I've tried to figure out whether the format of an e-mail address can be said to comply with the definition of a URI or not, but I've found no explicit confirmation of this so far. I hope someone can provide me with some insight here. Thanks in advance :)
+2
A:
yes when used with "mailto" scheme, look here: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt
1.3. Example URI
The following examples illustrate URI that are in common use.
mailto:[email protected]
-- mailto scheme for electronic mail addresses
Deniz Acay
2010-02-02 14:34:31
this is bad information
fuzzy lollipop
2010-02-02 14:37:31
section 1.3 of the rfc has an email example
ron
2010-02-02 14:37:48
1.3 Example URIs---
Deniz Acay
2010-02-02 14:37:59
+1 deleted own incorrect answer.
Dead account
2010-02-02 14:40:42
but only with the "mailto" qualifier. Think of it this way, HREF's takes URIs.
Stephen Wrighton
2010-02-02 14:40:56
@Stephen Wrighton - a URI doesn't need to include the scheme part (`mailto`) to be valid.
McDowell
2010-02-02 14:44:08
@McDowell: Cite? RFC 3986 appears to disagree.
Andrew Aylett
2010-02-02 14:49:32
@Andrew Aylett - yes, you are correct - I was mistaken - the ABNF clearly requires a scheme.
McDowell
2010-02-02 14:57:47
+16
A:
Yes, but with "mailto:" prefix.
An URI have this form:
<scheme>:<scheme-specific-part>
The <scheme> is "mailto", the <scheme-specific-part> is the address.
For example:
mailto:[email protected]
is a valid URI.
Massimo Fazzolari
2010-02-02 14:36:14
+4
A:
An e-mail address on it's own - [email protected] - I'd say no. A link to an e-mail address - mailto:[email protected] - I'd say yes.
Mike Anchor
2010-02-02 14:36:44
@Massimo Fazzolari - yes, you are correct - I was mistaken - the ABNF for RFC 3986 requires a scheme.
McDowell
2010-02-02 14:59:06
+10
A:
Per RFC 3986:
A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is a compact sequence of characters that identifies an abstract or physical resource.
The basic syntax components as defined by the RFC:
The generic URI syntax consists of a hierarchical sequence of
components referred to as the scheme, authority, path, query, and
fragment.
URI = scheme ":" hier-part [ "?" query ] [ "#" fragment ]
hier-part = "//" authority path-abempty
/ path-absolute
/ path-rootless
/ path-empty
So - an e-mail address is not a URI. However mailto:[email protected] is a valid URI.
Yuval A
2010-02-02 14:37:08
+1
A:
If all URL's are URI's then all mailto:[email protected] address are URIs because they are URLs
So I think an email address is a URI, if it has mailto: in front of it.
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2368 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1738
MatthewMartin
2010-02-02 14:38:08
+1
A:
I think it is, if it includes the "mailto:" schema reference in the address; otherwise not. But as it is only seen at html pages, in the most of cases the email address it self could not be considered a URI.
If you haven't checked before, take a look at RFC3305 document.
The official register of URI scheme names is maintained by IANA at http://www.iana.org/assignments/uri-schemes.html
I hope it helps, Carlos.
Carlos Loth
2010-02-02 14:38:46