[Format] Register media types (MIME types) for Apache Arrow formats to IANA

[asfimport]

See "MIME types" thread for details: https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/b15726d0c0da2223ba1b45a226ef86263f688b20532a30535cd5e267%40%3Cdev.arrow.apache.org%3E

Summary:

• If we don't register our media types for Apache Arrow formats (IPC File Format and IPC Streaming Format) to IANA, we should use "x-" prefix such as "application/x-apache-arrow-file".

• It may be better that we reuse the same manner as Apache Thrift. Apache Thrift registers their media types as "application/vnd.apache.thrift.XXX". If we use the same manner as Apache Thrift, we will use "application/vnd.apache.arrow.file" or something.

  TODO:

• Decide which media types should we register. (Do we need vote?)

• Register our media types to IANA.

  • Media types page: https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml
  • Application form for new media types: https://www.iana.org/form/media-types

Reporter: Kouhei Sutou / @kou
Assignee: Kouhei Sutou / @kou

_{Note: This issue was originally created as ARROW-7396. Please see the migration documentation for further details.}

[asfimport]

Maarten Breddels / @maartenbreddels:
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_type
(about using x. or x-): Media types in this tree cannot be registered. According to RFC 6838 (published in January 2013), any use of types in the unregistered tree is strongly discouraged. In addition, subtypes prefixed with x- or X- are no longer considered to be members of this tree.

This refers to https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6838

It seems to me that registring with a vnd prefix is more likely to be accepted at https://www.iana.org/form/media-types

• application/vnd.apache.arrow.file

• application/vnd.apache.arrow.stream

  Possibly with an optional parameter for a version?

  I have to serialize Apache Arrow Tables in JSON files and want to store the mime type with it, hence my interest.

[asfimport]

QP Hou / @houqp:
Any update on this task? Should we start a vote for what @maartenbreddels proposed to move this forward?

[asfimport]

Kouhei Sutou / @kou:
No update. Sorry.
It seems that https://www.iana.org/form/media-types has many fields to be filled. We need to write a draft of these fields before we start a vote.

We can write a draft with discussion. Could you recruit volunteers for the task on the mailing list?

[asfimport]

Weston Pace / @westonpace:
I'll make a draft if there are no objections and send it out to the mailing list.

[asfimport]

Kouhei Sutou / @kou:
Thanks!
Thread: https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r9b462400a15296576858b52ae22e73f13c3e66f031757b2c9522f247%40%3Cdev.arrow.apache.org%3E

[asfimport]

Kouhei Sutou / @kou:
Registered:

• https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/vnd.apache.arrow.file
• https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/vnd.apache.arrow.stream