IMPP C. Jennings
Internet-Draft Cisco Systems
Expires: January 14, 2005 July 16, 2004
vCard Extensions for IM
draft-jennings-impp-vcard-03
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Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This draft describes an extension to vCard to support Instant
Messaging (IM) and Presence Protocol (PP) applications. IM and PP
are becoming increasingly common ways of communicating, and users
want to save this contact information in their address books. This
draft allows a URI that is associated with IM or PP to be specified
inside of a vCard.
This work is being discussed on the imc-vcard@imc.org mailing list.
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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 RFC 2119 [3].
2. Overview
As more and more people use various instant messaging (IM) and
presence protocol (PP) 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 information which is referred to as vCard.
This document defines a new type in a vCard for representing instant
IM and PP URIs. 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. Also defined are some
parameters that give hints as to when certain URIs would be
appropriate. A given vCard can have multiple IMPP entries but each
entry can contain only one URI. Each IMPP entry can contain multiple
parameters. Any combination of parameters is valid, though a
parameter should occur at most once in a given IMPP entry.
The type of URI indicates what protocols might be useable for
accessing it, but this document does not define any of the types.
For example a URI type of
"sip"[6] indicates to use SIP/SIMPLE,
"xmpp"[7] indicates to use XMPP,
"irc"[5] indicates to use IRC,
"ymsgr" indicates to use yahoo,
"msn" might indicate to use Microsoft messenger,
"aim" indicates to use AOL, and
"im"[9] or "pres"[8] indicates to use a CPIM or CPP gateway.
The normative definition of this new vCard type is given in Section
3, and an informational ABNF is provided in Section 4.
3. IMPP Type Definition
To: ietf-mime-directory@imc.org
Subject: Registration of text/directory MIME type IMPP
Type name: IMPP
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Type purpose: To specify the URI for instant messaging and presence
protocol communication with the object the vCard represents.
Type encoding: 8bit
Type value: A single URI. The type of the URI indicates the protocol
that can be used for this contact.
Type special notes: The type can include the type parameter "TYPE" to
specify an intended use for the URI. The TYPE parameter values can
include:
An indication of the type of communication for which this URI is
appropriate. This can be a value of PERSONAL or BUSINESS.
An indication of the location of a device associated with this URI.
Values can be HOME, WORK, or MOBILE.
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 are supported. Short is not defined here, but something
like 160 characters may be a reasonable assumption. NUMERIC
indicates that only numeric text messages are allowed. BEEP
indicates that the only 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 the intended user.
The value PREF indicates this is a preferred address and has the same
semantics as the PREF value in a TEL type.
4. Formal Grammar
The following ABNF grammar[4] extends the grammar found in RFC 2425
[1] and RFC 2426 [2].
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;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
5. Example
BEGIN:vCard
VERSION:3.0
FN:John Doe
IMPP;TYPE=personal,pref:im:alice@example.com
END:vCard
6. Open Issues
Are PERSONAL and BUSINESS a conflict in meaning with HOME and WORK?
In the TEL type HOME and WORK indicated a location, but they have
slowly come to be indicators that personal or business communication
is requested. Would a person with both 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
negotiating capabilities and these seem like too fine 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 is a feature supported by many IM systems.
7. IANA Considerations
Section 3 forms the IANA registration.
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8. Security Considerations
This does not introduce additional security issues beyond current
vCard specification. It is worth noting that many people consider
their presence information more sensitive than some other address
information. Any system that stores or transfers vCards needs to
carefully consider the privacy issues around this information.
9. Acknowledgments
Thanks to Sam Roberts and Pekka Pessi for comments.
10. References
10.1 Normative References
[1] Howes, T., Smith, M. and F. Dawson, "A MIME -- --Content-Type
for 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.
10.2 Informational References
[4] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
[5] Butcher, S., "Uniform Resource Locator Schemes for Internet
Relay Chat Entities", draft-butcher-irc-url-04 (work in
progress), January 2004.
[6] Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston, A.,
Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M. and E. Schooler, "SIP:
Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261, June 2002.
[7] Saint-Andre, P., "XMPP URI Format", draft-saintandre-xmpp-uri-03
(work in progress), April 2004.
[8] Peterson, J., "Common Profile for Presence (CPP)",
draft-ietf-impp-pres-04 (work in progress), October 2003.
[9] Peterson, J., "Common Profile for Instant Messaging (CPIM)",
draft-ietf-impp-im-04 (work in progress), May 2003.
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Author's Address
Cullen Jennings
Cisco Systems
170 West Tasman Drive
MS: SJC-21/2
San Jose, CA 95134
USA
Phone: +1 408 902-3341
EMail: fluffy@cisco.com
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