Network Working Group                                       T. Bray, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                       Textuality Services
Intended status: Standards Track                           June 13, 2014
Expires: December 15, 2014


                       The I-JSON Message Format
                       draft-ietf-json-i-json-01

Abstract

   I-JSON is a restricted profile of JSON designed to maximize
   interoperability and increase confidence that software can process it
   successfully with predictable results.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on December 15, 2014.

Copyright Notice

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

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   described in the Simplified BSD License.





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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.2.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  I-JSON Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Encoding and Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.2.  Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.3.  Object constraints  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Software Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Protocol-design Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.1.  Top-level Constructs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.2.  Must-ignore Policy  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.3.  Time and Date Handling  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.4.  Binary Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   7.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   RFC7159 describes the JSON data interchange format, which is widely
   used in Internet protocols.  For historical reasons, that
   specification allows the use of language idioms and text encoding
   patterns which are likely to lead to interoperability problems and
   software breakage, particularly when a program receiving JSON data
   uses automated software to map it into native programming-language
   structures or database records.  RFC 7149 describes practices which
   may be used to avoid these interoperability problems.

   This document specifies I-JSON, short for "Internet JSON".  The unit
   of definition is the "I-JSON message".  I-JSON messages are also
   "JSON texts" as defined in RFC7159 but with certain extra constraints
   which enforce the good interoperability practices described in that
   specification.

1.1.  Terminology

   The terms "object", "member", "array", "number", "name", and "string"
   in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 7159
   [RFC7159].

1.2.  Requirements Language

   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 RFC 2119 [RFC2119].



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2.  I-JSON Messages

   An I-JSON message is a JSON text, as defined by RFC 7159.

2.1.  Encoding and Characters

   I-JSON messages MUST be encoded using UTF-8 [RFC3629].

   Object member names, and string values in arrays and object members,
   MUST NOT include code points which identify Surrogates or
   Noncharacters.

   This applies both to characters encoded directly in UTF-8 and to
   those which are escaped; thus, "\uDEAD" is always illegal because it
   is an unpaired surrogate, while "\uD800\uDEAD" would be legal.

2.2.  Numbers

   Software which implements IEEE 754-2008 binary64 (double precision)
   numbers [IEEE754] is generally available and widely used.
   Implementations which generate I-JSON messages MUST NOT assume that
   receiving implementations can process numeric values with greater
   magnitude or precision than provided by those numbers.  I-JSON
   messages SHOULD NOT include numbers which express greater magnitude
   or precision than an IEEE 754 double precision number provides, for
   example 1E400 or 3.141592653589793238462643383279.

   In particular, an I-JSON sender MUST NOT expect a receiver to treat
   an integer whose absolute value is greater than 9007199254740991
   (i.e., that is outside the range [-(2**53)+1, (2**53)-1]) as an exact
   value.

   For applications such as cryptography, where exact interchange of
   much larger numbers is required, it is RECOMMENDED to encode them in
   JSON string values.  This requires that the receiving program
   understand the intended semantic of the value.

2.3.  Object constraints

   Objects in I-JSON messages MUST NOT have members with duplicate
   names.

   Implementations which generate I-JSON messages MUST NOT assume that
   the order of object members in those messages is available to
   software which receives them.






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3.  Software Behavior

   When software reads data which it expects to be an I-JSON message,
   but the data violates one of the MUST constraints in the previous
   section (for example, contains an object with a duplicate key, or a
   UTF-8 encoding error), that software MUST NOT trust nor act on the
   content of the message.

   Designers of protocols which use I-JSON messages SHOULD provide a
   way, in this case, for the receiver of the erroneous data to signal
   the problem to the sender.

4.  Protocol-design Recommendations

   I-JSON is designed for use in Internet protocols.  The following
   recommendations apply to the use of I-JSON in such protocols.

4.1.  Top-level Constructs

   An I-JSON message can be any JSON object.  However, there are
   software implementations, coded to the older [RFC4627] specification,
   which only accept JSON objects or JSON arrays at the top level of
   JSON texts.  For maximum interoperability with such implementations,
   it is RECOMMENDED that protocol designers avoid the use of JSON texts
   which are neither objects nor arrays.

4.2.  Must-ignore Policy

   It is frequently the case that changes to protocols are required
   after they have been put in production.  Protocols which allow the
   introduction of new protocol elements in a way that does not disrupt
   the operation of existing software have proven advantageous in
   practice.

   Such a policy is often referred to as "Must-Ignore" and is expressed
   with language such as "When receiving software encounters a protocol
   element which it does not recognize, it MUST NOT change its behavior
   as a consequence, and in particular must not fail."  The converse
   policy, often referred to as "Must-Understand", does not tolerate the
   introduction of new protocol elements, and while this has proven
   necessary in certain protocol designs, in general it has been found
   to be overly restrictive and brittle.

   A good way to support the use of Must-Ignore in I-JSON protocol
   designs is to require that top-level protocol elements must be JSON
   objects, and to specify that members whose names are unrecognized
   MUST NOT produce behavior changes.




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4.3.  Time and Date Handling

   Protocols often contain data items which are designed to contain
   timestamps or time durations.  It is RECOMMENDED that in all such
   data items be expressed in in ISO 8601 format, as specified in
   [RFC3339].

4.4.  Binary Data

   When it is required that an I-JSON protocol element contain arbitrary
   binary data, it is RECOMMENDED that this data be encoded in base64url
   RFC4648, section 5 [RFC4648].

5.  Acknowledgements

   I-JSON is entirely dependent on the design of JSON, largely due to
   Douglas Crockford.  The specifics were strongly influenced by the
   contributors to the design of RFC 7159 on the IETF JSON Working
   Group.

6.  Security Considerations

   All the security considerations which apply to JSON (see RFC 7159)
   apply to I-JSON.  There are no additional security considerations
   specific to I-JSON.

7.  Normative References

   [IEEE754]  IEEE, "IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic", 2008,
              <http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/754/>.

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

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

   [RFC3629]  Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
              10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, November 2003.

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

   [RFC4648]  Josefsson, S., "The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data
              Encodings", RFC 4648, October 2006.

   [RFC7159]  Bray, T., "The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data
              Interchange Format", RFC 7159, March 2014.



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Author's Address

   Tim Bray (editor)
   Textuality Services

   Email: tbray@textuality.com
   URI:   https://www.tbray.org/












































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