vCard: Service Type Parameter
draft-daboo-vcard-service-type-00

Abstract

This document defines a "Service Type" parameter for use on various vCard properties to help clients distinguish between different types of communication services that may be using the same protocol, yet are distinct.

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 http://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 July 28, 2012.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2012 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 to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must 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.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction and Overview
• 2. Open Issues
• 3. Conventions
• 4. SERVICE-TYPE Parameter
• 5. Security Considerations
• 6. IANA Consideration
• 7. Acknowledgments
• 8. References
• 8.1. Normative References
• 8.2. Informative References
• Appendix A. Common Service Types
• Author's Address

1. Introduction and Overview

The vCard 4.0 [I-D.ietf-vcarddav-vcardrev] specification defines a data format for contact information. It includes an "IMPP" property that is used to list instant messaging and presence information for the entity represented by the vCard. One problem with this is that instant messaging systems on the internet today use a wide variety of protocols (XMPP, AIM, IRC, etc). In addition, two service providers using the same protocol may not allow communication between users on their separate systems. As a result, when one user needs to communicate with another, they need knowledge of which service providers, or service types, exist for the other user's "IMPP" properties, so that they can match that with an equivalent one that they have.

This specification adds a new "SERVICE-TYPE" property parameter to the "IMPP" property in vCard 4.0. This property contains a text token indicating the service information for use of the "IMPP" address value.

2. Open Issues

1. Should service type values be in a registry?
2. What about localization of names?
3. Should we state that service type can be used with other properties (e.g. TEL, EMAIL)?

3. Conventions

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 [RFC2119].

4. SERVICE-TYPE Parameter

    service-param = "SERVICE-TYPE=" param-value
                            

    IMPP;SERVICE-TYPE=EXAMPLE-TALK:xmpp:cyrus@talk.example.com
    IMPP;SERVICE-TYPE=CHATTYBOX:xmpp:cdaboo@chatty.example.org
                            

Parameter Name:

SERVICE-TYPE

Purpose:

Provides a text token to help distinguish between different types of instant message and presence services.

Description:

This parameter allows different types of instant message and presence services to be differentiated when used with the "IMPP" property.

Format Definition:

Example(s):

5. Security Considerations

This specification does not introduce any addition security considerations beyond those in [I-D.ietf-vcarddav-vcardrev].

6. IANA Consideration

This document defines the following new vCard parameters to be added to the registry defined in Section 10.2 of [I-D.ietf-vcarddav-vcardrev]:

7. Acknowledgments

8. References

8.1. Normative References

8.2. Informative References

Appendix A. Common Service Types

The table below provides a suggested set of service types that clients can use for the "SERVICE-TYPE" parameter when used with the "IMPP" property. Also listed are the expected URI schemes used for the "IMPP" property value. Where there is no formal protocol or scheme known for a particular service, the "tag" URI scheme [RFC4151] is listed instead as a suggested way to indicate the identifier needed for the service.

Author's Address