IMPP C. Jennings
Internet-Draft Cisco Systems
Expires: August 22, 2003 February 21, 2003
vCard Extensions for IMPP
draft-jennings-impp-vcard-00
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This draft describes an extension to vCard to support Instant
Messaging (IM) and Presence Protocol (PP) applications. It allows a
URL that is associated with IM or PP to be specified inside of a
vCard.
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 [3].
Editor Note: This is an very early draft to facilitate discussion.
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Table of Contents
1. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. IMPP Type Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Formal Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. Open Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
8. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Informational References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . 7
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1. Overview
As more and more people use various IM and presence applications, it
becomes important for them to be able to share this contact address
information along with the rest of their contact information. RFC
2425 [1] and RFC 2426 [2] define a standard format for this
exchanging contact information referred to as vCard. This document
defines a new type for vCard for representing IMPP URLs. It is very
similar to existing types for representing email address and
telephone contact information.
The type entry to hold this new contact information is an IMPP type.
The IMPP entry has a single URI that indicates the address of a
service that provides IM, PP, or both. There are also some parameters
defined that give hints as to when certain URLs would be appropriate.
A given vCard can have multiple IMPP entries but each entry can
contain only one URL. Each IMPP entry can contain multiple
parameters. Any combination of parameters is valid though the same
parameter should occur at most once in a given IMPP entry.
The normative definition of this new vCard type is given in Section 2
and an informational ABNF is provided in Section 3.
2. IMPP Type Definition
To: ietf-mime-directory@imc.org
Subject: Registration of text/directory MIME type IMPP
Type name: IMPP
Type purpose: To specify the instant messaging and presence protocol
communication with the object the vCard represents.
Type encoding: 8bit
Type value: A single URL.
Type special notes: The type can include the type parameter "TYPE" to
specify intended use for the URL. The TYPE parameter values can
include:
An indication of the type of communications this URI is appropriate
for. This can be a value of PERSONAL or BUSINESS.
An indication of the location of a device associated with this
communications. Values can be HOME, WORK, or MOBILE.
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An indication of some of the core capabilities of this instant
messaging system. Values can be PRES, VIDEO, VOICE, TEXT, SMS,
NUMERIC, and BEEP. PRES indicates the system supports some presence
protocol. VIDEO, VOICE, and TEXT indicate the system supports voice,
video, and text messaging respectively. SMS indicates short text
messages. Short is not defined here but something like 160 octets may
be a reasonable assumption. NUMERIC indicates that only numeric text
messages are allowed, while BEEP indicates that indicates that the
information the system can deliver is that a message was sent to the
target user.
The value STORE indicates that the system can store messages for
future delivery to intended user.
The value PREF indicates this is a preferred address and has the same
semantics as the PREF value in a TEL type.
3. Formal Grammar
The following ABNF grammar[4] extends the grammar found in RFC 2425
and RFC 2426.
;For name="IMPP"
param = impp-param ; Only impp parameters are allowed
value = uri
impp-param = "TYPE" "=" impp-type *("," impp-type)
impp-type = "PERSONAL" / "BUSINESS" / ; purpose of communications
"HOME" / "WORK" / "MOBILE" / ; useful?
"VIDEO" / "VOICE" / "TEXT" / ; core capabilities
"SMS" / "NUMERIC" / "BEEP" / "PRES" ; needed???
"STORE" / ; like MSG
"PREF" /
iana-token / x-name;
; Values are case insensitive
4. Example
BEGIN:vCard
VERSION:3.0
FN:John Doe
IMPP;TYPE=personal,text,store,pref:im:john@example.com
END:vCard
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5. Open Issues
Is this needed at all? Other options include just putting URL for
IMPP systems in the TEL type. Using the TEL type is undesirable
because the semantics for what you can do with it are confusing in
the IMPP case and the parameters are not an excellent fit to IMPP.
Are PERSONAL and BUSINESS a conflict in meaning with HOME and WORK?
In the TEL type HOME and WORK indicated a location but have slowly
come to mean an indicator that personal or business communication is
requested. Would a person that had a personal mobile phone and a work
mobile phone have HOME,MOBILE and WORK,MOBILE?
Is there any need for SMS, NUMERIC, BEEP? This is not a system for
negating capabilities and these seem like too fine grain of detail.
On the other hand the existing vCard supports pagers and such and
these definitions would help users avoid sending large messages to
GSM cell phones.
Is STORE needed? It mirrors the functionality of MSG in the TEL type
and a feature supported by many IM systems.
Should PP and IM be treated the same way? Would it be better to have
an IM type and a PP type instead of the IMPP type?
Is there really an IANA registry for this? RFC 2425 and RFC 2426
would imply these types are IANA registered. Help!
Convergence issues: Is email just TYPE=text,store with an email URL?
Is the TEL type just TYPE=voice with a tel URL?
6. IANA Considerations
Still to do. Section 2 forms the IANA registration.
7. Security Considerations
Still to do. Does not introduce additional security issues beyond
current vCard specification. Note people may consider their presence
information more sensitive than some other address information.
8. Acknowledgements
Thanks to ...
Normative References
[1] Howes, T., Smith, M. and F. Dawson, "A MIME Content-Type for
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Directory Information", RFC 2425, September 1998.
[2] Dawson, F. and T. Howes, "vCard MIME Directory Profile", RFC
2426, September 1998.
[3] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
Informational References
[4] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
Author's Address
Cullen Jennings
Cisco Systems
170 West Tasman Drive
MS: SJC-21/3
San Jose, CA 95134
USA
Phone: +1 408 527-9132
EMail: fluffy@cisco.com
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