| Calendaring extensions | N. Jenkins |
| Internet-Draft | R. Stepanek |
| Intended status: Standards Track | FastMail |
| Expires: May 26, 2019 | November 22, 2018 |
JSCalendar: A JSON representation of calendar data
draft-ietf-calext-jscalendar-10
This specification defines a data model and JSON representation of calendar data that can be used for storage and data exchange in a calendaring and scheduling environment. It aims to be an alternative to the widely deployed iCalendar data format and to be unambiguous, extendable and simple to process.
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 May 26, 2019.
Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.
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This document defines a data model for calendar event and task objects, or groups of such objects, in electronic calendar applications and systems. It aims to be unambiguous, extendable and simple to process.
The key design considerations for this data model are as follows:
The representation of this data model is defined in the I-JSON format [RFC7493], which is a strict subset of the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Interchange Format [RFC8259]. Using JSON is mostly a pragmatic choice: its widespread use makes JSCalendar easier to adopt, and the ready availability of production-ready JSON implementations eliminates a whole category of parser-related interoperability issues.
The iCalendar data format [RFC5545], a widely deployed interchange format for calendaring and scheduling data, has served calendaring vendors for a long while, but contains some ambiguities and pitfalls that can not be overcome without backward-incompatible changes.
For example, iCalendar defines various formats for local times, UTC time and dates, which confuses new users. Other sources for errors are the requirement for custom time zone definitions within a single calendar component, as well as the iCalendar format itself; the latter causing interoperability issues due to misuse of CR LF terminated strings, line continuations and subtle differences between iCalendar parsers. Lastly, up until recently the iCalendar format did not have a way to express a concise difference between two calendar components, which results in verbose exchanges during scheduling.
Some of these issues were addressed by the jCal format, which is a direct mapping between iCalendar and JSON. However, it did not attempt to extend or update iCalendar semantics.
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].
The underlying format used for this specification is JSON. Consequently, the terms "object" and "array" as well as the four primitive types (strings, numbers, booleans, and null) are to be interpreted as described in Section 1 of [RFC8259].
Some examples in this document contain "partial" JSON documents used for illustrative purposes. In these examples, three periods "..." are used to indicate a portion of the document that has been removed for compactness. In this document, property and object definitions are formatted like this and are referred to in other sections like this. Verbatim text is formatted like this.
This section describes the calendar object types specified by JSCalendar.
MIME type: application/calendar+json;type=jsevent
A JSEvent represents a scheduled amount of time on a calendar, typically a meeting, appointment, reminder or anniversary. Multiple participants may partake in the event at multiple locations.
The @type property value MUST be jsevent.
MIME type: application/calendar+json;type=jstask
A JSTask represents an action-item, assignment, to-do or work item .
The @type property value MUST be jstask.
A JSTask may start and be due at certain points in time, may take some estimated time to complete and may recur; none of which is required. This notably differs from JSEvent which is required to start at a certain point in time and typically takes some non-zero duration to complete.
MIME type: application/calendar+json;type=jsgroup
A JSGroup is a collection of JSEvent and JSTask objects. Typically, objects are grouped by topic (e.g. by keywords) or calendar membership.
The @type property value MUST be jsgroup.
A JSCalendar object is a JSON object, which MUST be valid I-JSON (a stricter subset of JSON), as specified in [RFC8259]. Property names and values are case-sensitive.
The object has a collection of properties, as specified in the following sections. Unless otherwise specified, all properties are mandatory. Optional properties may have a default value, if explicitly specified in the property definition.
Types signatures are given for all JSON objects in this document. The following conventions are used:
In addition to the standard JSON data types, the following data types are used in this specification:
This is a string in [RFC3339] date-time format, with the further restrictions that any letters MUST be in upper-case, the time component MUST be included and the time MUST be in UTC. Fractional second values MUST NOT be included unless non-zero and MUST NOT have trailing zeros, to ensure there is only a single representation for each date-time.
For example 2010-10-10T10:10:10.003Z is OK, but 2010-10-10T10:10:10.000Z is invalid and MUST be encoded as 2010-10-10T10:10:10Z.
In common notation, it should be of the form YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ.
This is a date-time string with no time zone/offset information. It is otherwise in the same format as UTCDate: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS. The time zone to associate the LocalDate with comes from an associated property, or if no time zone is associated it defines floating time. Floating date-times are not tied to any specific time zone. Instead, they occur in every timezone at the same wall-clock time (as opposed to the same instant point in time).
A duration is represented by a subset of ISO8601 duration format, as specified by the following ABNF:
dur-secfrac = "." 1*DIGIT
dur-second = 1*DIGIT [dur-secfrac] "S"
dur-minute = 1*DIGIT "M" [dur-second]
dur-hour = 1*DIGIT "H" [dur-minute]
dur-time = "T" (dur-hour / dur-minute / dur-second)
dur-day = 1*DIGIT "D"
dur-week = 1*DIGIT "W"
duration = "P" (dur-day [dur-time] / dur-time / dur-week)
In addition, the duration MUST NOT include fractional second values unless the fraction is non-zero.
A PatchObject is of type String[*|null], and represents an unordered set of patches on a JSON object. The keys are a path in a subset of [RFC6901] JSON pointer format, with an implicit leading / (i.e. prefix each key with / before applying the JSON pointer evaluation algorithm).
A patch within a PatchObject is only valid, if all of the following conditions apply:
The value associated with each pointer is either:
Implementations MUST reject a PatchObject if any of its patches are invalid.
If not noted otherwise, properties and object keys that define identifiers MUST be string values, MUST be at least 1 character and maximum 256 characters in size, and MUST only contain characters from the “URL and Filename safe” Base 64 Alphabet, as defined in section 5 of [RFC4648]. This is the ASCII alphanumeric characters (A-Za-z0-9), hyphen (-), and underscore (_). Note that [RFC7493] requires string values be encoded in UTF-8, so the maximum size of an identifier according to this definition is 256 octets.
JSCalendar aims to provide unambiguous definitions for value types and properties, but does not define a general normalization or equivalence method for JSCalendar objects and types. This is because the notion of equivalence might range from byte-level equivalence to semantic equivalence, depending on the respective use case (for example, the CalDAV protocol [RFC4791] requires octet equivalence of the encoded calendar object to determine ETag equivalence).
Normalization of JSCalendar objects is hindered because of the following reasons:
Considering this, the definition of equivalence and normalization is left to client and server implementations and to be negotiated by a calendar exchange protocol or defined by another RFC.
Vendors MAY add additional properties to the calendar object to support their custom features. The names of these properties MUST be prefixed with a domain name controlled by the vendor to avoid conflict, e.g. example.com/customprop.
Some JSCalendar properties allow vendor-specific value extensions. If so, vendor specific values MUST be prefixed with a domain name controlled by the vendor, e.g. example.com/customrel, unless otherwise noted.
This section describes the properties that are common to the various JSCalendar object types. Specific JSCalendar object types may only support a subset of these properties. The object type definitions in Section 5 describe the set of supported properties per type.
Type: String
Specifies the type which this object represents. This MUST be one of the following values, registered in a future RFC, or a vendor-specific value:
A valid JSCalendar object MUST include this property.
Type: String
A globally unique identifier, used to associate the object as the same across different systems, calendars and views. The value of this property MUST be unique across all JSCalendar objects, even if they are of different type. [RFC4122] describes a range of established algorithms to generate universally unique identifiers (UUID), and the random or pseudo-random version is recommended.
For compatibility with [RFC5545] UIDs, implementations MUST be able to receive and persist values of at least 255 octets for this property, but they MUST NOT truncate values in the middle of a UTF-8 multi-octet sequence.
A valid JSCalendar object MUST include this property.
Type: String[Relation] (optional)
Relates the object to other JSCalendar objects. This is represented as a map of the UIDs of the related objects to information about the relation.
A Relation object has the following properties:
The value for each key in the set MUST be
true.
If an object is split to make a "this and future" change to a recurrence, the original object MUST be truncated to end at the previous occurrence before this split, and a new object created to represent all the objects after the split. A next relation MUST be set on the original object's relatedTo property for the UID of the new object. A first relation for the UID of the first object in the series MUST be set on the new object. Clients can then follow these UIDs to get the complete set of objects if the user wishes to modify them all at once.
Type: String (optional)
The identifier for the product that created the JSCalendar object.
The vendor of the implementation SHOULD ensure that this is a globally unique identifier, using some technique such as an FPI value, as defined in [ISO.9070.1991]. It MUST only use characters of an iCalendar TEXT data value (see section 3.3.11 in [RFC5545]).
This property SHOULD NOT be used to alter the interpretation of an JSCalendar object beyond the semantics specified in this document. For example, it is not to be used to further the understanding of non-standard properties.
Type: UTCDate (optional)
The date and time this object was initially created.
Type: UTCDate
The date and time the data in this object was last modified.
Type: Number (optional, default:0)
Initially zero, this MUST be a non-negative integer that is monotonically incremented each time a change is made to the object.
Type: String (optional)
The iTIP ([RFC5546]) method, in lower-case. Used for scheduling.
Type: String (optional, default:)
A short summary of the object.
Type: String (optional, default:)
A longer-form text description of the object. The content is formatted according to the descriptionContentType property.
Type: String (optional, default:text/plain)
Describes the media type ([RFC6838]) of the contents of the description property. Media types MUST be sub-types of type text, and SHOULD be text/plain or text/html ([MIME]). They MAY define parameters and the charset parameter MUST be utf-8, if specified. Descriptions of type text/html MAY contain cid URLs ([RFC2392]) to reference links in the calendar object by use of the cid property of the Link object.
Type: String[Location] (optional)
A map of location ids to Location objects, representing locations associated with the object. A location id MUST be unique to this object; a UUID is a practical choice.
A Location object has the following properties. It must define at least one other property than rel.
Type: String[VirtualLocation] (optional)
A map of ids to VirtualLocation objects, representing virtual locations, such as video conferences or chat rooms, associated with the object. A virtual location id MUST be unique to this object; a UUID is a practical choice.
A VirtualLocation object has the following properties.
Type: String[Link] (optional)
A map of link ids to Link objects, representing external resources associated with the object. A link id MUST be unique to this calendar object; a UUID is a practical choice.
A Link object has the following properties:
Type: String (optional)
The [RFC5646] language tag that best describes the locale used for the calendar object, if known.
Type: String[Boolean] (optional)
A set of keywords or tags that relate to the object. The set is represented as a map, with the keys being the keywords. The value for each key in the map MUST be true.
Type: String[Boolean] (optional)
A set of categories that relate to the calendar object. The set is represented as a map, with the keys being the categories specified as URIs. The value for each key in the map MUST be true.
In contrast to keywords, categories typically are structured. For example, a vendor owning the domain example.com might define the categories http://example.com/categories/sports/american-football" and http://example.com/categories/music/r-b.
Type: String (optional)
Specifies a color clients MAY use when displaying this calendar object. The value is a case-insensitive color name taken from the CSS3 set of names, defined in Section 4.3 of W3C.REC-css3-color-20110607 or a CSS3 RGB color hex value.
Type: Recurrence
Defines a recurrence rule (repeating pattern) for recurring calendar objects.
A Recurrence object is a JSON object mapping of a RECUR value type in iCalendar, see [RFC5545] and[RFC7529]. A JSEvent recurs by applying the recurrence rule (and recurrenceOverrides) to the start date/time. A JSTask recurs by applying the recurrence rule (and recurrenceOverrides) to its start date/time, if defined. If the task does not define a start date-time, it recurs by its due date-time. If it neither defines a start or due date-time, it MUST NOT define a recurrenceRule.
A Recurrence object has the following properties:
To convert from iCalendar, simply lower-case the FREQ part.
A recurrence rule specifies a set of set of date-times for recurring calendar objects. A recurrence rule has the following semantics. Note, wherever "year", "month" or "day of month" is used, this is within the calendar system given by the "rscale" property, which defaults to gregorian if omitted.
If a skip property is defined and is not "omit", there may be candidates that do not correspond to valid dates (e.g. 31st Februrary in the gregorian calendar). In this case, the properties MUST be considered in the order above and:
When determining the set of occurrence dates for an event or task, the following extra rules must be applied:
Type: LocalDate[PatchObject] (optional)
A map of the recurrence-ids (the date-time of the start of the occurrence) to an object of patches to apply to the generated occurrence object.
If the recurrence-id does not match an expanded start date from a recurrence rule, it is to be treated as an additional occurrence (like an RDATE from iCalendar). The patch object may often be empty in this case.
If the patch object defines the excluded property to be true, then the recurring calendar object does not occur at the recurrence-id date-time (like an EXDATE from iCalendar). Such a patch object MUST NOT patch any other property.
By default, an occurrence inherits all properties from the main object except the start (or due) date-time, which is shifted to the new start time of the LocalDate key. However, individual properties of the occurrence can be modified by a patch, or multiple patches. It is valid to patch the start property value, and this patch takes precedence over the LocalDate key. Both the LocalDate key as well as the patched start date-time may occur before the original JSCalendar object's start or due date.
A pointer in the PatchObject MUST NOT start with one of the following prefixes; any patch with such a key MUST be ignored:
Type: Boolean (optional, default:false)
Defines if this object is an overridden, excluded instance of a recurring JSCalendar object (also see Section 4.3.2). If this property value is true, this calendar object instance MUST be removed from the occurrence expansion.
Type: Number (optional, default:0)
Specifies a priority for the calendar object. This may be used as part of scheduling systems to help resolve conflicts for a time period.
The priority is specified as an integer in the range 0 to 9. A value of 0 specifies an undefined priority. A value of 1 is the highest priority. A value of 2 is the second highest priority. Subsequent numbers specify a decreasing ordinal priority. A value of 9 is the lowest priority. Other integer values are reserved for future use.
Type: String (optional, default:busy)
Specifies how this property should be treated when calculating free-busy state. The value MUST be one of:
Type: String (optional, default:public)
Calendar objects are normally collected together and may be shared with other users. The privacy property allows the object owner to indicate that it should not be shared, or should only have the time information shared but the details withheld. Enforcement of the restrictions indicated by this property are up to the implementations.
This property MUST NOT affect the information sent to scheduled participants; it is only interpreted when the object is shared as part of a shared calendar.
The value MUST be either one of the following values, registered in a future RFC, or a vendor-specific value. Vendor specific values MUST be prefixed with a domain name controlled by the vendor, e.g. example.com/topsecret. Any value the client or server doesn't understand should be preserved but treated as equivalent to private.
In addition, any patches in
recurrenceOverrides whose key is prefixed with one of the above properties MUST be stripped.
Type: String[String] (optional)
Represents methods by which participants may submit their RSVP response to the organizer of the calendar object. The keys in the property value are the available methods and MUST only contain ASCII alphanumeric characters (A-Za-z0-9). The value is a URI to use that method. Future methods may be defined in future specifications; a calendar client MUST ignore any method it does not understand, but MUST preserve the method key and URI. This property MUST be omitted if no method is defined (rather than an empty object).
The following methods are defined:
Type: String[Participant] (optional)
A map of participant ids to participants, describing their participation in the calendar object. A participant id MUST be unique to this calendar object; a UUID or the base-64 encoded email address of the participant is a good choice.
A Participant object has the following properties:
The value for each key in the set MUST be
true. Roles that are unknown to the implementation MUST be preserved and MAY be ignored.
Type: Boolean (optional, default:false)
If true, use the user's default alerts and ignore the value of the alerts property. Fetching user defaults is dependent on the API from which this JSCalendar object is being fetched, and is not defined in this specification. If an implementation cannot determine the user's default alerts, or none are set, it MUST process the alerts property as if useDefaultAlerts is set to false.
Type: String[Alert] (optional)
A map of alert ids to Alert objects, representing alerts/reminders to display or send the user for this calendar object. The id MUST be unique to this calendar object; a UUID is a practical choice.
An Alert Object has the following properties:
Type: String[PatchObject] (optional)
A map of [RFC5646] language tags to patch objects, which localize the calendar object into the locale of the respective language tag.
See the description of PatchObject for the structure of the PatchObject. The patches are applied to the top-level object. In addition to all the restrictions on patches specified there, the pointer also MUST NOT start with one of the following prefixes; any patch with a such a key MUST be ignored:
Note that this specification does not define how to maintain validity of localized content. For example, a client application changing a JSCalendar object's title property might also need to update any localizations of this property. Client implementations SHOULD provide the means to manage localizations, but how to achieve this is specific to the application's workflow and requirements.
In addition to the common JSCalendar object properties a JSEvent has the following properties:
Type: LocalDate e.g. 2015-09-02T00:00:00
The date/time the event would start in the event's time zone.
A valid JSEvent MUST include this property.
Type: String|null (optional, default:null)
The IANA Time Zone Database name for the time zone the event is scheduled in, or null for floating time. If omitted, this MUST be presumed to be null (i.e. floating time).
Type: Duration, e.g. P2DT3H (optional, default: PT0S)
The zero or positive duration of the event in the event's start time zone. The same rules as for the iCalendar DURATION value type ([RFC5545]) apply: The duration of a week or a day in hours/minutes/seconds may vary if it overlaps a period of discontinuity in the event's time zone, for example a change from standard time to daylight-savings time. Leap seconds MUST NOT be considered when computing an exact duration. When computing an exact duration, the greatest order time components MUST be added first, that is, the number of days MUST be added first, followed by the number of hours, number of minutes, and number of seconds. Fractional seconds MUST be added last.
A JSEvent MAY involve start and end locations that are in different time zones (e.g. a trans-continental flight). This can be expressed using the rel and timeZone properties of the JSEvent's location objects.
Type: Boolean (optional, default:false)
Specifies if the event is an all day event, such as a birthday or public holiday.
If isAllDay is true, then the following restrictions apply: timeZone property.
Note that all-day events MAY be bound to a specific time zone, as defined by the
Type: String (optional, default:confirmed)
The scheduling status (Section 4.4) of a JSEvent. If set, it MUST be one of:
In addition to the common JSCalendar object properties a JSTask has the following properties:
Type: LocalDate (optional) e.g. 2015-09-02T00:00:00
The date/time the task is due in the task's time zone.
Type: LocalDate (optional) e.g. 2015-09-02T00:00:00
The date/time the task should start in the task's time zone.
Type: String|null (optional, default:null)
The IANA Time Zone Database name for the time zone the task is scheduled in, or null for floating time. If omitted, this MUST be presumed to be null (i.e. floating time).
Type: Duration (optional), e.g. P2DT3H
Specifies the estimated positive duration of time the task takes to complete.
Type: UTCDate (optional), e.g. 2016-06-13T12:00:00Z
Specifies the date/time the task status properties was last updated.
If the task is recurring and has future instances, a client may want to keep track of the last status update timestamp of a specific task recurrence, but leave other instances unchanged. One way to achieve this is by overriding the statusUpdatedAt property in the task recurrenceOverrides. However, this could produce a long list of timestamps for regularly recurring tasks. An alternative approach is to split the JSTask into a current, single instance of JSTask with this instance status update time and a future recurring instance. Also see the definition of the relatedTo on splitting.
Type: Boolean (optional, default:false)
Specifies if the task is an all day task.
If isAllDay is true, then the start and due properties MUST have a time component of T00:00:00. Note that the estimatedDuration property MAY contain a non-zero time duration. All-day tasks MAY be bound to a specific time zone, as defined by the timeZone property.
In addition to the common properties of a Participant object (Section 4.4.5), a Participant within a JSTask supports the following property:
A ParticipantProgress object has the following properties:
Type: String
Defines the overall status of this task. If omitted, the default status (Section 4.4) of a JSTask is defined as follows (in order of evaluation):
If set, it MUST be one of:
JSGroup supports the following JSCalendar properties:
as well as the following JSGroup-specific properties:
Type: String[JSTask|JSEvent]
A collection of group members. This is represented as a map of the uid property value to the JSCalendar object member having that uid. Implementations MUST ignore entries of unknown type.
Type: String (optional)
The source from which updated versions of this group may be retrieved from. The value MUST be a URI.
This section specifies which JSCalendar properties can be mapped from and to iCalendar format. Implementations SHOULD follow these conversion guidelines. Still, JSCalendar does not restrict itself to iCalendar and conversion between these two formats MAY be lossy.
The iCalendar counterpart to JSEvent is the VEVENT component type [RFC5545]. A VEVENT component that is a direct child of a VCALENDAR component is equivalent to a standalone JSEvent. A VEVENT component within a VEVENT maps to the entries of the JSEvent recurrenceOverrides property.
| Property | iCalendar counterpart |
|---|---|
| isAllDay | True, if the type of the DTSTART property in iCalendar is DATE. When translating from JSCalendar the iCalendar DTSTART property is of DATE value type, if the isAllDay property is set to true and the timeZone property is null. |
| start | Corresponds to the DTSTART property in iCalendar. Note that time zone information is stored separately in JSEvent. |
| timeZone | Corresponds to the TZID part of the DTSTART property in iCalendar. If the event has a different end time zone to start time zone, this should be added as a JSCalendar location with just a timeZone property and rel="end". |
| duration | Corresponds to the DURATION or DSTART+DTEND properties in iCalendar. |
The iCalendar counterpart to JSTask is the VTODO component type [RFC5545]. A VTODO component that is a direct child of a VCALENDAR component is equivalent to a standalone JSTask. A VTODO component within a master VTODO maps to the entries of the JSTask recurrenceOverrides property.
| Property | iCalendar counterpart |
|---|---|
| isAllDay | True, if the type of the DTSTART property in iCalendar is DATE. When translating from JSCalendar the iCalendar DTSTART property is of DATE value type, if the isAllDay property is set to true and the timeZone property is null. |
| due | Corresponds to the DUE and DTSTART+DURATION properties in iCalendar. When mapping iCalendar VTODOs with DTSTART+DURATION, the due date is the result of adding DURATION to DTSTART in the DTSTART time zone. |
| start | Corresponds to the DTSTART property in iCalendar. |
| timeZone | Corresponds to the TZID part of the DTSTART/DUE properties in iCalendar. If the task has a different end time zone to start or due time zone, this should be added as a JSCalendar location with just a timeZone property and rel="end". |
| estimatedDuration | Corresponds to the ESTIMATED-DURATION iCalendar property in the RFC draft [draft-apthorp-ical-tasks]. |
| statusUpdatedAt | Maps to the COMPLETED iCalendar property. The JSTask status property MUST have value completed. |
| progress | Corresponds to the PARTSTAT and COMPLETED properties in iCalendar, including the definitions in the RFC draft [draft-apthorp-ical-tasks]. |
| status | Corresponds to the STATUS property in iCalendar, including the definitions in the RFC draft [draft-apthorp-ical-tasks]. |
A JSGroup converts to a iCalendar VCALENDAR containing VEVENT or VTODO components.
| Property | iCalendar counterpart |
|---|---|
| entries | The VEVENT and VTODO components within a top-level VCALENDAR component. |
| source | Corresponds to the SOURCE property in iCalendar. |
| Property | iCalendar counterpart |
|---|---|
| alerts | An Alert corresponds to the VALARM component in iCalendar, where the action is determined by the iCalendar ACTION property value (e.g., both DISPLAY and AUDIO actions map to a JSCalendar display action, and similarly for EMAIL). The relativeTo and offset properties corresponds to the iCalendar TRIGGER property. |
| categories | Corresponds to the CONCEPT property in iCalendar, see in the RFC draft [draft-ietf-calext-ical-relations]. |
| color | Corresponds to the COLOR property in iCalendar, as specified in [RFC7986]. |
| created | Corresponds to the CREATED property in iCalendar. |
| description | Corresponds to the DESCRIPTION property and its ALTREP parameters in iCalendar. |
| descriptionContentType | Implementation-specific. |
| freeBusyStatus | Corresponds to the TRANSP property in iCalendar. |
| keywords | Corresponds to the CATEGORIES property in iCalendar, as specified in [RFC7986]. |
| links | Corresponds to the ATTACH ([RFC5545]) or IMAGE ([RFC7986]) properties with a URI value type set to the link href. ([RFC7986]). The type property corresponds to the FMTTYPE parameter, the size property to the SIZE parameter. Mapping all other properties is implementation-specific. |
| locale | Corresponds to the LANGUAGE parameter in iCalendar, which is added to individual properties. When converting from iCalendar, one language must be picked as the main locale for the object, and all properties in other languages moved to the localizations JSEvent property. |
| localizations | Implementation-specific. |
| locations | See Section 6.5. |
| method | Corresponds to the METHOD property of the embedding VCALENDAR in iCalendar. |
| participants | See Section 6.5. |
| priority | Corresponds to the PRIORITY property in iCalendar. |
| privacy | Corresponds to the CLASS property in iCalendar. |
| prodId | Corresponds to the PRODID property in iCalendar. |
| recurrenceOverrides | Corresponds to the RDATE and EXDATE properties in iCalendar, plus VEVENT (for JSEvent) or VTODO (for JSTask) instances with a recurrence-id. |
| recurrenceRule | Corresponds to the RRULE property in iCalendar. See the property definition at section Section 4.3.1 how to map a RRULE value. |
| relatedTo | Corresponds to the RELATED-TO property in iCalendar. |
| replyTo | An iCalendar ORGANIZER with a mailto: URI mapped to the imip method, or any other URI mapped to the other method. Mapping multiple methods is implementation-specific. |
| sequence | Corresponds to the SEQUENCE property in iCalendar. |
| status | Corresponds to the STATUS property in iCalendar (converted to lower-case). |
| title | Corresponds to the SUMMARY property in iCalendar. |
| uid | Corresponds to the UID property in iCalendar. |
| updated | Corresponds to the DTSTAMP and LAST-MODIFIED properties in iCalendar. (These are only different in the iTIP case, and the difference is not actually useful.) |
Both JSCalendar participants and locations have counterparts in iCalendar but provide richer representation.
The following table outlines translation of JSCalendar participants. Where iCalendar has distinct properties for ORGANIZER and ATTENDEE, these are merged in JSCalendar into the Participant object type.
| Property | iCalendar counterpart |
|---|---|
| delegatedFrom | the DELEGATED-FROM parameter |
| delegatedTo | the DELEGATED-TO parameter |
| expectReply | the RSVP parameter |
| The value of the EMAIL parameter of the ORGANIZER or ATTENDEE property, if defined. Otherwise the property value, if it is a mailto: URI. | |
| sendTo | An iCalendar ATTENDEE with a mailto: URI mapped to the imip method, or any other URI mapped to the other method. Mapping multiple methods is implementation-specific. |
| kind | the CUTYPE parameter |
| linkIds | Implementation-specific. |
| locationId | Implementation-specific. When mapping from iCalendar to JSCalendar this may be the JSCalendar identifier of a CONFERENCE property that has the MODERATOR feature defined in its FEATURE parameter values. If multiple such CONFERENCE properties are defined in iCalendar, then the one with the most interactive features is chosen. |
| memberOf | the MEMBER parameter |
| name | the CN parameter |
| attendance | Maps to the standard iCalendar ROLE parameter values REQ-PARTICIPANT, OPT-PARTICIPANT and NON-PARTICIPANT. |
| roles | The chair role maps to the standard iCalendar ROLE parameter value chair, with an implicit participant of value required. The mapping of non-required chairs and other roles is implementation-specific, but using x-name parameter values is recommended. |
| participationStatus | the PARTSTAT parameter |
| scheduleSequence | the SEQUENCE property of the participant's latest iMIP message |
| scheduleUpdated | the DTSTAMP property of the participant's latest iMIP message |
The iCalendar counterpart for JSCalendar Location objects is the iCalendar [RFC5545] LOCATION property, or implementation-specific.
| Property | iCalendar counterpart |
|---|---|
| name | Corresponds to the LOCATION property value. |
| description | Implementation-specific. |
| rel | Implementation-specific. |
| timeZone | Implementation-specific. |
| coordinates | Implementation-specific. Consider using a GEO iCalendar property, along with one LOCATION. |
| uri | Corresponds to the LOCATION ALTREP parameter. |
| linkIds | Implementation-specific. |
The iCalendar counterpart for JSCalendar VirtualLocation objects is the iCalendar [RFC7986] CONFERENCE property, or implementation-specific.
| Property | iCalendar counterpart |
|---|---|
| name | Corresponds to the CONFERENCE LABEL parameter. |
| description | Implementation-specific. |
| uri | Corresponds to the CONFERENCE property value. |
Both JSCalendar and iCalendar calendar objects may contain properties that are not expressible in the other format. This specification does not mandate how to preserve these properties. Instead, it leaves negotiation on how to treat unknown properties to client and server implementations and their protocol used to exchange calendar objects.
Two notable options to represent and preserve arbitrary iCalendar object properties in JSCalendar are:
The following examples illustrate several aspects of the JSCalendar data model and format. The examples may omit mandatory or additional properties, which is indicated by a placeholder property with key .... While most of the examples use calendar event objects, they are also illustrative for tasks.
This example illustrates a simple one-time event. It specifies a one-time event that begins on January 15, 2018 at 1pm New York local time and ends after 1 hour.
{
"@type": "jsevent",
"uid": "2a358cee-6489-4f14-a57f-c104db4dc2f1",
"updated": "2018-01-15T18:00:00Z",
"title": "Some event",
"start": "2018-01-15T13:00:00",
"timeZone": "America/New_York",
"duration": "PT1H"
}
This example illustrates a simple task for a plain to-do item.
{
"@type": "jstask",
"uid": "2a358cee-6489-4f14-a57f-c104db4dc2f2",
"updated": "2018-01-15T18:00:00Z",
"title": "Do something"
}
This example illustrates a simple calendar object group that contains an event and a task.
{
"@type": "jsgroup",
"uid": "2a358cee-6489-4f14-a57f-c104db4dc343",
"updated": "2018-01-15T18:00:00Z",
"name": "A simple group",
"entries": [
{
"@type": "jsevent",
"uid": "2a358cee-6489-4f14-a57f-c104db4dc2f1",
"updated": "2018-01-15T18:00:00Z",
"title": "Some event",
"start": "2018-01-15T13:00:00",
"timeZone": "America/New_York",
"duration": "PT1H"
},
{
"@type": "jstask",
"uid": "2a358cee-6489-4f14-a57f-c104db4dc2f2",
"updated": "2018-01-15T18:00:00Z",
"title": "Do something"
}
]
}
This example illustrates an event for an international holiday. It specifies an all-day event on April 1 that occurs every year since the year 1900.
{
"...": "",
"title": "April Fool's Day",
"isAllDay": true,
"start": "1900-04-01T00:00:00",
"duration": "P1D",
"recurrenceRule": {
"frequency": "yearly"
}
}
This example illustrates a task with a due date. It is a reminder to buy groceries before 6pm Vienna local time on January 19, 2018. The calendar user expects to need 1 hour for shopping.
{
"...": "",
"title": "Buy groceries",
"due": "2018-01-19T18:00:00",
"timeZone": "Europe/Vienna",
"estimatedDuration": "PT1H"
}
This example illustrates the use of end time-zones by use of an international flight. The flight starts on April 1, 2018 at 9am in Berlin local time. The duration of the flight is scheduled at 10 hours 30 minutes. The time at the flights destination is in the same time-zone as Tokyo. Calendar clients could use the end time-zone to display the arrival time in Tokyo local time and highlight the time-zone difference of the flight. The location names can serve as input for navigation systems.
{
"...": "",
"title": "Flight XY51 to Tokyo",
"start": "2018-04-01T09:00:00",
"timeZone": "Europe/Berlin",
"duration": "PT10H30M",
"locations": {
"2a358cee-6489-4f14-a57f-c104db4dc2f1": {
"rel": "start",
"name": "Frankfurt Airport (FRA)"
},
"c2c7ac67-dc13-411e-a7d4-0780fb61fb08": {
"rel": "end",
"name": "Narita International Airport (NRT)",
"timeZone": "Asia/Tokyo"
}
}
}
This example illustrates the use of floating-time. Since January 1, 2018, a calendar user blocks 30 minutes every day to practice Yoga at 7am local time, in whatever time-zone the user is located on that date.
{
"...": "",
"title": "Yoga",
"start": "2018-01-01T07:00:00",
"duration": "PT30M",
"recurrenceRule": {
"frequency": "daily"
}
}
This example illustrates an event that happens at both a physical and a virtual location. Fans can see a live convert on premises or online. The event title and descriptions are localized.
{
"...": "",
"title": "Live from Music Bowl: The Band",
"description": "Go see the biggest music event ever!",
"locale": "en",
"start": "2018-07-04T17:00:00",
"timeZone": "America/New_York",
"duration": "PT3H",
"locations": {
"c0503d30-8c50-4372-87b5-7657e8e0fedd": {
"name": "The Music Bowl",
"description": "Music Bowl, Central Park, New York",
"coordinates": "geo:40.7829,73.9654"
}
},
"virtualLocations": {
"6f3696c6-1e07-47d0-9ce1-f50014b0041a": {
"name": "Free live Stream from Music Bowl",
"uri": "https://stream.example.com/the_band_2018"
}
},
"localizations": {
"de": {
"title": "Live von der Music Bowl: The Band!",
"description": "Schau dir das größte Musikereignis an!",
"virtualLocations/6f3696c6-1e07-47d0-9ce1-f50014b0041a/name":
"Gratis Live-Stream aus der Music Bowl"
}
}
}
This example illustrates the use of recurrence overrides. A math course at a University is held for the first time on January 8, 2018 at 9am London time and occurs every week until June 25, 2018. Each lecture lasts for one hour and 30 minutes and is located at the Mathematics department. This event has exceptional occurrences: at the last occurrence of the course is an exam, which lasts for 2 hours and starts at 10am. Also, the location of the exam differs from the usual location. On April 2 no course is held. On January 5 at 2pm is an optional introduction course, that occurs before the first regular lecture.
{
"...": "",
"title": "Calculus I",
"start": "2018-01-08T09:00:00",
"timeZone": "Europe/London",
"duration": "PT1H30M",
"locations": {
"2a358cee-6489-4f14-a57f-c104db4dc2f1": {
"title": "Math lab room 1",
"description": "Math Lab I, Department of Mathematics"
}
},
"recurrenceRule": {
"frequency": "weekly",
"until": "2018-06-25T09:00:00"
},
"recurrenceOverrides": {
"2018-01-05T14:00:00": {
"title": "Introduction to Calculus I (optional)"
},
"2018-04-02T09:00:00": {
"excluded": "true"
},
"2018-06-25T09:00:00": {
"title": "Calculus I Exam",
"start": "2018-06-25T10:00:00",
"duration": "PT2H",
"locations": {
"2a358cee-6489-4f14-a57f-c104db4dc2f1": {
"title": "Big Auditorium",
"description": "Big Auditorium, Other Road"
}
}
}
}
}
This example illustrates scheduled events. A team meeting occurs every week since January 8, 2018 at 9am Johannesburg time. The event owner also chairs the event. Participants meet in a virtual meeting room. An attendee has accepted the invitation, but on March 8, 2018 he is unavailable and declined participation for this occurrence.
{
"...": "",
"title": "FooBar team meeting",
"start": "2018-01-08T09:00:00",
"timeZone": "Africa/Johannesburg",
"duration": "PT1H",
"virtualLocations": {
"2a358cee-6489-4f14-a57f-c104db4dc2f1": {
"name": "ChatMe meeting room",
"uri": "https://chatme.example.com?id=1234567"
}
},
"recurrenceRule": {
"frequency": "weekly"
},
"replyTo": {
"imip": "mailto:6489-4f14-a57f-c1@schedule.example.com"
},
"participants": {
"dG9tQGZvb2Jhci5leGFtcGxlLmNvbQ": {
"name": "Tom Tool",
"email": "tom@foobar.example.com",
"sendTo": {
"imip": "mailto:6489-4f14-a57f-c1@calendar.example.com"
},
"participationStatus": "accepted",
"roles": {
"attendee": true
}
},
"em9lQGZvb2Jhci5leGFtcGxlLmNvbQ": {
"name": "Zoe Zelda",
"email": "zoe@foobar.example.com",
"sendTo": {
"imip": "mailto:zoe@foobar.example.com"
},
"participationStatus": "accepted",
"roles": {
"owner": true,
"attendee": true,
"chair": true
}
},
"...": ""
},
"recurrenceOverrides": {
"2018-03-08T09:00:00": {
"participants/dG9tQGZvb2Jhci5leGFtcGxlLmNvbQ/participationStatus":
"declined"
}
}
}
The use of JSON as a format does have its own inherent security risks as discussed in Section 12 of [RFC8259]. Even though JSON is considered a safe subset of JavaScript, it should be kept in mind that a flaw in the parser processing JSON could still impose a threat, which doesn't arise with conventional iCalendar data.
With this in mind, a parser for JSON data aware of the security implications should be used for the format described in this document. For example, the use of JavaScript's eval() function is considered an unacceptable security risk, as described in Section 12 of[RFC8259]. A native parser with full awareness of the JSON format should be preferred.
This document amends the application/calendar MIME media type defined in [RFC7265].
New optional parameter: type with value being one of jsevent, jstask, jsgroup. The parameter MUST NOT occur more than once.
The authors would like to thank the members of CalConnect for their valuable contributions. This specification originated from the work of the API technical committee of CalConnect, the Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium.
| [draft-apthorp-ical-tasks] | "Task Extensions to iCalendar" |
| [draft-ietf-calext-ical-relations] | "Support for iCalendar Relationships" |
| [MIME] | "IANA Media Types" |