Protocol-Specific Profiles for JSContact

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Table of Contents

1. Notational Conventions

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶

The ABNF definitions in this document use the notations of [RFC5234]. ABNF rules not defined in this document are defined in either [RFC5234] (such as the ABNF for CRLF, WSP, DQUOTE, VCHAR, ALPHA, and DIGIT) or [RFC6350].¶

2. Introduction

The JSContact [RFC9553] contact card data model and format is designed for use in address book applications and directory services. Intended as an alternative to the prevalent vCard [RFC6350] data format, it covers vCard core semantics and extensions, and provides a rich model for personal names, postal addresses and localization. All JSContact elements are relevant for some contact card use case and, similar to vCard, implementations are expected to support these elements when exchanging contact card information using protocols such as CardDAV [RFC6352] and JMAP for Contacts [RFC9610].¶

In contrast, other protocols and internet standards might require to exchange some contact card information, but not need all of what JSContact provides. Section 1.7.4 of [RFC9553] outlines how JSContact implementations may ignore unknown JSContact elements, but this only applies to future extensions of [RFC9553]; they are still expected to implement all elements of the core specification. Also, the extensibility of JSContact and the requirement to preserve arbitrary contact elements might not be adequate for some protocols.¶

To make use of JSContact under these circumstances, this document defines a new IANA registry for JSContact that allows to register named subsets of JSContact elements. These subsets are referred to as "JSContact profiles" and are meant to bring the following benefits:¶

• Protocol designers might be encouraged to use JSContact, rather than coming up with their own contacts format. This facilitates cross-protocol data exchange and migration.¶
• Different protocols use the same IANA registry to express which JSContact elements they support. This facilitates understanding their commonalities and reusing existing profiles.¶
• A central registry provides implementors of JSContact libraries with a consistent format documenting which profile supports what elements, rather than having to look up that information from possibly distinctly organized internet drafts.¶

This document is organized as follows: Section 3 defines JSContact profiles, Section 4 illustrates JSContact profiles by example, Section 5 summarizes the relevant information for IANA to establish the JSContact Profiles registry.¶

3. JSContact Profiles

A JSContact profile is a named subset of JSContact properties. The JSContact properties MUST be registered in the IANA JSContact registry. A JSContact extension MAY define both a new profile and new properties, as long as they are registered at the same time.¶

A JSContact object conforms to a profile if all its properties are in the subset of properties defined by that profile and its property values comply with the profile restrictions.¶

A JSContact profile MUST be registered at IANA (see Section 5).¶

4. Example Profile

This section provides an example for a JSContact profile. This profile is just for illustration, it is not registered at IANA.¶

Name:

jscontact-simple¶

Profile Version:

1.0¶

Nested PatchObject Keys:

Not Supported¶

Property Registry:

Table 1: Properties of the "jscontact-simple" profile

Property Name	Property Context	Restricted to be Mandatory	Restricted Property Type	Since Profile Version
addresses	Card			1.0
emails	Card			1.0
kind	Card			1.0
localizations	Card			1.0
name	Card			1.0
full	Address	Mandatory		1.0
components	Name			1.0
full	Name			1.0
kind	NameComponent			1.0
value	NameComponent			1.0

¶

This profile describes contact cards that can only contain:¶

• Full postal address lines, but no address components or any other property of the Address object type.¶
• Full names and distinct name components, but no other properties of the Name object type.¶
• Email addresses, where all properties of the EmailAddress object are supported.¶
• Localizations, with the restriction that PatchObject keys must not patch nested properties.¶

The following Card object conforms to that profile:¶

{
  "@type": "Card",
  "version": "1.0",
  "name": {
     "components": [
      { "kind": "given", "value": "Akiyo" },
      { "kind": "surname", "value": "Murakami" }
    ]
  },
  "addresses": {
    "a1": {
      "full": "71 Cherry Court, Somewhere, 123SO, UK"
    }
  },
  "emails": {
    "e1": {
      "address": "akiyo@example.com"
    }
  },
  "localizations": {
    "jp": {
      "name": {
        "components": [
         { "kind": "surname", "value": "村上" },
         { "kind": "given", "value": "啓代" }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

5. IANA Considerations

TBD¶

6. Security Considerations

This document does not provide new security considerations. The security considerations of Section 4 of [RFC9553] apply.¶

Authors' Addresses