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Timezone Service Protocol
draft-douglass-timezone-service-10

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Replaced".
Authors Mike Douglass , Cyrus Daboo
Last updated 2014-02-04
Replaced by draft-ietf-tzdist-service, RFC 7808
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draft-douglass-timezone-service-10
Network Working Group                                        M. Douglass
Internet-Draft                                                       RPI
Intended status: Standards Track                                C. Daboo
Expires: August 8, 2014                                            Apple
                                                        February 4, 2014

                       Timezone Service Protocol
                   draft-douglass-timezone-service-10

Abstract

   This document defines a timezone service protocol that allows
   reliable, secure and fast delivery of timezone data to client systems
   such as calendaring and scheduling applications or operating systems.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 8, 2014.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.1.  Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.2.  Glossary of terms  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Architectural Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.  General Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.1.  Timezone Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.2.  Timezone Aliases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.3.  Timezone Localized Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.4.  Truncated Timezones  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   4.  Timezones Service Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     4.1.  Server Protocol  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       4.1.1.  Timezone Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       4.1.2.  Timezone Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       4.1.3.  Conditional Timezone Requests  . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       4.1.4.  Expanded Timezone Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       4.1.5.  Server Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       4.1.6.  Error Responses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       4.1.7.  Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     4.2.  Client Guidelines  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       4.2.1.  Discovery  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
         4.2.1.1.  Timezone Service SRV Service Labels  . . . . . . . 11
         4.2.1.2.  Timezone Service TXT records . . . . . . . . . . . 11
         4.2.1.3.  Timezone Service Well-Known URI  . . . . . . . . . 12
           4.2.1.3.1.  Example: well-known URI redirects to
                       actual context path  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       4.2.2.  Initial Synchronization of All Timezones . . . . . . . 12
       4.2.3.  Subsequent Synchronization of All Timezones  . . . . . 13
   5.  Request Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     5.1.  "action" Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     5.2.  "format" Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     5.3.  "changedsince" Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
     5.4.  "start" Parameter  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
     5.5.  "end" Parameter  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
     5.6.  "lang" Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
     5.7.  "tzid" Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     5.8.  "name" Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     5.9.  "truncate" Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   6.  Actions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     6.1.  "capabilities" Action  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
       6.1.1.  Example: Get Capabilities  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     6.2.  "list" Action  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
       6.2.1.  Example: List timezone identifiers . . . . . . . . . . 21
     6.3.  "get" Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
       6.3.1.  Example: Get timezone  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
       6.3.2.  Example: Get timezone alias  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
       6.3.3.  Example: Get truncated timezone  . . . . . . . . . . . 24

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     6.4.  "expand" Action  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
       6.4.1.  Example: Expanded JSON Data Format . . . . . . . . . . 27
     6.5.  "find" Action  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
       6.5.1.  Example: Find action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
   7.  JSON Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
     7.1.  capabilities action response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
     7.2.  list action response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
     7.3.  expand action response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
     7.4.  error response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
   8.  Equivalent Timezone Identifier Property  . . . . . . . . . . . 35
   9.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
   10. IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
     10.1. Service Actions Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
       10.1.1. Service Actions Registration Procedure . . . . . . . . 37
       10.1.2. Registration Template for Actions  . . . . . . . . . . 37
       10.1.3. Registration Template for Action Parameters  . . . . . 38
     10.2. Initial Timezone Service Registries  . . . . . . . . . . . 38
       10.2.1. Actions Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
       10.2.2. Action Parameters Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
     10.3. timezone Well-Known URI Registration . . . . . . . . . . . 39
     10.4. Service Name Registrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
       10.4.1. timezone Service Name Registration . . . . . . . . . . 39
       10.4.2. timezones Service Name Registration  . . . . . . . . . 40
     10.5. iCalendar Property Registration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
   11. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
   12. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
   Appendix A.  Change History (to be removed prior to
                publication as an RFC)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

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1.  Introduction

   Timezone data typically combines a coordinated universal time (UTC)
   offset with daylight saving time (DST) rules.  Timezones are
   typically tied to specific geographic and geopolitical regions.
   Whilst the UTC offset for particular regions changes infrequently,
   DST rules can change frequently and sometimes with very little notice
   (sometimes hours before a change comes into effect).

   Calendaring and scheduling systems, such as those that use iCalendar
   [RFC5545], as well as operating systems, critically rely on timezone
   data to determine the correct local time.  As such they need to be
   kept up to date with changes to timezone data.  To date there has
   been no fast and easy way to do that.  Timezone data is often
   supplied in the form of a set of data files that have to be
   "compiled" into a suitable database format for use by the client
   application or operating system.  In the case of operating systems,
   often those changes only get propagated to client machines when there
   is an operating system update, which can be infrequent, resulting in
   inaccurate timezone data being present for significant amounts of
   time.

   This specification defines a timezone service protocol that allows
   for fast, reliable and accurate delivery of timezone data to client
   systems.  This protocol is based on HTTP [RFC2616] using a REST style
   API, with JSON [RFC4627] responses.

   This specification does not define the source of the timezone data.
   It is assumed that a reliable and accurate source is available.  One
   such source is the IANA hosted timezone database [RFC6557].

   Discussion of this document should take place on the calsify mailing
   list calsify@ietf.org

1.1.  Conventions

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

1.2.  Glossary of terms

   The following terms with the given meanings are used throughout this
   document.

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   Timezone Data:  Data that defines a single timezone, including an
      identifier, UTC offset values, and DST rules;

   Timezone Server:  A server implementing the Timezone Service Protocol
      defined by this specification;

   Timezone Identifier:  A globally unique name which identifies
      timezone data.

2.  Architectural Overview

   The overall process for the delivery of timezone data can be
   visualized via the diagram shown below.

               ====================  ====================
   (a)         |   Contributors   |  |   Contributors   |
               ====================  ====================
                         |                    |
               ====================  ====================
   (b)         |   Publisher A    |  |   Publisher B    |
               ====================  ====================
                                    |
                         ====================
   (c)                   |     Provider     |
                         ====================
                        /            |       \
                       /             |        \
            ====================     |     ====================
   (d)      |     Provider     |     |     |     Provider     |
            ====================     |     ====================
              |           |          |              |
              |           |          |              |
        ==========  ==========  ==========      ==========
   (e)  | Client |  | Client |  | Client |      | Client |
        ==========  ==========  ==========      ==========

                  Figure 1: Timezone Service Architecture

   The overall service is made up of several layers:

   (a) Contributors:  Individuals, governments or organizations which
      provide information about timezones to the publishing process.
      There can be many contributors.

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   (b) Publishers:  Publishers aggregate information from contributors,
      determine the reliability of the information and, based on that,
      generate timezone data.  There can be many publishers, each
      getting information from many different contributors.  In some
      cases a publisher may choose to "re-publish" data from another
      publisher.

    (c) Root Providers:  Servers which obtain and then provide the
      timezone data from publishers and make that available to other
      servers or clients.  There can be many root providers.  Root
      providers can choose to supply timezone data from one or more
      publishers.

   (d) Local Providers:  Servers which handle the bulk of the requests
      and reduce the load on root servers.  These will typically be
      simple caches of the root server, located closer to clients.  For
      example a large Internet Service Provider (ISP) may choose to
      setup their own local provider to allow clients within their
      network to make requests of that server rather than making
      requests of servers outside their network.  Local servers will
      cache and periodically refresh data from the root servers.

   (e) Clients:  Applications, operating systems etc., that make use of
      timezone data and retrieve that from either root or local
      providers.

   Some of those layers may be coalesced by implementors.  For example,
   a vendor may choose to implement the entire service as a single
   monolithic virtual server with the address embedded in distributed
   systems.  Others may choose to provide a service consisting of
   multiple layers of providers, many local servers and a small number
   of root servers.

   This specification is only concerned with the protocol used to
   exchange data between providers and from provider to client.  This
   specification does not define how contributors pass their information
   to publishers, nor how those publishers vet that information to
   obtain trustworthy data, nor the format of the data produced by the
   publishers.

3.  General Considerations

3.1.  Timezone Identifiers

   Timezone identifiers are unique names associated with each timezone,
   as defined by publishers.  The iCalendar [RFC5545] specification has
   a "TZID" property and parameter whose value is set to the

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   corresponding timezone identifier, and used to identify timezone data
   and relate timezones to start and end dates in events, etc.  This
   specification does not define what format of timezone identifiers
   should be used.  It is possible that timezone identifiers from
   different publishers overlap, and there might be a need for a
   provider to distinguish those with some form of "namespace" prefix
   identifying the publisher.  However, development of a standard
   (global) timezone identifier naming scheme is out of scope for this
   specification.

3.2.  Timezone Aliases

   Timezone aliases map a name onto a timezone identifier.  For example
   "US/Eastern" is usually mapped on to "America/New_York".  Timezone
   aliases are typically used interchangeably with timezone identifiers
   when presenting information to users.

   A timezone service needs to maintain timezone alias mapping
   information, and expose that data to clients as well as allow clients
   to query for timezone data using aliases.  When returning timezone
   data to a client, the server returns the data with an identifier
   matching the query, but it can include one or more equivalent
   identifiers in the data to provide a hint to the client that
   alternative identifiers are available.  For example, a query for "US/
   Eastern" could include equivalent identifiers for "America/New_York"
   or "America/Montreal".

3.3.  Timezone Localized Names

   Localized names are names for timezones which can be presented to a
   user in their own language.  Each timezone may have one or more
   localized names associated with it.  Names would typically be unique
   in their own locale as they might be presented to the user in a list.

   A timezone service might need to maintain localized name information,
   for one or more chosen languages, as well as allow clients to query
   for timezone data using localized names.

3.4.  Truncated Timezones

   Timezones and daylight saving times rules have been in use for over a
   century.  Timezone data can thus contain a large amount of
   "historical" information that may not be relevant for a particular
   server's intended clients.  For example, calendaring and scheduling
   clients are likely most concerned with timezone data that covers a
   period for one or two years in the past on into the future, as users
   typically only create new events for the present and future.  To
   avoid having to send unnecessary data, servers are allowed to

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   truncate timezone data at some appropriate date in the past, and only
   provide accurate offsets and rules from that point on.  The server
   will need to advertise the cut-off dates it is using so that clients
   that need timezone data for earlier dates can take appropriate
   action.  To simplify the set of data a server needs to support,
   truncation always occurs at the start of a year, i.e., midnight on
   1st January for the timezone's local time.  A server will advertise a
   set of years for truncated data it can supply, or provide an
   indicator that it can truncate at any past year.  In addition, the
   server will advertise that it can supply untruncated data.  In the
   absence of any indication of truncated data available on the server,
   the server will only supply untruncated data.

   When truncating a "VTIMEZONE" component, the server MUST include
   either a "STANDARD" or "DAYLIGHT" sub-component with a "DTSTART"
   property value that matches the date-time where the truncation
   occurred, and appropriate "UTC-OFFSET-FROM" and "UTC-OFFSET-TO"
   properties to indicate the correct offset in effect right after the
   point of truncation.  This sub-component thus represents the earliest
   valid date-time covered by the timezone data in the truncated
   "VTIMEZONE" component.

4.  Timezones Service Protocol

4.1.  Server Protocol

   The timezone service protocol uses HTTP [RFC2616] for query and
   delivery of data.  Queries are made on a single HTTP resource using
   the GET method, with specific client request attributes passed in
   request-URI parameters.

   The "action" request-URI parameter defines the overall function being
   requested, with other request parameters acting as arguments to that
   function.

   Most security considerations are already handled adequately by HTTP.
   However, given the nature of the data being transferred and the
   requirement it be correct, all interactions between client and server
   SHOULD use an HTTP connection protected with TLS [RFC5246] as defined
   in [RFC2818].

4.1.1.  Timezone Queries

   Timezone identifiers, aliases or localized names can be used to query
   for timezone data.  This will be more explicitly defined below for
   each action.  In general however, if a "tzid" request parameter is
   used then the value may be an identifier or an alias.  When the

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   "name" parameter is used it may be an identifier, an alias or a
   localized name.

4.1.2.  Timezone Formats

   The default format for returning timezone definitions is the
   iCalendar [RFC5545] data format.  In addition, the iCalendar-in-XML
   [RFC6321], and iCalendar-in-JSON [I-D.ietf-jcardcal-jcal]
   representations are also available.  The "format" request-URI
   parameter can be used to select which data format is returned.

4.1.3.  Conditional Timezone Requests

   Timezone data is generally slow moving, with the set of timezones
   that change from even year-to-year being relatively small.  However,
   any changes that do occur, need to be distributed in a timely manner.
   Typically it is more efficient to just provide the set of changes to
   timezone data, so a client can do updates to any locally cached data.

   When listing timezones, a timestamp is returned by the server, and
   that can be used later by clients to determine if any "substantive"
   change has occurred in the timezone data.  Clients can use a
   conditional "list" action (see Section 6.2), supplying a previous
   timestamp value, to limit the results to timezones which have changed
   in a "substantive" manner since that previous timestamp.  This allows
   clients to cache the last timestamp and to periodically poll the
   server for possible changes.

   A "substantive" change is one which affects the calculated onsets for
   a timezone.  Changes to properties such as a description are not
   treated as a "substantive" change.

   Clients SHOULD poll for such changes at least once a day.  A server
   acting as a local provider, caching timezone data from another
   server, SHOULD poll for changes once per hour.  See Section 9 on
   expected client and server behavior regarding high request rates.

4.1.4.  Expanded Timezone Data

   Determining timezone offsets at a particular point in time is often a
   complicated process, as the rules for daylight saving time can be
   complex.  To help with this, the timezone service provides an action
   that allows clients to request the server to expand a timezone
   definition into a set of "observances" over a fixed period of time
   (see Section 6.4).  Each of these observances describes a local onset
   time and UTC offsets for the prior time and the observance time.
   Together, these provide a quick way for "thin" clients to determine
   an appropriate UTC offset for an arbitrary date without having to do

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   full timezone expansion themselves.

4.1.5.  Server Requirements

   To enable a simple client implementation, servers SHOULD ensure that
   they provide or cache data for all commonly used timezones, from
   various publishers.  That allows client implementations to configure
   a single server to get all timezone data.  In turn, any server can
   refresh any of the data from any other server - though the root
   servers may provide the most up-to-date copy of the data.

4.1.6.  Error Responses

   The following are examples of response codes one would expect to be
   used by the server.  Note, however, that unless explicitly prohibited
   any 2/3/4/5xx series response code may be used in a response.

      200 (OK) - The command succeeded.

      400 (Bad Request) - The Sender has provided an invalid request
      parameter.

      404 (Not Found) - The timezone was not found.

   When an error status is set the server SHOULD respond with some
   descriptive text in an error object as per Section 7.4.  In the case
   of an invalid "action" query parameter, the following error code can
   be used:

   invalid-action  The "action" query parameter has an incorrect value.

4.1.7.  Extensions

   This protocol is designed to be extensible through a standards based
   registration mechanism (see Section 10).  It is anticipated that
   other useful timezone actions will be added in the future (e.g.,
   mapping a geographical location to timezone identifiers, getting
   change history for timezones), and so, servers MUST return a
   description of their capabilities.  This will allow clients to
   determine if new features have been installed and, if not, fall back
   on earlier features or disable some client capabilities.

4.2.  Client Guidelines

4.2.1.  Discovery

   Client implementations need to either know where the timezone service
   is located or discover it through some mechanism.  To use a timezone

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   service, a client needs a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), port
   and HTTP request-URI path.

4.2.1.1.  Timezone Service SRV Service Labels

   [RFC2782] defines a DNS-based service discovery protocol that has
   been widely adopted as a means of locating particular services within
   a local area network and beyond, using SRV RR records.  This can be
   used to discover a service's FQDN and port.

   This specification adds two service types for use with SRV records:

   timezone:  Identifies a Timezone server that uses HTTP without
      transport layer security ([RFC2818]).

   timezones:  Identifies a Timezone server that uses HTTP with
      transport layer security ([RFC2818]).

   Clients MUST honor "TTL", "Priority" and "Weight" values in the SRV
   records, as described by [RFC2782].

   Example: service record for server without transport layer security

   _timezone._tcp     SRV 0 1 80 tz.example.com.

   Example: service record for server with transport layer security

   _timezones._tcp    SRV 0 1 443 tz.example.com.

4.2.1.2.  Timezone Service TXT records

   When SRV RRs are used to advertise a timezone service, it is also
   convenient to be able to specify a "context path" in the DNS to be
   retrieved at the same time.  To enable that, this specification uses
   a TXT RR that follows the syntax defined in Section 6 of [RFC6763]
   and defines a "path" key for use in that record.  The value of the
   key MUST be the actual "context path" to the corresponding service on
   the server.

   A site might provide TXT records in addition to SRV records for each
   service.  When present, clients MUST use the "path" value as the
   "context path" for the service in HTTP requests.  When not present,
   clients use the ".well-known" URI approach described next.

   Example: text record for service with transport layer security

   _timezones._tcp    TXT path=/timezones

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4.2.1.3.  Timezone Service Well-Known URI

   A "well-known" URI [RFC5785] is registered by this specification for
   the Timezone service, "timezone" (see Section 10).  This URI points
   to a resource that the client can use as the initial "context path"
   for the service they are trying to connect to.  The server MUST
   redirect HTTP requests for that resource to the actual "context path"
   using one of the available mechanisms provided by HTTP (e.g., using
   an appropriate 3xx status response).  Clients MUST handle HTTP
   redirects on the ".well-known" URI.  Servers MUST NOT locate the
   actual timezone service endpoint at the ".well-known" URI as per
   Section 1.1 of [RFC5785].

   Servers SHOULD set an appropriate Cache-Control header value (as per
   Section 14.9 of [RFC2616]) in the redirect response to ensure caching
   occurs as needed, or as required by the type of response generated.
   For example, if it is anticipated that the location of the redirect
   might change over time, then a "no-cache" value would be used.

   To facilitate "context path's" that might differ from user to user,
   the server MAY require authentication when a client tries to access
   the ".well-known" URI (i.e., the server would return a 401 status
   response to the unauthenticated request from the client, then return
   the redirect response only after a successful authentication by the
   client).

4.2.1.3.1.  Example: well-known URI redirects to actual context path

   A Timezone server has a "context path" that is "/servlet/timezone".
   The client will use "/.well-known/timezone" as the path for the
   service after it has first found the FQDN and port number via an SRV
   lookup or via manual entry of information by the user.  When the
   client makes its initial HTTP request against "/.well-known/
   timezone", the server would issue an HTTP 301 redirect response with
   a Location response header using the path "/servlet/timezone".  The
   client would then "follow" this redirect to the new resource and
   continue making HTTP requests there.

4.2.2.  Initial Synchronization of All Timezones

   When a secondary service or a client wishing to cache all timezone
   data first starts, or wishes to do a full refresh, it synchronizes
   with another server by first issuing a "list" action.  The client
   would preserve the returned datestamp for subsequent use.  Each
   timezone in the returned list can then be fetched and stored locally.
   In addition a mapping of aliases to timezones can be built.

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4.2.3.  Subsequent Synchronization of All Timezones

   A secondary service or a client caching all timezone data needs to
   periodically synchronize with a server.  To do so it would issue a
   "list" action with the "changedsince" parameter set to the value of
   the datestamp returned by the last synchronization.  The client would
   again preserve the returned datestamp for subsequent use.  Each
   timezone in the returned list can then be fetched and stored locally.

   Note, this process makes no provision for handling deleted timezones.
   In general it is bad practice to delete timezones as they might still
   be in use by consumers of timezone data.

5.  Request Parameters

   The "action" request-URI parameter MUST be included in all requests
   to define what action is required of the server.

   The following request-URI parameters are used with the various
   actions.

5.1.  "action" Parameter

   Name:  action

   Description:  Specify the action to be carried out.

   Value:  Any IANA registered action name (see Section 10.2.1).

5.2.  "format" Parameter

   Name:  format

   Description:  Specify the format of the timezone data returned by the
      server as a standard MIME [RFC2046] media-type.  If absent, the
      iCalendar [RFC5545] format will be returned with the timezones
      contained within a "VCALENDAR" object (i.e., a default media-type
      of "text/calendar").

   Value:  A MIME [RFC2046] media-type.  The following values MAY be
      used, with servers advertising the values they do support via the
      "capabilities" action response (see Section 6.1):

      text/calendar:  Return data as "VTIMEZONE" components embedded in
         a "VCALENDAR" object as per [RFC5545].

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      application/calendar+xml:  Return data using the XML
         representation of iCalendar data as per iCalendar-in-XML
         [RFC6321].

      application/calendar+json:  Return data using the JSON
         representation of iCalendar data as per iCalendar-in-JSON.

5.3.  "changedsince" Parameter

   Name:  changedsince

   Description:  Specify the timestamp for a conditional "list" (see
      Section 6.2) or "expand" (see Section 6.4) action in order to
      restrict the results to only changes since the given timestamp.

   Value:  An [RFC3339] UTC date-time value, typically a value returned
      by a previous request.

5.4.  "start" Parameter

   Name:  start

   Description:  Specify the inclusive start of a period.

   Value:  An [RFC3339] full-date, UTC date-time value, or an integer
      representing a year.  If an "end" parameter is also present, then
      both the "start" and "end" values MUST have the same full-date,
      date-time, or year-only value types.

5.5.  "end" Parameter

   Name:  end

   Description:  Specify the exclusive end of a period.

   Value:  An [RFC3339] full-date, UTC date-time value, or an integer
      representing a year.  If a "start" parameter is also present, then
      both the "start" and "end" values MUST have the same full-date,
      date-time, or year-only value types.

5.6.  "lang" Parameter

   Name:  lang

   Description:  Specify the language in which locale specific values
      are to be returned. e.g., if a language is specified, only
      localized names for that language would be returned.

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   Value:  The value follows the specifications in [RFC5646].

5.7.  "tzid" Parameter

   Name:  tzid

   Description:  Specify a timezone to be targeted by an action.

   Value:  A timezone identifier or alias.

5.8.  "name" Parameter

   Name:  name

   Description:  Specify a name for queries.

   Value:  A timezone identifier, alias or localized name.  This
      parameter is used when searching for matching timezones (see
      Section 6.5).

5.9.  "truncate" Parameter

   Name:  truncate

   Description:  Specify a year for timezone data truncation.

   Value:  An integer representing a year in the past.  The use of this
      depends on the "truncated" object returned in the server's
      "capabilities" response:

         If "truncated" object is not present in the "capabilities"
         response, then the "truncated" parameter MUST NOT be used - the
         server will always return untruncated timezone data.

         If "any" is set to "true" in the "truncated" object, then any
         past year is valid for truncation (though typically data prior
         to 1880 is unlikely to be present).

         If "any" is "false" and "years" is present with at least one
         value, then any of the values in the "years" array can be used.

         If "untruncated" is set to "true", then omitting the
         "truncated" parameter will result in untruncated data being
         returned.

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         If "untruncated" is set to "false", and "years" contains only
         one value, and the "truncated" query parameter is omitted, then
         the server will return timezone data truncated at the one value
         specified in "years".

      Example: a server that can only return one set of truncated data -
      client can omit the "truncate" query parameter:

   truncated: {
     "any": false,
     "years": [1970],
     "untruncated": false
   }

      Example: a server that can return truncated data for any past year
      as well as untruncated data if client omits the "truncate" query
      parameter:

   truncated: {
     "any": true,
     "untruncated": true
   }

      Example: a server that can return only untruncated data - the
      "truncate" query parameter would always be omitted:

   truncated: {
     "any": false,
     "untruncated": true
   }

6.  Actions

   Servers MUST support the following actions.

6.1.  "capabilities" Action

   Name:  capabilities

   Description:  This action returns the capabilities of the server,
      allowing clients to determine if a specific feature has been
      deployed and/or enabled.  Note that each request always includes
      an "action" query parameter set to the name of the action, even
      though that parameter is not listed in the "capabilities" response
      for each action.

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   Parameters:

      action  REQUIRED with value "capabilities"

   Response  A JSON object containing a "version" member, an "info"
      member, and an "actions" member, see Section 7.1.

   Possible Error Codes  No specific code.

6.1.1.  Example: Get Capabilities

   >> Request <<

   GET /?action=capabilities HTTP/1.1
   Host: tz.example.com

   >> Response <<

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 09:32:12 GMT
   Content-Type: application/json; charset="utf-8"
   Content-Length: xxxx

   {
     "version": 1,

     "info": {
       "primary-source": "Olson:2011m",
       "truncate" : {
         "any": false,
         "years": [1970, 2000, 2010],
         "untruncated": true
       },
       "contacts": ["mailto:tzs@example.org"]
     },

     "actions": [
       {
         "name": "list",
         "parameters": [
           {
             "name": "lang",
             "required": false,
             "multi": true
           },
           {
             "name": "changedsince",
             "required": false,

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             "multi": false
           }
         ]
       },

       {
         "name": "get",
         "parameters": [
           {
             "name": "format",
             "required": false,
             "multi": false,
             "values": [
               "text/calendar",
               "application/calendar+xml",
               "application/calendar+json"
             ]
           },
           {
             "name": "lang",
             "required": false,
             "multi": true
           },
           {
             "name": "tzid",
             "required": true,
             "multi": false
           },
           {
             "name": "truncate",
             "required": false,
             "multi": false
           }
         ]
       },

       {
         "name": "expand",
         "parameters": [
           {
             "name": "tzid",
             "required": true,
             "multi": false
           },
           {
             "name": "start",
             "required": false,
             "multi": false

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           },
           {
             "name": "end",
             "required": false,
             "multi": false
           }
         ]
       },

       {
         "name": "find",
         "parameters": [
           {
             "name": "name",
             "required": true,
             "multi": false
           },
           {
             "name": "lang",
             "required": false,
             "multi": true
           }
         ]
       },

       {
         "name":"capabilities",
         "parameters": []
       }
     ]
   }

6.2.  "list" Action

   Name:  list

   Description:  This action lists all timezone identifiers or the
      requested timezone identifiers, in summary format, with aliases
      and optional localized data.  In addition, it returns a timestamp
      which is the current server last modification value.  If the
      "changedsince" query parameter is present its value MUST
      correspond to a previously returned timestamp value.  When
      "changedsince" timestamp is used, the server MUST return only
      those timezones that have changed since the specified timestamp.
      If the "tzid" parameter is present one or more times, then the
      server MUST only return information for the specified timezone
      identifiers.

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   Parameters:

      action  REQUIRED with value "list"

      lang=<lang-code>  OPTIONAL, but MAY occur multiple times.

      changedsince  OPTIONAL, but MUST occur only once.  MUST NOT be
         present if the "tzid" parameter is present.

      tzid=<identifier>  OPTIONAL, and MAY occur multiple times.  MUST
         NOT be present if the "changedsince" parameter is present.  The
         value of the "dtstamp" member in the response applies to the
         entire set of data, rather than the subset requested with the
         "tzid" query parameter, and allows the client to determine if
         it needs to refresh its full set of timezone data.

   Response:  A JSON object containing a "dtstamp" member and a
      "timezones" member, see Section 7.2.

   Possible Error Codes

      invalid-changedsince  The "changedsince" query parameter has an
         incorrect value, or appears more than once.

      invalid-tzid  The "tzid" query parameter is present along with the
         "changedsince", or has an incorrect value.

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6.2.1.  Example: List timezone identifiers

   In this example the client requests the timezone identifiers and in
   addition requests that the US-English local names be returned.

   >> Request <<

   GET /?action=list&lang=en_US HTTP/1.1
   Host: tz.example.com

   >> Response <<

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 09:32:12 GMT
   Content-Type: application/json; charset="utf-8"
   Content-Length: xxxx

   {
     "dtstamp": "2009-10-11T09:32:11Z",
     "timezones": [
       {
         "tzid": "America/New_York",
         "last-modified": "2009-09-17T01:39:34Z",
         "aliases":["US/Eastern"],
         "local-names": [
           {
             "name": "America/New_York",
             "lang": "en_US"
           }
         ]
       },
       ...
     ]
   }

6.3.  "get" Action

   Name:  get

   Description:  This action returns a timezone.  If a single timezone
      is specified, the response MUST contain an ETag response header
      field indicating the current value of the strong entity tag of the
      timezone resource.

      If the identifier is actually a timezone alias, the server will
      return the matching timezone data with the alias as the identifier
      in the timezone data.  The server MAY include one or more
      "EQUIVALENT-TZID" properties (see Section 8) in the timezone data

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      to indicate equivalent identifiers for the alias.

   Parameters:

      action  REQUIRED with value "get"

      format=<media-type>  OPTIONAL, but MUST occur only once.

      lang=<lang-code>  OPTIONAL, but MAY occur multiple times.

      tzid=<identifier>  REQUIRED, and MUST occur only once.

      truncate=<year>  OPTIONAL, and MUST occur only once.  See
         Section 5.9 for details.

   Response:  A document containing all the requested timezone data in
      the format specified.

   Possible Error Codes

      invalid-tzid  The "tzid" query parameter is not present, or
         appears more than once.

      tzid-not-found  No timezone associated with the specified "tzid"
         query parameter value was found.

      invalid-format  The "format" query parameter appears more than
         once, or has an invalid value.

      invalid-truncate  The "truncate" query parameter is not present,
         or appears more than once, or has an invalid year specified as
         its value.

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6.3.1.  Example: Get timezone

   In this example the client requests the timezone with a specific
   timezone identifier to be returned

   >> Request <<

   GET /?action=get&tzid=America/New_York
                     &format=text/calendar HTTP/1.1
   Host: tz.example.com

   >> Response <<

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 09:32:12 GMT
   Content-Type: text/calendar; charset="utf-8"
   Content-Length: xxxx
   ETag: "123456789-000-111"

   BEGIN:VCALENDAR
   ...
   BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
   TZID:America/New_York
   ...
   END:VTIMEZONE
   END:VCALENDAR

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6.3.2.  Example: Get timezone alias

   In this example the client requests the timezone with an aliased
   timezone identifier to be returned, and the server returns the
   timezone data with that identifier, and two equivalents

   >> Request <<

   GET /?action=get&tzid=US/Eastern
                     &format=text/calendar
                     &truncate=2000 HTTP/1.1
   Host: tz.example.com

   >> Response <<

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 09:32:12 GMT
   Content-Type: text/calendar; charset="utf-8"
   Content-Length: xxxx
   ETag: "123456789-000-111"

   BEGIN:VCALENDAR
   ...
   BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
   TZID:US/Eastern
   EQUIVALENT-TZID:America/New_York
   EQUIVALENT-TZID:America/Montreal
   ...
   END:VTIMEZONE
   END:VCALENDAR

6.3.3.  Example: Get truncated timezone

   Assume the server advertises a "truncated" object in its
   "capabilities" response that appears as:

   truncated: {
     "any": false,
     "years": [1970, 2000],
     "untruncated": false
   }

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   In this example the client requests the timezone with a specific
   timezone identifier truncated at one of the years specified as
   available by the server, to be returned

   >> Request <<

   GET /?action=get&tzid=America/New_York
                     &format=text/calendar
                     &truncate=2000 HTTP/1.1
   Host: tz.example.com

   >> Response <<

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 09:32:12 GMT
   Content-Type: text/calendar; charset="utf-8"
   Content-Length: xxxx
   ETag: "123456789-000-111"

   BEGIN:VCALENDAR
   ...
   BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
   TZID:America/New_York
   ...
   END:VTIMEZONE
   END:VCALENDAR

6.4.  "expand" Action

   Name:  expand

   Description:  This action expands the specified timezone into a list
      of local time onset start date/time and UTC offsets.  The response
      MUST contain an ETag response header field indicating the current
      value of the strong entity tag for the expanded data.

   Parameters:

      action  REQUIRED with value "expand"

      tzid=<identifier>  REQUIRED, but MUST only occur once.

      lang=<lang-code>  OPTIONAL, but MAY occur multiple times.

      start=year:  OPTIONAL, but MUST occur only once.  If present,
         specifies the start of the period of interest.  The value is an
         integer representing the starting year, with the start date
         assumed to be January 1st of that year.  If "start" is omitted,

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         the value is assumed to be the current year.

      end=year:  OPTIONAL, but MUST occur only once.  If present,
         specifies the ending year of the period of interest.  The value
         is an integer representing the ending year, with the end date
         assumed to be January 1st of that year.  If "end" is omitted,
         the value is the start year + 10.  Note that this is the
         exclusive end value - i.e., it represents the date just after
         the range of interest. e.g., if a client wants the expanded
         date just for the year 2014, it would use a start value of
         "2014" and an end value of "2015".  An error occurs if the end
         year is less than or equal to the start year.

      changedsince  OPTIONAL, but MUST occur only once.  If present, its
         value MUST be taken from the "dtstamp" result of a previous
         expand result.  If the targeted timezone has not changed over
         the expansion range queried in the request, then the server
         MUST return a 304 HTTP status response.

   Response:  A JSON object containing a "dtstamp" member and an
      "observances" member, see Section 7.3.  The server MUST include an
      expanded observance representing the timezone information in
      effect at the start of the period (midnight local time, January
      1st of the start year).

   Possible Error Codes

      invalid-tzid  The "tzid" query parameter is not present, or
         appears more than once.

      tzid-not-found  No timezone associated with the specified "tzid"
         query parameter value was found.

      invalid-start  The "start" query parameter has an incorrect value,
         or appears more than once.

      invalid-end  The "end" query parameter has an incorrect value, or
         appears more than once, or is missing, or has a value less than
         or equal to the "start" query parameter.

      invalid-changedsince  The "changedsince" query parameter has an
         incorrect value, or appears more than once.

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6.4.1.  Example: Expanded JSON Data Format

   In this example the client requests a timezone in the expanded form.

  >> Request <<

  GET /?action=expand&tzid=America/New_York&start=2008&end=2009 HTTP/1.1
  Host: tz.example.com

  >> Response <<

  HTTP/1.1 200 OK
  Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2009 09:32:12 GMT
  Content-Type: application/json; charset="utf-8"
  Content-Length: xxxx
  ETag: "123456789-000-111"

  {
    "dtstamp": "2009-10-11T09:32:11Z",
    "observances": [
      {
        "name": "Standard",
        "onset": "2008-01-01T00:00:00",
        "utc-offset-from": -18000,
        "utc-offset-to": -18000
      },
      {
        "name": "Daylight",
        "onset": "2008-03-09T02:00:00",
        "utc-offset-from": -18000,
        "utc-offset-to": -14400
      },
      {
        "name": "Standard",
        "onset": "2008-11-02T02:00:00",
        "utc-offset-from": -14400,
        "utc-offset-to": -18000
      },
    ]
  }

6.5.  "find" Action

   Name:  find

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   Description:  This action allows a client to query the timezone
      service for a matching identifier, alias or localized name, using
      a simple "glob" style match against the names known to the server
      (with an asterisk * as the wildcard character).  Match strings
      have the following options:

      * not present  An exact text match is done, e.g., "xyz"

      * first character only  An ends-with text match is done, e.g.,
         "*xyz"

      * last character only  An starts-with text match is done, e.g.,
         "xyz*"

      * first and last characters only  A sub-string text match is done,
         e.g., "*xyz*"

      In addition, when matching, underscore characters (0x5F) SHOULD be
      mapped to a single space character (0x20) prior to string
      comparison.  This allows timezone identifiers such as "America/
      New_York" to match a query for "*New York*".  ASCII characters in
      the range 0x41 ("A") through 0x5A ("Z") SHOULD be mapped to their
      lowercase equivalents.

   Parameters:

      action  REQUIRED with value "find"

      name=<text>  REQUIRED, but MUST only occur once.

      lang=<lang-code>  OPTIONAL, but MAY occur multiple times.

   Response:  The response has the same format as the "list" action,
      with one result object per successful match, see Section 7.2.

   Possible Error Codes

      invalid-name  The "name" query parameter is not present, or
         appears more than once.

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6.5.1.  Example: Find action

   In this example the client asks for data about the timezone "US/
   Eastern".

   >> Request <<

   GET /?action=find&name=US/Eastern HTTP/1.1
   Host: tz.example.com

   >> Response <<

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 09:32:12 GMT
   Content-Type: application/json; charset="utf-8"
   Content-Length: xxxx

   {
     "dtstamp": "2009-10-11T09:32:11Z",
     "timezones": [
       {
         "tzid": "America/New_York",
         "last-modified": "2009-09-17T01:39:34Z",
         "aliases":["US/Eastern"],
         "local-names": [
           {
             "name": "America/New_York",
             "lang": "en_US"
           }
         ]
       },
       {
         "tzid": "America/Detroit",
         "last-modified": "2009-09-17T01:39:34Z",
         "aliases":["US/Eastern"],
         "local-names": [
           {
             "name": "America/Detroit",
             "lang": "en_US"
           }
         ]
       },
       ...
     ]
   }

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7.  JSON Definitions

   JSON members used by this specification are defined here using the
   syntax in [I-D.newton-json-content-rules].  Clients MUST ignore any
   JSON members they do not expect.

7.1.  capabilities action response

   JSON Content Rules for the JSON document returned for a
   "capabilities" action request.

  ; root object

  root {
    version,
    info,
    actions
  }

  ; The version number of the protocol supported - MUST be 1
  version "version" : integer 1..1

  ; object containing service information
  info "info" {
    primary_source / secondary_source,
    ?truncated,
    contacts
  }

  ; The source of the timezone data provided by a "primary" server
  primary_source "primary-source" : string

  ; The timezone server from which data is provided by a "secondary"
  ; server
  secondary_source "secondary-source" : uri

  ; Present if the server is providing truncated timezone data. The
  ; value is the truncation date-time. Timezone data will not be
  ; valid for dates prior to this value.
  ; [RFC3339] UTC value
  truncated "truncated" : {
    any,
    ?years,
    ?untruncated
  }

  ; Indicates whether the server can truncate timezone data at any year
  ; boundary in the past. When set to "true" any past year is a valid

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  ; value for use with the "truncated" query parameter in an action
  ; "get" request
  any "any" : boolean

  ; Indicates which year boundaries the server has truncated data for.
  ; A value from this list may be used with the "truncated" query
  ; parameter in an action "get" request. Not present if "any" is set
  ; to "true"
  years "years" : [ * : integer ]

  ; Indicates whether the server can can supply untruncated data. When
  ; set to "true" indicates that, in addition to truncated data being
  ; available, the server can return untruncated data if an action "get"
  ; request is executed without a "truncated" query parameter
  untruncated "untruncated" : boolean

  ; Array of URIs providing contact details for the server
  ; administrator
  contacts "contacts" [ * : uri ]

  ; Array of actions supported by the server
  actions "actions" [ * action ]

  ; An action supported by the server
  action {
    action_name,
    action_params
  }

  ; Name of the action
  action_name "name" : string

  ; Array of request-URI query parameters supported by the action
  action_params "parameters" [ * parameter ]

  ; Object defining an action parameter
  parameter {
    param_name,
    ?param_required,
    ?param_multi,
    ?param_values
  }

  ; Name of the parameter
  param_name "name" : string

  ; If true the parameter has to be present in the request-URI
  ; default is false

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  param_required "required" : boolean

  ; If true the parameter can occur more than once in the request-URI
  ; default is false
  param_multi "multi" : boolean,

  ; An array that defines the allowed set of values for the parameter
  ; In the absence of this member, any string value is acceptable
  param_values "values" [ * : string ]

7.2.  list action response

   JSON Content Rules for the JSON document returned for a "list" action
   request.

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   ; root object

   root {
     dtstamp,
     timezones
   }

   ; Server generated timestamp used for synchronizing changes,
   ; [RFC3339] UTC value
   dtstamp "dtstamp" : date-time

   ; Array of timezone objects
   timezones "timezones" [ * timezone ]

   ; Information about a timezone available on the server
   timezone {
     tzid,
     last_modified,
     ?aliases,
     ?local_names,
   }

   ; Timezone identifier
   tzid "tzid" : string

   ; Date/time when the timezone data was last modified
   ; [RFC3339] UTC value
   last_modified "last-modified" : date-time

   ; An array that lists the set of timezone aliases available
   ; for the corresponding timezone
   aliases "aliases" [ * : string ]

   ; An array that lists the set of localized names available
   ; for the corresponding timezone
   local_names "local-names" [ * local_name ]

   local_name [lang, lname, ?pref]

   ; Language tag for the language of the associated name
   lang : string

   ; Localized name
   lname : string

   ; Indicates whether this is the preferred name for the associated
   ; language default: false
   pref : boolean

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7.3.  expand action response

   JSON Content Rules for the JSON document returned for a "expand"
   action request.

   ; root object

   root {
     dtstamp,
     observances
   }

   ; Server generated timestamp used for synchronizing changes
   ; [RFC3339] UTC value
   dtstamp "dtstamp" : date-time

   ; Array of timezone objects
   observances "observances" [ * observance ]

   ; Information about a timezone available on the server
   observance {
     oname,
     ?olocal_names,
     onset,
     utc_offset_from,
     utc_offset_to
   }

   ; Observance name
   oname "name" : string

   ; Array of localized observance names
   olocal_names "local-names" [ * : string]

   ; The local time at which the observance takes effect
   ; [RFC3339] value modified to exclude "time-offset" part
   onset "onset" : date-time

   ; The UTC offset in seconds before the start of this observance
   utc_offset_from "utc-offset-from" : integer

   ; The UTC offset in seconds at and after the start of this observance
   utc_offset_to "utc-offset-to" : integer

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7.4.  error response

   JSON Content Rules for the JSON document returned when an error
   occurs.

   ; root object

   root {
     error,
     ?description
   }

   ; Error code
   error "error" : string

   ; Description of the error
   description "description" : string

8.  Equivalent Timezone Identifier Property

   Property Name:  EQUIVALENT-TZID

   Purpose:  This property specifies an equivalent timezone identifier
      representing the same timezone data as the aliased "VTIMEZONE"
      component.

   Value Type:  TEXT

   Property Parameters:  IANA and non-standard property parameters can
      be specified on this property.

   Conformance:  This property can be specified zero or more times
      within "VTIMEZONE" calendar components.

   Description:  This property specifies an equivalent timezone
      identifier for a "VTIMEZONE" component when the "TZID" property of
      the timezone is an alias identifier.

   Format Definition:  This property is defined by the following
      notation:

   equivalent-tzid    = "EQUIVALENT-TZID" etzidpropparam ":"
                           [tzidprefix] text CRLF

   etzidpropparam     = *(";" other-param)

   ;tzidprefix defined in [RFC5545].

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   Example:  The following is an example of this property:

   EQUIVALENT-TZID:US/Eastern

9.  Security Considerations

   Timezone data is critical in determining local or UTC time for
   devices and in calendaring and scheduling operations.  As such, it is
   vital that a reliable source of timezone data is used.  Servers
   providing a timezone service MUST support HTTP over Transport Layer
   Security (TLS) (as defined by [RFC2818]) with a valid certificate.
   Clients and servers making use of a timezone service SHOULD use HTTP
   over TLS and verify the authenticity of the service being used before
   accepting and using any timezone data from that source.

   Clients that support transport layer security as defined by [RFC2818]
   SHOULD try the "_timezones" service first before trying the
   "_timezone" service.  Clients MUST follow the certificate
   verification process specified in [RFC6125].

   A malicious attacker with access to the DNS server data, or able to
   get spoofed answers cached in a recursive resolver, can potentially
   cause clients to connect to any server chosen by the attacker.  In
   the absence of a secure DNS option, clients SHOULD check that the
   target FQDN returned in the SRV record matches the original service
   domain that was queried.  If the target FQDN is not in the queried
   domain, clients SHOULD verify with the user that the SRV target FQDN
   is suitable for use before executing any connections to the host.

   Timezone servers SHOULD protect themselves against errant or
   malicious clients by throttling high request rates or frequent
   requests for large amounts of data.  Clients can avoid being
   throttled by using the polling capabilities outlined in Section 4.1.3

10.  IANA Considerations

   This specification defines a new registry of "actions" for the
   timezone service protocol, defines a "well-known" URI using the
   registration procedure and template from Section 5.1 of [RFC5785],
   creates two new SRV service label aliases, and defines one new
   iCalendar property parameter as per the registration procedure in
   [RFC5545].

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10.1.  Service Actions Registration

   This section defines the process to register new or modified timezone
   service actions with IANA.

10.1.1.  Service Actions Registration Procedure

   The IETF will create a mailing list, timezone-service@ietf.org, which
   can be used for public discussion of timezone service actions
   proposals prior to registration.  Use of the mailing list is strongly
   encouraged.  The IESG will appoint a designated expert who will
   monitor the timezone-service@ietf.org mailing list and review
   registrations.

   Registration of new timezone service actions MUST be reviewed by the
   designated expert and published in an RFC.  A Standard Tracks RFC is
   REQUIRED for the registration of new timezone service actions.  A
   Standard Tracks RFC is also REQUIRED for changes to actions
   previously documented in a Standard Tracks RFC.

   The registration procedure begins when a completed registration
   template, defined in the sections below, is sent to
   timezone-service@ietf.org and iana@iana.org.  The designated expert
   is expected to tell IANA and the submitter of the registration within
   two weeks whether the registration is approved, approved with minor
   changes, or rejected with cause.  When a registration is rejected
   with cause, it can be re-submitted if the concerns listed in the
   cause are addressed.  Decisions made by the designated expert can be
   appealed to the IESG Applications Area Director, then to the IESG.
   They follow the normal appeals procedure for IESG decisions.

10.1.2.  Registration Template for Actions

   An action is defined by completing the following template.

   Name:  The name of the action.  This is also the value of the
      "action" parameter used in timezone service requests.

   Description:  A general description of the action, its purpose, etc.

   Parameters:  A list of allowed request parameters, indicating whether
      they are "REQUIRED" or "OPTIONAL" and whether they can occur only
      once or multiple times.

   Response  The nature of the response to the HTTP request, e.g., what
      format the response data is in.

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10.1.3.  Registration Template for Action Parameters

   An action parameter is defined by completing the following template.

   Name:  The name of the parameter.

   Description:  A general description of the parameter, its purpose,
      etc.

   Value:  The format of the parameter value, or an indication that the
      parameter has no value.

10.2.  Initial Timezone Service Registries

   The IANA is requested to create and maintain the following registries
   for timezone service actions with pointers to appropriate reference
   documents.

10.2.1.  Actions Registry

   The following table is to be used to initialize the actions registry.

             +--------------+---------+----------------------+
             | Action Name  | Status  | Reference            |
             +--------------+---------+----------------------+
             | capabilities | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 6.1 |
             | list         | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 6.2 |
             | get          | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 6.3 |
             | expand       | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 6.4 |
             | find         | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 6.5 |
             +--------------+---------+----------------------+

10.2.2.  Action Parameters Registry

   The following table is to be used to initialize the parameters
   registry.

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             +--------------+---------+----------------------+
             | Parameter    | Status  | Reference            |
             +--------------+---------+----------------------+
             | action       | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 5.1 |
             | changedsince | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 5.3 |
             | end          | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 5.5 |
             | format       | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 5.2 |
             | lang         | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 5.6 |
             | name         | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 5.8 |
             | start        | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 5.4 |
             | truncate     | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 5.9 |
             | tzid         | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 5.7 |
             +--------------+---------+----------------------+

10.3.  timezone Well-Known URI Registration

   URI suffix:  timezone

   Change controller:  IETF.

   Specification document(s):  This RFC.

   Related information:

10.4.  Service Name Registrations

   This document registers two new service names as per [RFC6335].  Both
   are defined within this document.

10.4.1.  timezone Service Name Registration

   Service Name:  timezone

   Transport Protocol(s):  TCP

   Assignee:  IESG <iesg@ietf.org>

   Contact:  IETF Chair <chair@ietf.org>

   Description:  Timezone Service Protocol - non-TLS

   Reference:  [draft-douglass-timezone-service]

   Assignment Note:  This is an extension of the http service.  Defined
      TXT keys: path=<context path>

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10.4.2.  timezones Service Name Registration

   Service Name:  timezones

   Transport Protocol(s):  TCP

   Assignee:  IESG <iesg@ietf.org>

   Contact:  IETF Chair <chair@ietf.org>

   Description:  Timezone Service Protocol - over TLS

   Reference:  [draft-douglass-timezone-service]

   Assignment Note:  This is an extension of the https service.  Defined
      TXT keys: path=<context path>

10.5.  iCalendar Property Registration

   This document defines the following new iCalendar property to be
   added to the registry defined in Section 8.2.3 of [RFC5545]:

            +-----------------+---------+--------------------+
            | Property        | Status  | Reference          |
            +-----------------+---------+--------------------+
            | EQUIVALENT-TZID | Current | RFCXXXX, Section 8 |
            +-----------------+---------+--------------------+

11.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank the members of the Calendaring and
   Scheduling Consortium's Timezone Technical Committee and the
   following individuals for contributing their ideas and support: Steve
   Allen, Steve Crocker, John Haug, Ciny Joy, Bryan Keller, Andrew
   McMillan, Ken Murchison, Arnaud Quillaud, and Jose Edvaldo Saraiva.

   The authors would also like to thank the Calendaring and Scheduling
   Consortium for advice with this specification.

12.  Normative References

   [I-D.ietf-jcardcal-jcal]
              Kewisch, P., Daboo, C., and M. Douglass, "jCal: The JSON
              format for iCalendar", draft-ietf-jcardcal-jcal-08 (work
              in progress), December 2013.

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   [I-D.newton-json-content-rules]
              Newton, A., "A Language for Rules Describing JSON
              Content", draft-newton-json-content-rules-01 (work in
              progress), January 2013.

   [RFC2046]  Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail
              Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046,
              November 1996.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC2616]  Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H.,
              Masinter, L., Leach, P., and T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext
              Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616, June 1999.

   [RFC2782]  Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P., and L. Esibov, "A DNS RR for
              specifying the location of services (DNS SRV)", RFC 2782,
              February 2000.

   [RFC2818]  Rescorla, E., "HTTP Over TLS", RFC 2818, May 2000.

   [RFC3339]  Klyne, G., Ed. and C. Newman, "Date and Time on the
              Internet: Timestamps", RFC 3339, July 2002.

   [RFC4627]  Crockford, D., "The application/json Media Type for
              JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)", RFC 4627, July 2006.

   [RFC5246]  Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security
              (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246, August 2008.

   [RFC5545]  Desruisseaux, B., "Internet Calendaring and Scheduling
              Core Object Specification (iCalendar)", RFC 5545,
              September 2009.

   [RFC5646]  Phillips, A. and M. Davis, "Tags for Identifying
              Languages", BCP 47, RFC 5646, September 2009.

   [RFC5785]  Nottingham, M. and E. Hammer-Lahav, "Defining Well-Known
              Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)", RFC 5785,
              April 2010.

   [RFC6125]  Saint-Andre, P. and J. Hodges, "Representation and
              Verification of Domain-Based Application Service Identity
              within Internet Public Key Infrastructure Using X.509
              (PKIX) Certificates in the Context of Transport Layer
              Security (TLS)", RFC 6125, March 2011.

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   [RFC6321]  Daboo, C., Douglass, M., and S. Lees, "xCal: The XML
              Format for iCalendar", RFC 6321, August 2011.

   [RFC6335]  Cotton, M., Eggert, L., Touch, J., Westerlund, M., and S.
              Cheshire, "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
              Procedures for the Management of the Service Name and
              Transport Protocol Port Number Registry", BCP 165,
              RFC 6335, August 2011.

   [RFC6557]  Lear, E. and P. Eggert, "Procedures for Maintaining the
              Time Zone Database", BCP 175, RFC 6557, February 2012.

   [RFC6763]  Cheshire, S. and M. Krochmal, "DNS-Based Service
              Discovery", RFC 6763, February 2013.

Appendix A.  Change History (to be removed prior to publication as an
             RFC)

   Changes for -10

   1.  Expand start/end query parameter values are now years rather than
       a date/date-time.

   2.  Added tzid-not-found error code for get and expand actions.

   Changes for -09

   1.  Servers are allowed to truncate timezone data but need to
       advertise when they do so.  Clients can select from server-
       specified truncations.

   2.  Explicitly list suggested polling intervals.

   3.  Removed used of * for tzid value.

   4.  Removed substitute alias.

   5.  Added EQUIVALENT-TZID property.

   6.  Added more details on truncation.

   7.  Various editorial issues and clarifications.

   Changes for -08

   1.  Editorial changes.

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   2.  Fixed JSON content rule syntax.

   3.  Added a "version" to capabilities.

   4.  Changed "error" member to a string.

   5.  Added error codes.

   6.  Updated reference.

   7.  Removed inactive timezone feature and returnall parameter.

   Changes for -07

   1.  Switched to JSON instead of XML and clean-ed up schema a little
       bit.

   2.  Added changedsince to expand action.

   3.  Added find into registry table.

   4.  Re-organized some sections.

   Changes for -06

   1.  Refresh prior to last call

   Changes for -05

   1.  Replaced reference to draft RFC with RFC6557 and RFC6125.

   2.  New XML namespace contact.

   3.  Templates for service name.

   4.  Various typos fixed.

   5.  More acknowledgements.

   Changes for -04

   1.  Replaced reference to RFC4646 with reference to RFC5646

   2.  New wording on polling.

   Changes for -03

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   1.  Replaced erroneous reference to ISO3036 with reference to RFC4646

   2.  Update reference to iCalendar in XML (RFC6321)

   3.  More description of ids/aliases/names

   4.  Add substitute-alias parameter for action=get

   5.  Allow tzid on list

   6.  Added name request parameter

   7.  Added find action

   Changes for -02

   1.   Missed definitions of the inactive element

   2.   Restrict UtcOffsetFromType, UtcOffsetToType to a pattern - allow
        seconds.

   3.   Use restricted XML dateTime as base for onset

   4.   Use restricted XML dateTime for lastmodified and dtstamp

   5.   Note that 0 and 1 are valid values for an XML boolean.

   6.   Set pref to a default value of false

   7.   Server will now set tzid of aliased timezones to the alias name

   8.   Remove returnaliases option

   9.   Aliases should not have lang attribute - removed

   10.  Add text on status codes and an error element

   11.  Added capabilities info element containing source | primary-
        source and contacts.

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Authors' Addresses

   Michael Douglass
   Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
   110 8th Street
   Troy, NY  12180
   USA

   Email: douglm@rpi.edu
   URI:   http://www.rpi.edu/

   Cyrus Daboo
   Apple Inc.
   1 Infinite Loop
   Cupertino, CA  95014
   USA

   Email: cyrus@daboo.name
   URI:   http://www.apple.com/

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