Network Working Group A.L. Newton
Internet-Draft ARIN
Intended status: Standards Track S. Hollenbeck
Expires: July 08, 2013 Verisign Labs
January 04, 2013

JSON Responses for the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP)
draft-ietf-weirds-json-response-02

Abstract

This document describes JSON data structures representing registration information maintained by Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) and Domain Name Registries (DNRs). These data structures are used to form Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) query responses.

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 08, 2013.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2013 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.

1. Introduction

This document describes responses in the JSON [RFC4627] format for the RESTful web queries as defined by UNIFIED-RDAP-QUERY [I-D.ietf-weirds-rdap-query].

The data model for the responses consists of two major categories: responses returned by Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) for registrations data related to IP addresses, reverse DNS names, and Autonomous System numbers; and responses returned by Domain Name Registries (DNRs) for registration data related to forward DNS names. The RIR object classes are a proper subset of the DNR object classes. The current division between RIR and DNR object classes is given to illustrate an expectation of what data may be expected from an RIR vs a DNR. However, implementers should be aware that RIRs are not limited to the data in the RIR object classes (as an example, some RIRs have a notion of "status" for entities as defined in the DNR entity object class and may at some point start publishing that data).

Object classes defined in the document represent a minimal set of what a compliant client/server MUST understand to function correctly, however some deployments may want to include additional object classes to suit individual needs. Anticipating this need for extension, Section 4.2 of this document defines a mechanism for extending the JSON (objects) that are described in this document.

2. Terminology and Definitions

The following list describes terminology and definitions used throughout this document:

DNR:
"Domain Name Registry".
member:
data found with in an object as defined by JSON [RFC4627].
object:
a data structure as defined by JSON [RFC4627].
object class:
the definition of members that may be found in JSON objects described in this document.
object instance:
an instantiation or specific instance of an object class.
RDAP:
"Registration Data Access Protocol".
RIR:
"Regional Internet Registry".

3. Common Data Types

JSON [RFC4627] defines the data types of a number, character string, boolean, array, object and null. This section describes the semantics and/or syntax reference for data types used in this document derived from the JSON character string.

'handle':
DNRs and RIRs have registry-unique identifiers that may be used to specifically reference an object instance. The semantics of this data type as found in this document is to be a registry-unique reference to the closest enclosing object where the value is found. The data type names 'registryId', 'roid', 'nic-handle', 'registrationNo', etc... are terms often synonymous with this data type. In this document, the term 'handle' is used. The term exposed to users by clients is a presentation issue beyond the scope of this document.
IPv4 addresses:
The representation of IPv4 addresses in this document uses the dotted-decimal notation described in [RFC1166]. An example of this textual representation is '192.0.2.0'.
IPv6 addresses:
The representation of IPv6 addresses in this document follow the forms outlined in [RFC5952]. An example of this textual representation is '2001:db8::1:0:0:1'.
country codes:
Where the identity of a geopolitical nation or country is needed, these identities are represented with the alpha-2 or 2 character country code designation as defined in [ISO.3166.1988]. The alpha-2 representation is used because it is freely available whereas the alpha-3 and numeric-3 standards are not.
domain names:
Textual representations of DNS names follow the rules set forth in [RFC4343], specifically the case insensitivity and character escaping rules. Trailing periods are optional for both input and output.
email addresses:
Textual representations of email addresses follow the syntax defined in [RFC5322].
dates and times:
The syntax for values denoting dates and times is defined in [RFC3339].
URIs:
The syntax for values denoting a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is defined by [RFC3986].

Many of the object classes defined in this document contain values representing telephone numbers. Servers are encouraged to provide those telephone numbers in [E164] format, however clients MUST be prepared for telephone numbers that do not adhere to the [E164] standard.

Postal addresses also appear in some of the object classes. This document specifies no standard for postal addresses as many registries would have to undergo severe data cleanup efforts to meet such standards.

4. Use of JSON

4.1. Signaling

Clients may signal their desire for JSON using the "application/json" media type or the more specific media type "application/rdap" as specified in Section 13.

4.2. Naming

Clients processing JSON [RFC4627] responses SHOULD ignore values associated with unrecognized names. Servers MAY insert values signified by names into the JSON responses which are not specified in this document. Insertion of unspecified values into JSON responses SHOULD have names prefixed with a short identifier followed by an underscore followed by a meaningful name. The full JSON name, the prefix plus the underscore plus the meaningful name, SHOULD adhere to the character and name limitations of the prefix registry described in [I-D.ietf-weirds-using-http].

Consider the following JSON response with JSON names. "handle" and "remarks" are JSON names specified in this document. 

{
    "handle" : "ABC123",
    "remarks" : 
    [
      "she sells seas shells",
      "down by the seashore"
    ]
}

Figure 1

If The Registry of the Moon desires to express information not found in this specification, it might select "lunarNic" as its identifying prefix and insert, as an example, the name "lunarNic_beforeOneSmallStep" to signify registrations occuring before the first moon landing and the name "lunarNic_harshMistressNotes" containing other descriptive text.

Consider the following JSON response with JSON names, some of which should be ignored by clients without knowledge of their meaning. 

{
  "handle" : "ABC123",
  "lunarNic_beforeOneSmallStep" : "TRUE THAT!",
  "remarks" : 
  [
    "she sells seas shells",
    "down by the seashore"
  ],
  "lunarNic_harshMistressNotes" : 
  [
    "In space,",
    "nobody can hear you scream."
  ]
}

Figure 2

Insertion of unrecognized names ignored by clients may also be used for future revisions to this specification.

Clients processing JSON responses MUST be prepared for values specified in this document to be absent from a response as no JSON value listed is required to appear in a response. In other words, servers MAY remove values as is needed by the policies of the server operator.

Finally, all JSON names specified in this document are case sensitive. Both servers and clients MUST transmit and process them according to the character casing specified.

5. Common Data Structures

This section defines three common data structures to be used in respones. Each of these datatypes MAY appear within any object class of a response, but the intended purpose is that they will be mostly used in the top-most object class of a response.

5.1. RDAP Conformance

The first data structure is named "rdapConformance" and is simply an array of strings, each providing a hint as to the specifications used in the construction of the response.

An example rdapConformance data structure.

"rdapConformance" : 
[
  "rdap_level_0"
]

Figure 3

The string literal "rdap_level_0" signifies conformance with this specification. When custom JSON values are inserted into responses, conformance to those custom specifications should use a string prefixed with the appropriate identifier from the IANA prefix identifier registry specified in [I-D.ietf-weirds-using-http]. For example, if the fictional Registry of the Moon want to signify that their JSON responses are conformant with their registered extensions, the string used might be "lunarNIC_level_0".

Example rdapConformance structure with custom extensions noted.

"rdapConformance" : 
[
  "rdap_level_0",
  "lunarNic_level_0"
]

Figure 4

5.2. Notices

The second data structure is named "notices" and is an array of objects. Each object contains a "title" string representing the title of the notice object, an array of strings named "description" for the purposes of conveying any descriptive text about the notice, and an optional "links" object as described in Section 6.

An exmaple of the notices data structure.

"notices" : 
[
  {
    "title" : "Terms of Use",
    "description" : 
    [
      "This service is subject to The Registry of the Moons",
      "terms of service."
    ],
    "links" : 
    [
      {
        "value" : "http://example.net/entity/XXXX",
        "rel" : "alternate",
        "type" : "text/html",
        "href" : "http://www.example.com/terms_of_use.html"
      }
    ]
  }
]

Figure 5

5.3. Language Identifier

The third data structure is a simple JSON name/value of "lang" with a string containing a language identifier as described by [RFC5646]. 

"lang" : "mn-Cyrl-MN"

Figure 6

5.4. An Example

This is an example response with both rdapConformance and notices embedded. 

                    
{
  "rdapConformance" : 
  [
    "rdap_level_0"
  ],
  "notices" : 
  [
    {
      "title" : "Content Redacted",
      "description" : 
      [
        "Without full authorization, content has been redacted.",
        "Sorry, dude!"
      ],
      "links" : 
      [
        {
          "value" : "http://example.net/ip/192.0.2.0/24",
          "rel" : "alternate",
          "type" : "text/html",
          "href" : "http://www.example.com/redaction_policy.html"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "lang" : "en",
  "startAddress" : "192.0.2.0",
  "endAddress" : "192.0.2.255",
  "handle" : "XXXX-RIR",
  "ipVersion" : 4,
  "name": "NET-RTR-1",
  "description" : [ "A network used for example documentation" ],
  "parentHandle" : "YYYY-RIR",
  "remarks" : 
  [
    "she sells seas shells",
    "down by the seashore"
  ]
}

Figure 7

6. Object Class Links

Each object class defined in this document may have links to other resources on the Internet. The relationship of these links is defined by the IANA registry described by [RFC5988].