Which schemes are registered?
The official IANA list of URI schemes includes /ftp, /http, /mailto and some 50 others (as of 2006-08-21).
How do I register a new URI scheme?
Begin by reading Guidelines and Registration Procedures for New URI Schemes (RFC 4395, BCP 115).
Can I look at other registrations in progress?
Mike Mealling's lists of in-progress registrations (this link is broken)
and sometimes stuff comes up in the uri mailing list,
Why shouldn't I create a new scheme for XYZ?
New URI schemes are the only thing you can't FollowYourNose to look up. hmm... perhaps HTML should have something analagous to the plugins page hook for new URI schemes?
consider the advice on URI schemes in "Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One" (W3C Recommendation, 15 December 2004, by a group that includes the inventor of the Web, designers of HTTP/1.1, designers of the XML standard, and so on)
consider New URI Schemes: 99% Harmful by SeanPalmer
consider the myth of names and addresses by timbl
why should I register my scheme?
to avoid collisions (e.g. /dns)
- To help other people use it correctly, and be able to claim the moral high ground if they use it incorrectly.
what's wrong with private URI schemes?
- They leak out into public discourse and collide with others
They're kinda dangerous... suppose you develop a browser with an internal update-config:... URI scheme... then Alice uses that URI scheme in a web page... then Bob visit's alices page, and blammo, his configuration gets updated just for following a link. This is related to various security issues with the /javascript URI scheme.
How do I add support for /tel or /irc to my desktop?
For Gnome, edit ~/.gnome/Gnome and add something to the URL Handlers section. (DanConnolly uses this to get galeon to launch telnum from telagent sources for /tel URIs)
mozdev.org - protozilla: examples shows one way in mozilla (there must be an easier way, no?)
a comment on mozilla bug 33282 suggest a way to do it. anybody tried this?
An MSDN article, About Asynchronous Pluggable Protocols suggests a way to do it in IE. (anybody tried this? any handy examples?)
The current editor's draft of the W3C HTML5 specification describes a new registerProtocolHandler() DOM method to enable Web sites to register themselves as possible handlers for particular protocols. Note: Support for registerProtocolHandler() is not yet implemented in any browsers.
What schemes are out there?
... and others ...
fodder to integrate:
discussion of new schemes in the uri list between March 2001 discussion and Sep 2003 retiring of old list; e.g. tftp discussion
Registering an Application to a URL Protocol - Overview/Tutorials MSDN