WAP-1990 v2.4.1 • STABLE

Web Archive Protocol Specification

Technical standard for capturing, preserving, verifying, and retrieving early web content (1990–1999). Defines data structures, cryptographic verification, and interoperable archival workflows.

Protocol Version

2.4.1 (RFC-2023)

Base Standard

WARC-1.1 / RFC 8492

Hash Algorithm

SHA-256 / BLAKE3

Status

● Production Ready

Protocol Overview

The 1990 Web Archive Protocol (WAP-1990) establishes a deterministic pipeline for ingesting legacy HTTP/1.0-1.1 resources, normalizing DOM structures, and storing them in an immutable, cryptographically verifiable format. The protocol prioritizes reproducibility, metadata fidelity, and forward compatibility.

Core Principles

Immutability: Once archived, records are append-only and cryptographically locked.
Temporal Precision: All captures include RFC 3339 timestamps with UTC normalization.
Format Agnosticism: Supports HTML 2.0–4.01, XHTML 1.0, early CSS, CGI scripts, and MIDI attachments.
Transparent Provenance: Every archive entry traces back to its capture agent, network path, and verification hash.

Technical Specification

The protocol operates through a three-phase pipeline: Capture → Normalize → Archive. Each phase enforces strict validation and emits structured metadata.

HTTP Capture

Socket-level interception with TLS/HTTP fallback

→

DOM Normalization

Tag validation, entity decoding, charset mapping

→

WARC Packaging

Compression, hashing, manifest generation

Capture Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`capture_agent`	string	REQUIRED	Identifier of the crawler/agent (e.g., `wap-crawler-v2`)
`target_url`	uri	REQUIRED	Original URL including protocol, query strings, and fragments
`timestamp_iso`	datetime	REQUIRED	RFC 3339 UTC timestamp of capture initiation
`render_engine`	enum	OPTIONAL	Emulation profile: `netscape-3`, `ie4`, `opera3`, `raw`
`include_assets`	boolean	OPTIONAL	Whether to recursively fetch referenced images, CSS, and MIDIs

API Endpoints

WAP-1990 exposes a RESTful interface for programmatic archive submission and retrieval. All requests require OAuth 2.0 client credentials or API key authorization.

Submit Archive

                        POST /v2/archive/submit
                        JSON • 201 Created
                    
POST /v2/archive/submit HTTP/1.1
Host: api.1990webarchive.org
Authorization: Bearer <token>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "target_url": "http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Neon/7842/",
  "capture_agent": "wap-crawler-v2.4",
  "render_engine": "netscape-3",
  "include_assets": true,
  "metadata": {
    "original_charset": "ISO-8859-1",
    "server_headers": { "Server": "Apache/1.3.6" }
  }
}

Retrieve Archive

                        GET /v2/archive/{record_id}
                        JSON • 200 OK
                    
GET /v2/archive/rec_9f8a2b1c4d HTTP/1.1
Host: api.1990webarchive.org
Authorization: Bearer <token>

{
  "record_id": "rec_9f8a2b1c4d",
  "status": "archived",
  "checksum_sha256": "a1b2c3d4e5f6...",
  "warc_location": "s3://archive-bucket/1997/geo/04/warc_082.warc.gz",
  "verification_url": "https://verify.1990webarchive.org/rec_9f8a2b1c4d"
}

Verify Integrity

                        POST /v2/archive/verify
                        JSON • 200 OK
                    
POST /v2/archive/verify
{
  "record_id": "rec_9f8a2b1c4d",
  "proof_type": "merkle-root"
}

// Response includes cryptographic proof chain
// linking the capture to the root archive ledger

Implementation Guide

Integrating WAP-1990 into your archival pipeline requires adhering to the normalization rules and payload structure defined below.

DOM Normalization Rules

Self-closing tags must be standardized to XHTML 1.0 compatible syntax
HTML entities (&, <, >) must be preserved exactly as received
Inline event handlers (onload, onmouseover) are preserved but flagged in metadata
Frame and iframe sources are resolved relative to the origin URL

Metadata Schema (JSON-LD)

@context • WAP-1990 Metadata
{
  "@context": "https://1990webarchive.org/contexts/wap-2.4.jsonld",
  "@type": "ArchivedResource",
  "captureTime": "1997-08-12T14:22:03Z",
  "originalUrl": "http://www.example.com/",
  "contentHash": { "@type": "CryptographicHash", "hash": "sha256:abc..." },
  "preservationTier": "gold",
  "renderProfile": "netscape-3.04-win95"
}

Standards & Compliance

WAP-1990 is designed to interoperate with established web archiving standards while extending them for early-web specificity.

Standard	Compliance Level	Notes
WARC-1.1 (RFC 8492)	EXTENDED	Supports WARC-JSON and legacy HTTP/1.0 framing
IASA WAC	FULL	Meets Web Archiving Coalition interoperability criteria
Schema.org / JSON-LD	FULL	Metadata exposed via semantic web endpoints
GDPR / Data Minimization	AUDITED	PII redaction pipeline available for opt-in archives