vCard application kind: vCard KIND:application

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                    P. Saint-Andre
Request for Comments: 6473                                         Cisco
Category: Standards Track                                  December 2011
ISSN: 2070-1721


                         vCard KIND:application

Abstract

   This document defines a value of "application" for the vCard KIND
   property so that vCards can be used to represent software
   applications.

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/rfc6473.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
   2. Meaning .........................................................2
   3. Example .........................................................4
   4. IANA Considerations .............................................4
   5. Security Considerations .........................................4
   6. Acknowledgements ................................................5
   7. References ......................................................5
      7.1. Normative References .......................................5
      7.2. Informative References .....................................5

1.  Introduction

   Version 4 of the vCard specification [RFC6350] defines a new KIND
   property to specify the type of entity that a vCard represents.
   During its work on the base vCard4 specification, the VCARDDAV
   Working Group defined values of "individual", "organization",
   "group", and "location" for the KIND property.  The working group
   considered but then removed a value of "thing" to represent any type
   of physical entity, machine, software application, etc., with the
   expectation that such a value might be defined in a vCard extension.
   This document does not define a generic "thing" value but instead
   defines a more narrow "application" value so that vCards can be used
   to represent software applications.

2.  Meaning

   When the KIND property has a value of "application", the vCard
   represents a software application such as a server, an online service
   (e.g., a chat room), or an automated software bot.  More formally, an
   "application" is functionally equivalent to the 'applicationProcess'
   object class used in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
   [RFC4519] as derived from the Open Systems Interconnection model
   [X.521] [X.200].  As one example of the "application" KIND, vCards
   are currently used in the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol
   [RFC6120] to represent instant messaging servers that are deployed on
   the network.

   The properties included in an application's vCard apply to one of the
   following:

   o  The application itself (e.g., the FN property might represent the
      friendly name of an application service, the URL property might
      represent a website that contains further information about the
      service, and the ADR, GEO, and TZ properties might represent the
      physical address, geographical location, and time zone of the
      machine where the service is hosted).

   o  An organization or person that makes the application available on
      the network (e.g., the LOGO property might represent the corporate
      logo of a service provider).

   o  A person or role that maintains the application (e.g., the TEL,
      EMAIL, and IMPP properties might represent ways to contact a
      server administrator).

   When a property represents some aspect of the application itself, it
   makes no sense to include the "work" and "home" values of the TYPE
   parameter since software applications do not have work places and
   personal lives (see the definition of the TYPE parameter in Section
   5.6 of [RFC6350]).  When a property represents information about an
   individual associated with the application (e.g., an individual
   service administrator as opposed to a generic service administrator
   role or an associated organization), inclusion of the "work" and
   "home" values can be appropriate.

   The following base properties make sense for vCards that represent
   software applications (this list is not exhaustive, and other
   properties might be applicable as well):

   o  ADR
   o  EMAIL
   o  FN
   o  GEO
   o  IMPP
   o  KEY
   o  KIND
   o  LANG
   o  LOGO
   o  NOTE
   o  ORG
   o  PHOTO
   o  REV
   o  SOURCE
   o  TEL
   o  TZ
   o  URL

   Although it might be desirable to define a more fine-grained taxonomy
   of applications (e.g., a KIND of "application" with a subtype of
   "server" or "IM server"), such a taxonomy is out of the scope of this
   document.

3.  Example

   The following example of an Extensible Messaging and Presence
   Protocol (XMPP) server is borrowed from [XEP-0292].  The XML
   representation of the vCard is described in [RFC6351], which allows
   for the use of the new "application" value using the "iana-token"
   production defined in [RFC6350].

   <vcard xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:vcard-4.0">
     <fn><text>jabber.org IM service</text></fn>
     <url><uri>http://www.jabber.org/</uri></url>
     <lang>
       <parameters><pref><integer>1</integer></pref></parameters>
       <language-tag>en</language-tag>
     </lang>
     <email><text>xmpp@jabber.org</text></email>
     <impp><uri>xmpp:jabber.org</uri></impp>
     <logo><uri>http://www.jabber.org/images/logo.png</uri></logo>
     <geo><uri>geo:42.25,-91.05</uri></geo>
     <tz><text>America/Chicago</text></tz>
     <source><uri>xmpp:jabber.org?vcard</uri></source>
     <rev><timestamp>19990104T122100Z</timestamp></rev>
     <kind><text>application</text></kind>
   </vcard>

4.  IANA Considerations

   IANA has added "application" to the registry of property values for
   vCard4.  In conformance with Section 10.2.6 of [RFC6350], the
   registration is as follows, where the reference is to RFC 6473.

   Value:  application

   Purpose:  The entity represented by the vCard is a software
      application (e.g., a server, an online service such as a chat
      room, or an automated software bot).

   Conformance:  This value can be used with the KIND property.

   Example:  See Section 3 of RFC 6473.

5.  Security Considerations

   Use of vCards to represent software applications is not envisioned to
   introduce security considerations beyond those specified for vCards
   in general as described in [RFC6350].

6.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks to Cyrus Daboo, Barry Leiba, Kepeng Li, and Simon Perreault
   for their feedback.

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [RFC6350]   Perreault, S., "vCard Format Specification", RFC 6350,
               August 2011.

7.2.  Informative References

   [RFC4519]   Sciberras, A., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
               (LDAP): Schema for User Applications", RFC 4519,
               June 2006.

   [RFC6120]   Saint-Andre, P., "Extensible Messaging and Presence
               Protocol (XMPP): Core", RFC 6120, March 2011.

   [RFC6351]   Perreault, S., "xCard: vCard XML Representation",
               RFC 6351, August 2011.

   [X.200]     International Telecommunications Union, "Information
               Technology - Open Systems Interconnection - Basic
               Reference Model: The Basic Model", ITU-T Recommendation
               X.200, ISO Standard 7498-1, July 1994.

   [X.521]     International Telecommunications Union, "Information
               Technology - Open Systems Interconnection - The
               Directory: Selected Object Classes", ITU-T Recommendation
               X.521, ISO Standard 9594-7, November 2008.

   [XEP-0292]  Saint-Andre, P. and S. Mizzi, "vCard4 over XMPP", XSF
               XEP 0292, October 2011.

Author's Address

   Peter Saint-Andre
   Cisco
   1899 Wynkoop Street, Suite 600
   Denver, CO  80202
   USA

   Phone: +1-303-308-3282
   EMail: psaintan@cisco.com