Network Working Group J. Stracke, eCal Corp. INTERNET DRAFT Expires May, 2000 November 17, 1999 vCard Extensions For Presence Information 1 Status of this Document This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as ``work in progress.'' The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at Distribution of this document is unlimited. Please send comments to francis@ecal.com or to the impp@iastate.edu discussion list. 2 Abstract This document specifies an extension to the [VCARD] format for carrying presence information. This is intended as an alternative to developing an XML-based format. 3 Introduction This document specifies an extension to the [VCARD] format for carrying presence information. This is intended as an alternative to developing an XML-based format. The IMPP working group has been discussing an XML-based format for presence information. However, as we dig deeper into the problem, it's turning out that we want to carry much of the same data as [VCARD]. Rather than start from scratch, this document proposes that we simply adopt [VCARD] and add the fields we need. 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 [MUSTS] . 4 Extension definition Rather than using the "X-" private extension syntax of Section 3.8 of [VCARD], this document proposes a new standard type. It is an open Stracke [Page 1] INTERNET-DRAFT vCard Presence November 17, 1999 question whether this new type require a new version number (see Section 3.6.9 of [VCARD] ). 4.1 Instant Message Address (Note that this section has not actually been sent to ietf-mime-directory@imc.org, since it's not yet complete.) To: ietf-mime-directory@imc.org Subject: Registration of text/directory MIME type IMADDR Type name: IMADDR Type purpose: To specify an INSTANT INBOX ADDRESS (see Section 4 of [IMPP-MODEL] ) at which the object that the vCard refers to can receive messages. Type encoding: 8bit Type valuetype: A single text value. Type special notes: The exact format of this type is not yet determined at this time; it would be the preferred format for INSTANT INBOX ADDRESSes, whatever that turns out to be. The two contenders at the moment are URI format and [RFC-2303] extended-email format. The type can include the type parameter "STATUS", which reports the STATUS (see Section 4 of [IMPP-MODEL] ) associated with the given INSTANT INBOX ADDRESS. For the required STATUS values OPEN and CLOSED, the strings used are "OPEN" and "CLOSED", respectively. It may be useful to define an EXPIRES type parameter, to indicate how long the presence information is expected to remain valid. Type examples: IMADDR:impp://example.com/joeUser IMADDR:impp=joeUser@example.com 5 Compatibility Considerations The formal grammar in Section 4 of [VCARD] seems to imply that any iana-token (that is, any type registered with) IANA is legal in a vCard, even if it did not occur in the original RFC. Since code cannot tell whether a token is registered or not, this probably means that existing implementations ignore types they do not recognize. If so, then it is safe to pass a vCard which includes the IMADDR type to an existing implementation; if not, then PRESENCE USER AGENTs must take care not to do so. 6 Internationalization Considerations This proposal builds on [VCARD] which builds on [TEXT-DIRECTORY], Stracke [Page 2] INTERNET-DRAFT vCard Presence November 17, 1999 which provides internationalization capabilities: the character set is specified by the "charset" parameter of the text/directory Content-Type (see Section 5.3 of [VCARD] > and the language is specified by the MIME Content-Language header and the "language" type parameter (see Section 5.8.3 of [VCARD] ). 7 IANA Considerations This proposal does not introduce any new IANA considerations. 8 Security Considerations This proposal does not introduce any new security considerations over those in [VCARD] and [IMPP-MODEL]. 9 Copyright The following copyright notice is copied from RFC 2026 [Bradner, 1996], section 10.4, and describes the applicable copyright for this document. Copyright (C) The Internet Society April 5, 1998. All Rights Reserved. This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than English. The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assignees. This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. 10 Intellectual Property The following notice is copied from RFC 2026 [Bradner, 1996], section 10.4, and describes the position of the IETF concerning intellectual property claims made against this document. Stracke [Page 3] INTERNET-DRAFT vCard Presence November 17, 1999 The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use other technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it has made any effort to identify any such rights. Information on the IETF's procedures with respect to rights in standards-track and standards-related documentation can be found in BCP-11. Copies of claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementors or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF Secretariat. The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights which may cover technology that may be required to practice this standard. Please address the information to the IETF Executive Director. 11 Acknowledgements 12 References [VCARD] F. Dawson, T. Howes, "vCard MIME Directory Profile." RFC 2426 . Lotus Development Corporation; Netscape Communications. September, 1998. [TEXT-DIRECTORY] T. Howes, M. Smith, F. Dawson, "A MIME Content-Type for Directory Information." RFC 2425. Netscape Communications; Netscape Communications; Lotus Development Corporation. September, 1998. [IMPP-MODEL] M. Day, J. Rosenberg, "A Model for Presence and Instant Messaging". draft-ietf-impp-model-03.txt. Internet Draft, work in progress. Lotus; Bell Labs. June, 1999. [RFC-2303] C. Allocchio, "Minimal PSTN address format in Internet Mail." RFC 2303. GARR-Italy. March, 1998. [MUSTS] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels," BCP 14, RFC 2119, Harvard University, March 1997. 13 Author's Address J. Stracke eCal Corp. 234 N. Columbus Blvd., 2nd Floor Philadelphia, PA 94043 francis@ecal.com Stracke [Page 4]