Internet-Draft | Using JSContact in RDAP | October 2024 |
Loffredo & Brown | Expires 5 April 2025 | [Page] |
This document describes an RDAP extension which represents entity contact information in JSON responses using JSContact.¶
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 5 April 2025.¶
Copyright (c) 2024 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 (https://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 Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.¶
This document specifies an extension to the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) that allows RDAP servers to use JSContact [RFC9553] to represent the contact information associated with entities in RDAP responses, instead of jCard [RFC7095]. It also describes the process by which an RDAP server can transition from jCard to JSContact. RDAP query and response extensions are defined to facilitate the transition process.¶
According to the feedback from RDAP Pilot Working Group [RDAP-PILOT-WG], a group of RDAP server implementers representing registries and registrars of generic TLDs, the most commonly raised implementation concern, for both servers and client implementers, related to the use of jCard [RFC7095] to represent the contact information associated with entities. Working Group members reported jCard to be unintuitive, complicated to implement for both clients and servers, and incompatible with best practices for RESTful APIs.¶
JSContact [RFC9553] provides a simpler and more efficient representation for contact information with regard to time and effort saved in processing it. In addition, similarly to jCard, it provides a means to represent internationalised and unstructured contact information. Support for internationalised contact information has been recognised being necessary to facilitate the future internationalisation of registration data directory services.¶
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 JSContact specification declares the object type "Card" which represents a single contact card. To avoid confusion, in the following of this document, the term "JSCard" is used to refer to "JSContact Card".¶
The JSContact specification defines a data model and JSON representation of contact information that can be used for data storage and exchange in address book or directory applications. It aims to be an alternative to the vCard data format [RFC6350] and to be unambiguous, extendable and simple to process. In contrast with jCard, it is not a direct mapping from the vCard data model and expands semantics where appropriate.¶
JSCard differs from jCard in that it:¶
follows an object-oriented rather than array-oriented approach;¶
is simple to process;¶
requires no extra work in serialization/deserialization from/to a data model;¶
includes no "jagged" arrays;¶
prefers maps rather than arrays to implement collections.¶
[RFC9555] provides guidance on the conversion of jCard into JSCard, and vice versa. Appendix A shows JSContact counterparts for the most commonly used jCard properties in an RDAP response.¶
Since JSContact is a generalized representation of contact data, many of its capabilities are not optimised for use in RDAP responses. This document defines a usage profile for JSContact which simplifies the implementation, whether for clients or servers.¶
Entity objects in RDAP responses MAY include a "jscard" property whose value is a JSCard object instead of the "vCardArray" property defined in [RFC9083].¶
Servers returning the "jscard" property in their response MUST include "jscard" in the "rdapConformance" array.¶
This extension supports the following versioning types as defined in [I-D.ietf-regext-rdap-versioning]:¶
Opaque Versioning: The Opaque Extension Versioning Identifier is "jscard".¶
Semantic Versioning: The Semantic Extension Versioning Identifier is "jscard-0.1".¶
NOTE: Please change the Semantic Versioning value to "jscard-1.0" prior to publication as an RFC.¶
The JSCard "kind" property value MUST be "individual" (default) or "org" to represent an individual or an organization, respectively.¶
The JSCard "language" property SHOULD be set when localizations are specified (i.e. the "localizations" property is not null).¶
The JSCard "name" property MUST include the "full" member and MAY include the "components" array to specify the name components of an individual.¶
Since most of the JSCard collections are represented as maps, map keys must be defined. A JSCard map key MUST comply with the definition of the Id type (see Section 1.4.1 of [RFC9553]). To aid interoperability, RDAP providers MUST use the following Id values related to string values and labels defined in [RFC5733]:¶
"org" in the "organizations" map when there is a single <contact:org> element. If both internationalised and localized forms exist, the key MUST be used for the internationalised form;¶
"addr" in the "addresses" map when there is a single <contact:addr> element. If both internationalised and localized forms exist, the key MUST be used for the internationalised form;¶
"email" in the "emails" map when there is a single <contact:email> element. If both ASCII and SMTPUTF8 forms exist, the key MUST be used for the ASCII form;¶
"voice" in the "phones" map for the <contact:voice> element;¶
"fax" in the "phones" map for the <contact:fax> element.¶
Additional keys of the "links" map that MUST be used to represent contact links which result from converting jCard "uri" and "contact-uri" properties are:¶
"url" used for the unique or preferred contact url (e.g. a web site). The "kind" property of the JSContact "Link" object MUST NOT be set;¶
"contact-uri" used for the contact uri as defined in [RFC8605]. The "kind" property of the JSContact "Link" object MUST be set to "contact".¶
The information needed to register the JSContact Id values in the "RDAP JSON Values" registry [RFC9083] is described in Section 6.2.¶
An unregistered Id value used for the aforementioned maps or others SHOULD comply with the following scheme: "<map name>-<sequential number>" (e.g. "addresses-1", "addresses-2").¶
If present, the localized versions of name, organization, postal address and email MUST be added to the "localizations" map. With reference to the defintion of localization in [RFC9553], an RDAP response with JSContact content MUST expand all localizations (i.e. a patch key using the syntax "{key1}/{key2}/.../{keyN}" is not allowed). The following is an elided example of an RDAP entity lookup response including a JSCard object that presents a localized postal address (See PDF for non-ASCII character string).¶
The following is an example of an RDAP entity including a JSCard object.¶
The client MAY request the server to include the "jscard" property in the RDAP response by using only one of the following HTTP components:¶
the "versioning" query parameter as defined in [I-D.ietf-regext-rdap-versioning];¶
the "rdap-x" media type as defined in [I-D.ietf-regext-rdap-x-media-type].¶
Their usage in the transtion from jCard to JSCard is further explained in Section 4.2.2.2.¶
The use of JSContact updates the mappings of two reverse search properties, namely "fn" and "email", defined in [RFC9536]. Such new mappings are registered in the Reverse Search Mapping registry as described in Section 6.3.¶
RDAP allows servers to communicate service information to clients through notices. According to Section 4.3 of [RFC9083], an RDAP response may contain one or more notice objects. Each notice may include a set of link objects, which can be used to provide clients with references and documentation. These link objects may have a "rel" property which defines the relationship type, as described in [RFC8288], Section 4. The transition process outlined in this document uses a link relation type, namely "alternate", described in [RFC8288].¶
The information about the specifications used in the construction of the response is also described by the strings which appear in the "rdapConformance" property of the RDAP response.¶
The procedure consists of three contiguous stages. During the procedure, the presence of "jscard" tag in the rdapConformance array indicates that JSCard is returned instead of jCard. The date and time format used to notify clients about the stages of this procedure is defined in [RFC3339].¶
The procedure described in this document aims to achieve the following goals:¶
only one contact representation would be included in the response;¶
the response would always be compliant to [RFC9083] because:¶
clients would be informed about the transition timeline;¶
the backward compatibility would be guaranteed throughout the transition;¶
servers and clients could execute their transitions independently.¶
This stage corresponds to providing jCard as the default contact card [RFC9083]. The RDAP server is not able to provide an alternate format for the contact card. The rdapConformance array MUST NOT contain the "jscard" tag.¶
During this stage, the server uses jCard by default, but the RDAP server will return JSCard if the client requests for it through one of the methods described in Section 3.10. The rdapConformance array MUST contain the "jscard" tag if JSCard is returned.¶
From this stage on, the RDAP server MUST include the "jscard" tag in the rdapConformance array of the help response to signal clients that JSCard can be returned instead of jCard.¶
If JSCard is not requested, the RDAP server SHOULD include a notice titled "jCard sunset end" (Figure 3). Such a notice includes a description reporting the jCard sunset end date and time and two OPTIONAL links providing the request for JSCard through both the methods described in Section 3.10:¶
This stage corresponds to providing JSCard as default contact card. The rdapConformance array always contains "jscard" tag. The RDAP server doesn't include any notice about the jCard deprecation process. The request for JSCard through any method described in Section 3.10 MUST be ignored.¶
The RDAP server SHOULD include a notice titled "jCard deprecation" (Figure 4). Such a notice includes a description reporting the string "jCard has been deprecated".¶
NOTE: Please remove this section and the reference to RFC 7942 prior to publication as an RFC.¶
This section records the status of known implementations of the protocol defined by this specification at the time of posting of this Internet-Draft, and is based on a proposal described in RFC 7942 [RFC7942]. The description of implementations in this section is intended to assist the IETF in its decision processes in progressing drafts to RFCs. Please note that the listing of any individual implementation here does not imply endorsement by the IETF. Furthermore, no effort has been spent to verify the information presented here that was supplied by IETF contributors. This is not intended as, and must not be construed to be, a catalog of available implementations or their features. Readers are advised to note that other implementations may exist.¶
According to RFC 7942, "this will allow reviewers and working groups to assign due consideration to documents that have the benefit of running code, which may serve as evidence of valuable experimentation and feedback that have made the implemented protocols more mature. It is up to the individual working groups to use this information as they see fit".¶
Responsible Organization: Institute of Informatics and Telematics of National Research Council (IIT-CNR)/Registro.it¶
Location:https://rdap.pubtest.nic.it/¶
Description: This implementation includes support for RDAP queries using data from the public test environment of .it ccTLD.¶
Level of Maturity: This is an "alpha" test implementation.¶
Coverage: This implementation includes all of the features described in this specification.¶
Contact Information: Mario Loffredo, mario.loffredo@iit.cnr.it¶
Responsible Organization: Institute of Informatics and Telematics of National Research Council (IIT-CNR)/Registro.it¶
Location: https://web-rdap.pubtest.nic.it/¶
Description: This is a Javascript web-based RDAP client. RDAP responses are retrieved from RDAP servers by the browser, parsed into an HTML representation, and displayed in a format improving the user experience. RDAP responses containing JSCard objects are handled identically to those containing jCard objects. Raw versions of RDAP responses including either jCard or JSCard objects are provided.¶
Level of Maturity: This is an "alpha" test implementation.¶
Coverage: This implementation includes all of the features described in this specification.¶
Contact Information: Francesco Donini, francesco.donini@iit.cnr.it¶
Location: https://client.rdap.org/¶
Description: This is a web-based "single page" RDAP client. RDAP responses are retrieved from RDAP servers by the browser, and parsed into an HTML representation. RDAP responses containing JSCard objects are handled identically to those containing jCard objects.¶
Level of Maturity: This is an "alpha" test implementation.¶
Coverage: This implementation implements client support for parsing JSCard objects in RDAP responses.¶
Contact Information: Gavin Brown, feedback@rdap.org¶
Responsible Organization: CentralNic Group PLC¶
Location: https://rdap.centralnic.com/{tld}¶
Description: This server is the product RDAP service for all top-level domains on the CentralNic registry platform.¶
Level of Maturity: Production quality.¶
Coverage: This implementation includes all of the features described in this specification.¶
Contact Information: support@centralnic.com¶
IANA is requested to register the following values in the RDAP Extensions Registry:¶
With regard to the fields of the "RDAP JSON Values" registry [RFC9083], the "JSContact Id Value" type SHALL be used to register the RDAP values for the JSContact Id type as defined in Section 3.7.¶
IANA is requested to register the following values in the "RDAP JSON Values" registry:¶
IANA is requested to register the following entries in the the "RDAP Reverse Search Mapping" registry [RFC9536]:¶
Unlike what happens for the "fn" property in jCard, the only mandatory property in JSContact, namely "uid", is not a sensitive information. Nevertheless, RDAP operators can redact it to prevent results from being correlated. Hence, with reference to what is described in [RFC9537], a redaction method must be selected based on the "uid" format.¶
If "uid" is represented as a URN in the uuid namespace, the most appropriate choice is using the "Replacement Value" method along with the nil UUID as replacing value. If it is provided in the free-text format, the "Empty Value" method should be preferred. Otherwise, an URI value can be redacted by using any of the two methods above. For example, the URL of the RDAP entity corresponding to the contact (e.g. "https://example.com/rdap/entity/XYZ12345") can be redacted by replacing the entity handle with a fixed literal (e.g "https://example.com/rdap/entity/REDACTED-HANDLE").¶
The authors would like to acknowledge the following individuals for their contributions to this document: Jasdip Singh, Andrew Newton, Marc Blanchet, Rick Wilhelm and Francesco Donini.¶
Provided that the keys defined in Section 3.7 are used for the JSContact maps, the mapping between the most commonly used jCard properties in an RDAP response and their JSContact counterparts is shown in the following. The mapping is done through the use of JSONPath expressions [RFC9535].¶
Changed category from "Best Current Practice" to "Standards Track"¶
Changed the title of the "Migration from JCard to JSCard" section to "Transition Considerations"¶
Added "Query Parameters" section.¶
Rearranged the description of stage 1 in Section 4.2.2¶
Changed the names of the transition stages 1 and 2¶
Corrected examples¶
Changed the rdapConformance tag "jscard_level_0" to "jscard"¶
Removed the "Best Practices for deprecating a REST API features" section,but added a useful reference.¶
Removed the sentence "which cannot be represented using jCard" in Section 1.1.¶
Updated the reference draft-dalal-deprecation-header to draft-ietf-httpapi-deprecation-header.¶
Ported from draft-loffredo-regext-rdap-jcard-deprecation-04 renamed to draft-ietf-regext-rdap-jscontact-00.¶
Changed the references to Internet Drafts.¶
Added an example showing how localizations are treated in JSContact.¶
Changed the position of section "Goals" in Section 4.2.¶
Changed the rdapConformance tag "jscard" to "jscard_0"¶
Added clarifications addressing the feedback provided by Jasdip Singh about version -03.¶
Other minor edits.¶
Reviewed the notices presented in stages.¶
Updated the references to JSContact drafts due to the transfer from JMAP to CalExt.¶
Added Appendix "jCard-JSContact Mapping".¶
Renamed the "jscard" property to "jscard_0".¶
Corrected JSONPath expressions in Appendix A.¶
Corrected Figure 1, Figure 2 and Appendix A to make them compliant with draft-ietf-calext-jscontact-06.¶
Removed mention of JSContact CardGroup object.¶
Added Section 6.2.¶
Corrected Figure 1, Figure 2 and Appendix A to make them compliant with draft-ietf-calext-jscontact-06.¶
Removed mention of JSContact CardGroup object.¶
Added Section 6.2.¶
Fixed Figure 1, Figure 2, Section 6.3 and Appendix A to make them compliant with draft-ietf-calext-jscontact-16 and purge them of the JSContact properties which are hardly used in RDAP.¶
Added other mapping correspondences to Appendix A.¶
Updated references.¶
Updated Gavin Brown's contact info.¶
Removed from the notices field the optional link documenting the transition procedure.¶
Added a reference to RFC9553 section defining the Id type.¶
Tagged all BCP14 keywords.¶
Changed the example in Figure 2.¶
Added Section 3.6.¶
Changed Section 4.2.2.4 by removing the sentence about the duration of the transition process.¶
Turned the draft status into "Experimental".¶
Changed "@version" to "version" in the examples.¶
Rearranged the content of the "Query Parameters" section and renamed it into "Request for JSContact".¶
Added Section 3.2.¶
Added Section 3.10.¶
Rearranged Section 4.1.¶
Removed from Section 4.2.2.3 the "FOR DISCUSSION" item.¶
Added to Section 4.2.2.3 a notice signaling the jCard deprecation.¶
Removed an informative reference and the first paragraph of Section 4.2 including it.¶