Internet-Draft Objectclass property for vCard January 2013
Joy, et al. Expires 5 July 2013 [Page]
Workgroup:
Network Working Group
Published:
Intended Status:
Standards Track
Expires:
Authors:
C. Joy
Oracle Corporation
C. Daboo
Apple Inc.
M. Douglass
Spherical Cow Group

Objectclass property for vCard

Abstract

This specification describes a new property for vCard Format Specification [RFC6350] to allow the specification of objectclasses.

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/.

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This Internet-Draft will expire on 5 July 2013.

Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgements

This specification is a result of discussions that took place within the Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium's Resource Technical Committee. The authors thank the participants of that group.

2. Introduction

The objectclass concept is used in ldap to allow the specification of a set of properties which describe a given type of object. For example, a schedulable entity SHOULD contain some form of contact and the absence of the AUTOSCHEDULE property implies certain defaults.

Furthermore the OBJECTCLASS property allows for simple searching for a particular class of entry. If we are trying to book a room for example, the query only needs to specify an OBJECTCLASS of schedulable and the type of entry (that is, a room).

Without the OBJECTCLASS property it may be hard to determine that a room is actually schedulable. The resence of an email address does not guarantee that an entity is schedulable. Current scheduling systems also work asynchronously. The user may create scheduling invitations only to learn later on that the scheduled entity is not going to reply.

An ldap objectclass may be of 3 kinds, structural, abstract and auxiliary. The vcard KIND property is equivalent to the structural objectclass in that a vcard can be of only one kind. The kind requires that certain properties be present and also defines defaults for absent properties.

The OBJECTCLASS property defined here is equivalent in many ways to the auxiliary objectclass in ldap. They are not related to each other in some hierarchy and may overlap in their use of properties.

Objectclass definitions can only specify properties which MUST, SHOULD or MAY be present. They cannot disallow the use of properties as these may be required by another objectclass.

3. Conventions Used in This Document

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. Objectclass Property

Format and cardinality of new vCard properties are defined as described in Section 3.3 of [RFC6350].

Property name

OBJECTCLASS

Purpose

To specify the objectclass for this vcard.

ValueType

IANA value.

Cardinality

*

ABNF
OBJECTCLASS-param = any-param
OBJECTCLASS-value = text
Default value

None.

Example value

schedulable

Description

This property MAY be present 1 or more times. For each occurrence of the property the vcard MUST conform to the specification for that objectclass.

5. Examples

These examples do not draw on any currently defined objectclass but are intended to indicate some uses. Properties used here may not be defined in any specification.

5.1. Eduperson vcard

The eduperson ldap objectclass provides for a number of attributes considered useful for interaction between members of educational organizations. A corresponding vcard objectclass would allow for better mappping of ldap directories onto a vcard representation.

The 201203 specification of the LDAP objectclass for reference. Note that all attributes are MAY so would have a vcard cardinality of *1 or *.

( 1.3.6.1.4.1.5923.1.1.2
  NAME 'eduPerson'
    AUXILIARY
    MAY ( eduPersonAffiliation $
        eduPersonNickname $
        eduPersonOrgDN $
        eduPersonOrgUnitDN $
        eduPersonPrimaryAffiliation $
        eduPersonPrincipalName $
        eduPersonEntitlement $
        eduPersonPrimaryOrgUnitDN $
        eduPersonScopedAffiliation $
        eduPersonTargetedID $
        eduPersonAssurance)

A vcard mapping would, where possible use existing vcard properties. Where not possible new properties could be defined.

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:4.0
UID:urn:uuid:4fbe8971-0bc3-424c-9c26-36c3e1eff6b1
FN:J. Doe
N:Doe;J.;;;
EMAIL:jdoe@example.edu
TEL;VALUE=uri:tel:+1-555-555-5555
OBJECTCLASS:eduperson
NICKNAME:Jack
ORGDN: dc=example, dc=edu
AFFILIATION;TYPE=primary:faculty
AFFILIATION;TYPE=scoped:faculty@cs.example.edu
END:VCARD

5.2. Schedulable

A schedulable entity can be scheduled for meetings (as a person) or for use (as a resource). For a scheduling system to be able to usefully manage the schedule it needs specific information.

At the very least there needs to be some form of calendar user address. It's useful to know whether requests can be auto accepted if the slot is available.

Building on the previous example we'll make Jack schedulable.

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:4.0
UID:urn:uuid:4fbe8971-0bc3-424c-9c26-36c3e1eff6b1
FN:J. Doe
N:Doe;J.;;;
EMAIL:jdoe@example.edu
TEL;VALUE=uri:tel:+1-555-555-5555
OBJECTCLASS:eduperson
NICKNAME:Jack
ORGDN: dc=example, dc=edu
AFFILIATION;TYPE=primary:faculty
AFFILIATION;TYPE=scoped:faculty@cs.example.edu
OBJECTCLASS:schedulable
CALADRURI:jdoe@example.edu
AUTOSCHEDULE:ACCEPT-IF-FREE
END:VCARD

6. Security Considerations

As this document only defines a schema related property and does not refer to the actual storage mechanism itself, no special security considerations are required as part of this document.

7. IANA Considerations

7.1. New VCard Objectclass Value Registration

New objectclass values will be defined according to the process specified in Section 10.2.6 of [RFC6350].

8. References

8.1. Normative References

[ISO.8601.2004]
ISO, "Data elements and interchange formats - Information interchange - Representation of dates and times", ISO 8601:2004, , <https://www.iso.org/standard/40874.html>.
[RFC2119]
Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, BCP 14, RFC 2119, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC2739]
Small, T., Hennessy, D., and F. Dawson, "Calendar Attributes for vCard and LDAP", IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC2739, RFC 2739, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2739>.
[RFC3339]
Klyne, G. and C. Newman, "Date and Time on the Internet: Timestamps", IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC3339, RFC 3339, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3339>.
[RFC4589]
Schulzrinne, H. and H. Tschofenig, "Location Types Registry", IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC4589, RFC 4589, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4589>.
[RFC6350]
Perreault, S., "vCard Format Specification", IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC6350, RFC 6350, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6350>.

Authors' Addresses

Ciny Joy
Oracle Corporation
4210 Network Circle
Santa Clara, CA 95054
United States of America
Cyrus Daboo
Apple Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
United States of America
Michael Douglass
Spherical Cow Group
226 3rd Street
Troy, NY 12180
United States of America