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Appendix A. HTTP Problems and XML

Some HTTP-based APIs use XML [W3C.REC-xml-20081126] as their primary format convention. Such APIs can express problem details using the format defined in this appendix.

The RELAX NG schema [ISO-19757-2] for the XML format is as follows. Keep in mind that this schema is only meant as documentation, and not as a normative schema that captures all constraints of the XML format. Also, it would be possible to use other XML schema languages to define a similar set of constraints (depending on the features of the chosen schema language).

default namespace ns = "urn:ietf:rfc:7807"

start = problem

problem =
  element problem {
    (  element  type            { xsd:anyURI }?
     & element  title           { xsd:string }?
     & element  detail          { xsd:string }?
     & element  status          { xsd:positiveInteger }?
     & element  instance        { xsd:anyURI }? ),
    anyNsElement
  }

anyNsElement =
  (  element    ns:*  { anyNsElement | text }
   | attribute  *     { text })*

The media type for this format is "application/problem+xml".

Extension arrays and objects are serialized into the XML format by considering an element containing a child or children to represent an object, except for elements that contain only child element(s) named 'i', which are considered arrays. For example, the example above appears in XML as follows:

HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
Content-Type: application/problem+xml
Content-Language: en

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<problem xmlns="urn:ietf:rfc:7807">
  <type>https://example.com/probs/out-of-credit</type>
  <title>You do not have enough credit.</title>
  <detail>Your current balance is 30, but that costs 50.</detail>
  <instance>https://example.net/account/12345/msgs/abc</instance>
  <balance>30</balance>
  <accounts>
    <i>https://example.net/account/12345</i>
    <i>https://example.net/account/67890</i>
  </accounts>
</problem>

Note that this format uses an XML namespace. This is primarily to allow embedding it into other XML-based formats; it does not imply that it can or should be extended with elements or attributes in other namespaces. The RELAX NG schema explicitly only allows elements from the one namespace used in the XML format. Any extension arrays and objects MUST be serialized into XML markup using only that namespace.

When using the XML format, it is possible to embed an XML processing instruction in the XML that instructs clients to transform the XML, using the referenced XSLT code [W3C.REC-xml-stylesheet-20101028]. If this code is transforming the XML into (X)HTML, then it is possible to serve the XML format, and yet have clients capable of performing the transformation display human-friendly (X)HTML that is rendered and displayed at the client. Note that when using this method, it is advisable to use XSLT 1.0 in order to maximize the number of clients capable of executing the XSLT code.

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