A MIME Body Part for ODA
The application/oda MIME type carries Office Document Architecture data.
Alvestrand, H., "A MIME Body Part for ODA", RFC 2161, DOI 10.17487/RFC2161, January 1998, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2161>.
@misc{rfc2161,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 2161,
howpublished = {RFC 2161},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC2161},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2161},
author = {H. Alvestrand},
title = {{A MIME Body Part for ODA}},
pagetotal = 5,
year = 1998,
month = jan,
} RFC text
Contents
Network Working Group H. Alvestrand
Request for Comments: 2161 UNINETT
Category: Experimental January 1998
A MIME Body Part for ODA
Status of this Memo
This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
Table of Contents
Status of this Memo ........................................ 1
1 Introduction .............................................. 1
1.1 The Application/ODA MIME content-type ................... 1
1.2 ODA - application/oda ................................... 2
2 Security Considerations ................................... 3
3 References ................................................ 4
4 Author's Address .......................................... 4
5 Full Copyright Statement .................................. 5
1. Introduction
This document contains the definitions, originally contained in RFC
1495 and RFC 1341, on how to carry ODA in MIME, and how to translate
it to its X.400 representation.
1.1. The Application/ODA MIME content-type
The "ODA" subtype of application is used to indicate that a body
contains information encoded according to the Office Document
Architecture [ODA] standards, using the ODIF representation
format. For application/oda, the Content-Type line should also
specify an attribute/value pair that indicates the document
application profile (DAP), using the key word "profile", and the
document class, using the keyword "class".
For the keyword "class", the values "formatted", "processable" and
"formatted-processable" are legal values.
Thus an appropriate header field might look like this:
Content-Type: application/oda; profile=Q112; class=formatted
Consult the ODA standard [T.411] for further information.
The Base64 content-transfer-encoding is appropriate for carrying ODA.
1.2. ODA - application/oda
X.400 Body Part: ODA
MIME Content-Type: application/oda
Conversion: None
Comments:
The ODA body part is defined in the CCITT document T.411 [T.411],
appendix E, section E.2, "ODA identification in the P2 protocol of
MHS"
An abbreviated version of its ASN.1 definition is:
oda-body-part EXTENDED-BODY-PART-TYPE
PARAMETERS OdaBodyPartParameters
DATA OdaData
::= id-et-oda
OdaBodyPartParameters ::= SET {
document-application-profile [0] OBJECT IDENTIFIER
document-architecture-class [1] INTEGER {
formatted (0)
processable (1)
formatted-processable(2)}}
id-et-oda OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { 2 8 1 0 1 }
Mapping from X.400 to MIME, the following is done:
The Parameters.document-application-profile is mapped onto the MIME
parameter "profile" according to the table below.
Profile OBJECT IDENTIFIER
Q112 { iso (1) identified-organization (3) ewos (16)
eg (2) oda (6) profile (0) q112 (1) }
The Parameters.document-architecture-class is mapped onto the MIME
parameter "class" according to the table below.
String Integer
formatted formatted(0)
processable processable(1)
formatted-processable formatted-processable(2)
NOTE: This parameter is not defined in RFC 1341.
The body of the MIME content-type is the Data part of the ODA body
part.
When mapping from MIME to X.400, the following steps are done:
The Parameters.document-application-profile and Parameters.document-
architecture-class are set from the tables above. If any of the
parameters are missing, the values for Q112 and formatted-processable
are used.
It is an option for the gateway implementor to try to access them
from inside the document, where they are defined as
document-profile.document-characteristics.document-architecture-class
document-profile.document-characteristics.document-application-
profile
Gateways are NOT required to do this, since the document-
characteristics are optional parameters. If a gateway does not, it
simply uses the defaulting rules defined above.
The OBJECT IDENTIFIERs for the document application profile and for
ODA {2 8 0 0} must be added to the Encoded Information Types
parameter of the message envelope.
2. Security Considerations
ODA body parts have the natural propensity of complex structures that
it is hard to find out what the parts are capable of.
Moreover, ODA is an extensible architecture, where new content
portions may be added at any time, so that the threats posed by this
body part may change over time.
However, no security risks related to ODA are known at this time.
3. References
[MIME]
Freed, N., and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose
Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message
Bodies", RFC 2045, November 1996.
[T.411]
CCITT Recommendation T.411 (1988), Open Document Architecture
(ODA) and Interchange Format, Introduction and General
Principles.
4. Author's Address
Harald Tveit Alvestrand
UNINETT
Postboks 6883 Elgeseter
N-7002 TRONDHEIM
Phone: +47 73 59 70 94
EMail: Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no
5. Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (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 assigns.
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.
ISO Plain Language
On this page
§1ODA as a MIME Body Part
This RFC collects definitions previously contained in RFC 1495 and RFC 1341 for carrying Office Document Architecture (ODA) in MIME and translating it to its X.400 representation. The MIME subtype is application/oda, and its body contains information encoded using the ODA Interchange Format representation.
The Content-Type line identifies the document application profile with profile and the document class with class.
The application/oda MIME type marks a message part as an ODA document. Its header also labels the document profile and class.
§1.1The Content-Type Parameters
The class parameter can be formatted, processable, or formatted-processable. The RFC gives Content-Type: application/oda; profile=Q112; class=formatted as an example. Base64 content-transfer-encoding is appropriate for carrying ODA.
If parameters are missing when a MIME part is mapped to X.400, the gateway uses profile Q112 and class formatted-processable. A gateway may try to obtain these values from the document, but the RFC does not require it.
The MIME header names the document profile and one of three document classes. If those labels are missing during conversion to X.400, the RFC specifies default values.
§1.2Mapping Between MIME and X.400
For X.400-to-MIME mapping, the X.400 document application profile becomes the MIME profile parameter, and the architecture class becomes the MIME class parameter. The ODA data part becomes the body of the MIME content type.
For MIME-to-X.400 mapping, the parameters set the corresponding X.400 values. The RFC also says the document application profile and the ODA object identifier must be added to the message envelope's Encoded Information Types parameter.
A gateway copies the profile and class labels between the MIME header and the X.400 body-part parameters. It carries the ODA data as the MIME body.
§2Security Considerations
The RFC notes that ODA can contain complex structures whose capabilities may be difficult to determine. ODA can also be extended with new content portions, so the threats associated with this body part could change over time.
The RFC says that no security risks related to ODA are known at the time it was written.
An ODA document may have complex or newly added content. The RFC reports no known ODA security risks at the time it was written.