A Common Schema for the Internet White Pages Service
RFC 2218
Network Working Group T. Genovese
Request for Comments: 2218 Microsoft
Category: Standards Track B. Jennings
Sandia National Laboratory
October 1997
A Common Schema for the Internet White Pages Service
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
This work is the result of the IETF Integrated Directory Services
(IDS) Working Group. The IDS Working Group proposes a standard
specification for a simple Internet White Pages service by defining a
common schema for use by the various White Pages servers. This
schema is independent of specific implementations of the White Pages
service.
This document specifies the minimum set of core attributes of a White
Pages entry for an individual and describes how new objects with
those attributes can be defined and published. It does not describe
how to represent other objects in the White Pages service. Further,
it does not address the search sort expectations within a particular
service.
1.0 Introduction to IWPS
The Internet community has stated a need for the development and
deployment of a White Pages service for use in locating information
about people in the Internet [PA94]. To facilitate interoperability
and to provide a common user experience, the Internet White Pages
Service (IWPS) must have a common set of information about each
person.
A common user object would allow a user to go between implementations
of the service and to expect consistency in the types of information
provided. A common user object would also provide developers with an
unambigious method of representing the information managed by the
service.
Genovese & Jennings Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 2218 Common Schema for IWPS October 1997
This document will focus only on common information modeling issues
to which all IWPS providers must conform.
2.0 Scope
This document establishes the set of attributes that specify the
Common User Information Object for the IWPS. It does not attempt to
be an exhaustive specification of all objects that may be stored in
the IWPS. The process used by this document to define the user object
is recommended to be used to define other information objects used in
the IWPS.
All conforming implementations must support at the minimum, the core
attributes listed in Section 5.0. Implementations may include local
attributes in addition to the core set and still be considered "in
conformance".
This document will not specify rules with respect to information
privacy. Each country has its own set of laws and practices.
Previous work covering this area has been done by the North American
Directory Forum (NADF), whose publication [NADF92] contain
recommendations for registrants' rights in both the USA and Canada.
This document does not specify a Directory access protocol (i.e.
whois++, LDAP, DAP, etc.).
3.0 IWPS Schema Considerations
The description of the IWPS information object consists of the
following requirements:
1. Syntax for definition/representation of information
object templates.
2. Publication of information object templates, etc.
3. Database structure or schema.
Items 1 and 2 will be covered in this document. Because database
structure can potentially restrict implementations (i.e. X.500 schema
based versus DNS schema based) it will be treated as a separate
research topic and will not be defined in this paper.
4.0 Syntax for Definition/Representation of Information Object
Templates
A clear, precise, and consistent method must be used when discussing
information object templates and their associated attributes.
Therefore, this document makes uses of the previously defined syntax
used by LDAP. To avoid restrictions on implementations of the IWPS,
Genovese & Jennings Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 2218 Common Schema for IWPS October 1997
some syntax are listed as requirements vs specific encodings. The
general IWPS syntax is included in section 6.0 for reference.
The IWPS Person Object specifies a limited set of recommended
attributes that a White Pages Service must include. Storage of user
attributes are a local issue, therefore, this memo suggests storage
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