Internet DRAFT - draft-baum-jmap-backend-info
draft-baum-jmap-backend-info
JMAP J.M. Baum, Ed.
Internet-Draft H.J. Happel, Ed.
Intended status: Standards Track audriga
Expires: 8 October 2023 6 April 2023
JMAP Backend Information
draft-baum-jmap-backend-info-00
Abstract
It is likely that any JMAP implementation has either bugs or
intentionally deviates from the standard. To cope with such a unique
behavior, JMAP clients need to identify the software behind the JMAP
endpoint and apply custom logic. This specification defines the
ability to provide details about the product, backend and environment
for JMAP servers.
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
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."
This Internet-Draft will expire on 8 October 2023.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2023 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 (https://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 to this document. Code Components
extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.
Baum & Happel Expires 8 October 2023 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft JMAP Backend Info April 2023
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1. Conventions Used In This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2. Addition to the capabilities object . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.1. urn:ietf:params:jmap:core:backendinfo . . . . . . . . 3
2. Security considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1. JMAP Capability Registration for "backendinfo" . . . . . 4
4. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1. Introduction
Every server-side software has its own quirks. For example, the JMAP
standard might only have been partially implemented by a server or
design decisions might have been taken that let the server deviate
from what is actually required by [RFC8620]. Servers might also have
unintended bugs or have certain restrictions that are not
sufficiently reflected by their list of supported server
capabilities.
Such behavior typically occurs for edge-cases. Nonetheless,
interoperable clients that aim to have a successful structured data
exchange with such "unique" servers need to handle these quirks with
workarounds on the client-side. Clients only want to apply special
workarounds in situations where they are truly necessary. This is
typically done by identifying which server-side software they are
communicating with.
JMAP does not provide a standardized way to retrieve an identifier of
the product that is residing on the server side. Due to the lack of
standardization clients are left to identify misbehaving servers by
error-prone means. Examples are checking against a list of known
URLs or checking known unique responses, typically only sent by
certain products. This makes identifying products time-consuming and
brittle.
Related functionality in other standards are the PRODID property in
iCalendar [RFC5545] and vCard [RFC6350], which allows identifying the
product that produced the files. ManageSieve [RFC5804] and JMAP
Sieve [I-D.ietf-jmap-sieve] define an implementation property, which
allows identifying the Sieve implementation.
Baum & Happel Expires 8 October 2023 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft JMAP Backend Info April 2023
1.1. Conventions Used In This Document
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
capitals, as shown here.
The definitions of JSON keys and datatypes in the document follow the
conventions described in the core JMAP specification [RFC8620].
1.2. Addition to the capabilities object
The capabilities object is returned as part of the JMAP Session
object; see [RFC8620], Section 2. This document defines one
additional capability URI.
1.2.1. urn:ietf:params:jmap:core:backendinfo
This extension defines one additional
urn:ietf:params:jmap:core:backendinfo server capability that provides
details about the product, backend and environment.
The value of this property in the JMAP Session capabilities property
is an object that MUST contain the following information on server
capabilities:
* *apiBackend*: SoftwareInfo|null Information on the JMAP API
backend component.
* *product*: SoftwareInfo|null Information on the overall
application or product.
* *environment*: String|null Information on the environment the
software is running in.
A SoftwareInfo object has the following properties:
* *name*: String The JMAP API backend software.
* *version*: String|null The software version.
This extension does not add anything to the account's
accountCapabilities property.
Here is an example JSON snippet:
Baum & Happel Expires 8 October 2023 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft JMAP Backend Info April 2023
{
"capabilities": {
"urn:ietf:params:jmap:core:backendinfo": {
"apiBackend": {
"name": "OpenXPort/Horde",
"version": "1.0.0"
},
"product": {
"name": "Horde Webmailer",
"version": "1.0.0"
},
"environment": {
"name": "PHP",
"version": "5.5"
}
}
},
...
}
2. Security considerations
All security considerations of JMAP [RFC8620] apply to this
specification.
3. IANA Considerations
3.1. JMAP Capability Registration for "backendinfo"
IANA will register the "backendinfo" JMAP Capability as follows:
Capability Name: "urn:ietf:params:jmap:backendinfo"
Specification document: this document
Intended use: common
Change Controller: IETF
Security and privacy considerations: this document, Section 2.
4. Acknowledgements
Bron Gondwana, Neil Jenkins, Alexey Melnikov, Ken Murchison, Robert
Stepanek and the JMAP working group at the IETF.
5. Normative References
Baum & Happel Expires 8 October 2023 [Page 4]
Internet-Draft JMAP Backend Info April 2023
[I-D.ietf-jmap-sieve]
Murchison, K., "JMAP for Sieve Scripts", Work in Progress,
Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-jmap-sieve-14, 30 March 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-jmap-
sieve-14>.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC5545] Desruisseaux, B., Ed., "Internet Calendaring and
Scheduling Core Object Specification (iCalendar)",
RFC 5545, DOI 10.17487/RFC5545, September 2009,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5545>.
[RFC5804] Melnikov, A., Ed. and T. Martin, "A Protocol for Remotely
Managing Sieve Scripts", RFC 5804, DOI 10.17487/RFC5804,
July 2010, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5804>.
[RFC6350] Perreault, S., "vCard Format Specification", RFC 6350,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6350, August 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6350>.
[RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
[RFC8620] Jenkins, N. and C. Newman, "The JSON Meta Application
Protocol (JMAP)", RFC 8620, DOI 10.17487/RFC8620, July
2019, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8620>.
Authors' Addresses
Joris Baum (editor)
audriga
Alter Schlachthof 57
76137 Karlsruhe
Germany
Email: joris@audriga.com
URI: https://www.audriga.com
Hans-Joerg (editor)
audriga
Alter Schlachthof 57
76137 Karlsruhe
Germany
Baum & Happel Expires 8 October 2023 [Page 5]
Internet-Draft JMAP Backend Info April 2023
Email: hans-joerg@audriga.com
URI: https://www.audriga.com
Baum & Happel Expires 8 October 2023 [Page 6]
