The I-JSON Message Format
RFC 7493
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) T. Bray, Ed.
Request for Comments: 7493 Textuality Services
Category: Standards Track March 2015
ISSN: 2070-1721
The I-JSON Message Format
Abstract
I-JSON (short for "Internet 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 is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7493.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2015 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
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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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RFC 7493 The I-JSON Message Format March 2015
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. Recommendations for Protocol Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1. Introduction
RFC 7159 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 that 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 7159 describes practices that
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 RFC 7159 but with certain extra
constraints that 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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RFC 7493 The I-JSON Message Format March 2015
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 that identify Surrogates or
Noncharacters as defined by [UNICODE].
This applies both to characters encoded directly in UTF-8 and to
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