overview ↗

What you’ll learn next

Begin with chapter one, or choose a topic.

  1. Context, relation, target and attributesA link is a typed connection: a resource has a specified relationship to another resource, optionally described by attributes.
  2. Parse values without splitting quoted commasA Link field can contain several link-values, and each value can contain parameters. Delimiters inside quoted text belong to that text.
  3. Resolve targets and honor anchor contextRelative targets and anchor values are resolved against the representation URL. The anchor changes the context of the statement, not the target’s base.
  4. Registered names and extension relationsA short registered name and an absolute extension URI can both identify link semantics; neither is a command to fetch documentation.
  5. Hints and internationalized link titlesTarget attributes can help an application label or choose a link. A hint does not override the response that is actually retrieved.
  6. Evaluate claims before trusting or followingA valid Link field is still an assertion. Decide whether its publisher can speak for its context and whether following its target is appropriate.
Start with chapter one →

This introduction explains RFC 8288 (2017). Read the original RFC ↗