XMPP Working Group P. Saint-Andre, Ed. Internet-Draft JSF Intended status: Informational October 13, 2006 Expires: April 16, 2007 Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and Presence draft-saintandre-rfc3921bis-00 Status of this Memo By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- Drafts. 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." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on April 16, 2007. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006). Abstract This document describes extensions to the core features of the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) that provide basic instant messaging (IM) and presence functionality in conformance with RFC 2779. This document obseletes RFC 3921. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 1] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Managing the Roster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3. Managing Presence Subscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4. Exchanging Presence Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 5. Exchanging Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 6. Exchanging IQ Stanzas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 7. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 8. Server Rules for Handling XML Stanzas . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 9. IM and Presence Compliance Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . 35 10. Internationalization Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 11. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 12. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 13. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 13.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 13.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Appendix A. Integration of Roster Management and Presence Subscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Appendix B. Subscription States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Appendix C. Blocking Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Appendix D. vCards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Appendix E. XML Schemas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Appendix F. Differences From RFC 3921 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 81 Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 2] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 1. Introduction 1.1. Overview The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is a protocol for streaming Extensible Markup Language [XML] elements in order to exchange messages, presence (availability) information, and other structured data in close to real time. The core features of XMPP are defined in [XMPP-CORE]. These features -- mainly XML streams, use of TLS and SASL, and the , , and children of the stream root -- provide the building blocks for many types of near-real-time applications, which may be layered on top of the core by sending application-specific data qualified by particular XML namespaces (see [XML-NAMES]). This document describes extensions to the core features of XMPP that provide the basic functionality expected of an instant messaging (IM) and presence application as defined in [IMP-REQS]. This document obsoletes RFC 3921. 1.2. Requirements Traditionally, instant messaging applications have combined the following factors: 1. The central point of focus is a list of one's contacts or "buddies" (in XMPP this list is called a "roster"). 2. The purpose of using such an application is to exchange relatively brief text messages with each of one's contacts in close to real time -- often relatively large numbers of such messages in rapid succession, in the form of one-to-one "chat sessions". 3. The catalyst for exchanging messages is "presence" -- i.e., knowledge about the network availability of each of one's contacts (thus knowing who is online and available for a chat session). 4. Presence information is provided only to contacts that a user has authorized via a presence subscription. Thus at a high level this document assumes that a user must be able to complete the following use cases: o Manage items in a contact list o Exchange messages with one's contacts o Exchange presence information with one's contacts o Manage presence subscriptions to and from one's contacts Detailed definitions of these functionality areas are contained in Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 3] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 [IMP-REQS], and the interested reader should refer to that document regarding the requirements addressed herein. While the XMPP instant messaging and presence extensions specified herein meet the requirements of [IMP-REQS], they were not designed explicitly with that specification in mind, since the base protocol evolved through an open development process within the Jabber open-source community before RFC 2779 was written. Note also that although XMPP protocol extensions addressing many other functionality areas have been defined in the Jabber Software Foundation's XEP series, such extensions are not included in this document because they are not required by [IMP-REQS]. Note: [IMP-REQS] stipulates that presence services must be separable from instant messaging services and vice-versa; i.e., it must be possible to use the protocol to provide a presence service, an instant messaging service, or both. Although the text of this document assumes that implementations and deployments will want to offer a unified instant messaging and presence service, there is no requirement that a service must offer both a presence service and an instant messaging service, and the protocol makes it possible to offer separate and distinct services for presence and for instant messaging. (For example, a presence-only service could return errors in response to attempts to route stanzas.) 1.3. Typical Session Flow [XMPP-CORE] specifies how an XMPP client connects to an XMPP server. In particular, it specifies the preconditions (including XML stream establishment, authentication, and binding of a resource to the stream) that must be fulfilled before a client is allowed to send XML stanzas (the basic unit of meaning in XMPP) to other entities on an XMPP network. The reader is referred to [XMPP-CORE] for details, and knowledge of [XMPP-CORE] is assumed herein. Upon fulfillment of the preconditions specified in [XMPP-CORE], an XMPP client has a session with an XMPP server and may send and receive a potentially unlimited number of XML stanzas over the underlying XML stream. The typical flow for an instant messaging and presence session is as follows: 1. Retrieve one's roster. (See Section 2.3.) 2. Send initial presence to the server for broadcasting to all subscribed contacts, thus "going online" from the perspective of XMPP communications. (See Section 4.2.) 3. Exchange messages, manage presence subscriptions, perform roster updates, and in general process and generate other XML stanzas with particular semantics throughout the life of the session. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 4] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 (See the various sections below.) 4. Terminate the session when desired by sending unavailable presence and closing the underlying XML stream. (See Section 4.5.) 1.4. Terminology This document inherits the terminology defined in [XMPP-CORE]. The following keywords are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [TERMS]: "MUST", "SHALL", "REQUIRED"; "MUST NOT", "SHALL NOT"; "SHOULD", "RECOMMENDED"; "SHOULD NOT", "NOT RECOMMENDED"; "MAY", "OPTIONAL". 2. Managing the Roster In XMPP, one's roster contains any number of specific contacts. A user's roster is stored by the user's server on the user's behalf so that the user may access roster information from any resource. Note: There are important interactions between rosters and subscriptions; these are defined under Integration of Managing the Roster and Presence Subscriptions (Appendix A), and the reader must refer to that section for a complete understanding of roster management (however, such an understanding is necessary only for developers of XMPP servers, since most of the complexity is shielded from clients). 2.1. Syntax and Semantics Rosters are managed using IQ stanzas, specifically by means of a child element qualified by the 'jabber:iq:roster' namespace. The element MAY contain one or more children, each describing a unique roster item or "contact". The "key" or unique identifier for each roster item is a Jabber Identifier or JID, encapsulated in the 'jid' attribute of the element (which is REQUIRED). Note: When the item added represents another IM user, the value of the 'jid' attribute MUST be of the form rather . The state of the presence subscription in relation to a roster item is captured in the 'subscription' attribute of the element. Allowable values for this attribute are: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 5] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 o "none" -- the user does not have a subscription to the contact's presence information, and the contact does not have a subscription to the user's presence information o "to" -- the user has a subscription to the contact's presence information, but the contact does not have a subscription to the user's presence information o "from" -- the contact has a subscription to the user's presence information, but the user does not have a subscription to the contact's presence information o "both" -- both the user and the contact have subscriptions to each other's presence information (also called a "mutual subscription") Each element MAY possess a 'name' attribute, which sets the "handle" to be associated with the JID, as determined by the user (not the contact). The value of the 'name' attribute is opaque. Each element MAY contain one or more child elements, for use in collecting roster items into various categories. The XML character data of the element is opaque. 2.2. Business Rules A server MUST ignore any 'to' address on a roster "set", and MUST treat any roster "set" as applying to the sender. For added safety, a client SHOULD check the "from" address of a "roster push" (incoming IQ of type "set" containing a roster item) to ensure that it is from a trusted source; specifically, the stanza MUST either have no 'from' attribute (i.e., implicitly from the server) or have a 'from' attribute whose value matches the user's bare JID (of the form ) or full JID (of the form ); otherwise, the client SHOULD ignore the "roster push". 2.3. Retrieving One's Roster on Login Upon authenticating with a server and binding a resource (thus becoming a "connected resource"), a client SHOULD request the roster before sending initial presence (however, because receiving the roster may not be desirable for all resources, e.g., a connection with limited bandwidth, the client's request for the roster is recommended and not required). If an available resource does not request the roster during a session, the server MUST NOT send it presence subscriptions and associated roster updates. For the sake of brevity, the term "interested resource" is used herein to refer to the concept of "an available resource that has requested the roster". Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 6] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Example: Client requests current roster from server: Example: Client receives roster from server: Friends 2.4. Adding a Roster Item At any time, a user MAY add an item to his or her roster by sending an IQ stanza of type "set" containing a element that in turn contains one element. Example: Client adds a new item: Servants Note: The element MUST NOT contain more than one child element when the client sends an IQ set to the server. In addition, the element MAY contain more than one element but the XML character data of each element MUST specify distinct groups (where duplicates are to be determined using the Resourceprep profile of stringprep as defined in [XMPP-CORE]). If either of these rules is violated, the server MUST return a error to the client. Note: A client MUST NOT add itself to its own roster; i.e., the value of the element's 'jid' attribute MUST NOT match the bare JID (node@domain) portion of the element's 'from' attribute. If this rule is violated, the server MUST return a error to the client. If the server can successfully process the roster addition, it MUST update the roster information in persistent storage and push the change out to all of the user's interested resources. This "roster push" consists of an IQ stanza of type "set" from the server to the client and enables all interested resources to remain in sync with the server-based roster information. Example: Server (1) pushes the updated roster information to all interested resources and (2) replies with an IQ result to the sending resource: Servants Servants As required by the semantics of the IQ stanza kind as defined in [XMPP-CORE], each resource that received the roster push MUST reply with an IQ stanza of type "result" (or "error"). Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 8] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Example: Resources reply with an IQ result to the server: 2.5. Updating a Roster Item Updating an existing roster item (e.g., changing the group) is done in the same way as adding a new roster item, i.e., by sending the roster item in an IQ set to the server. Example: User updates roster item (add group): Friends Lovers Example: User updates roster item (remove group): Lovers Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 9] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Example: User updates roster item (change handle): Lovers Example: User updates roster item (remove handle): Lovers As with adding a roster item, when updating a roster item the server MUST update the roster information in persistent storage, initiate a roster push to all of the user's interested resources, and send an IQ result to the initiating resource. 2.6. Deleting a Roster Item At any time, a user MAY delete an item from his or her roster by sending an IQ set to the server and setting the value of the 'subscription' attribute to "remove" (a compliant server MUST ignore any other values of the 'subscription' attribute when received from a client). Example: Client removes an item: As with adding a roster item, when deleting a roster item the server MUST update the roster information in persistent storage, initiate a roster push to all of the user's interested resources (with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "remove"), and send an IQ result to the initiating resource. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 10] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 This command will result in cancellation of existing presence subscriptions; for details, see Removing a Roster Item and Cancelling All Subscriptions (Appendix A.6). 3. Managing Presence Subscriptions In order to protect the privacy of instant messaging users and any other entities, presence and availability information is disclosed only to other entities that the user has approved. When a user has agreed that another entity may view its presence, the entity is said to have a subscription to the user's presence information. A subscription lasts across sessions; indeed, it lasts until the subscriber unsubscribes or the subscribee cancels the previously- granted subscription. Subscriptions are managed within XMPP by sending presence stanzas containing specially-defined attributes. In particular, a subscription request is a presence stanza whose 'type' attribute has a value of "subscribe". If the subscription request is being sent to an instant messaging contact, the JID supplied in the 'to' attribute SHOULD be of the form rather than , since the desired result is normally for the user to receive presence from all of the contact's resources, not merely the particular resource specified in the 'to' attribute. Note: There are important interactions between subscriptions and rosters; these are defined under Integration of Managing the Roster and Presence Subscriptions (Appendix A), and the reader must refer to that section for a complete understanding of presence subscriptions. 3.1. Requesting a Subscription A request to subscribe to another entity's presence is made by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribe". Example: Sending a subscription request: A user's server MUST NOT automatically approve subscription requests on the user's behalf. All subscription requests MUST be delivered to the user's client, specifically to one or more of the user's interested resources. If the user has no interested resources when the subscription request is received by the user's server, the user's server MUST keep a record of the complete subscription request Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 11] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 (including any extended namespacescontained therein) and deliver the request when the user next has an interested resource, until the user either approves or denies the request. If there is more than one interested resource associated with the user when the subscription request is received by the user's server, the user's server MUST broadcast that subscription request to all interested resources in accordance with Server Rules for Handling XML Stanzas (Section 8). However, if the user receives a presence stanza of type "subscribe" from a contact to whom the user has already granted permission to see the user's presence information (e.g., in cases when the contact is seeking to resynchronize subscription states), the user's server SHOULD auto-reply on behalf of the user. In addition, the user's server MAY choose to re-send an unapproved pending subscription request to the contact based on an implementation-specific algorithm (e.g., whenever a new resource becomes available for the user, or after a certain amount of time has elapsed); this helps to recover from transient, silent errors that may have occurred in relation to the original subscription request. Note: When a contact generates a subscription request to a user, the contact's server MUST stamp the outgoing presence stanza with the bare JID () of the contact, not the full JID (). The same is true for presence stanzas of type "subscribed", "unsubscribe", and "unsubscribed". Note: If a user sends a presence subscription request to a contact but has not already added the contact to the user's roster, the user's server MUST send a roster push to all of the user's interested resources. Thus a client MAY simply wait for the roster push rather than proactively adding to the contact to the user's roster. 3.2. Handling a Subscription Request When a client receives a subscription request from another entity, it SHOULD either approve the request by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribed" or refuse the request by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed". Example: Approving a subscription request: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 12] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Example: Refusing a presence subscription request: 3.3. Cancelling a Subscription from Another Entity If a user would like to cancel a previously-granted subscription request, it sends a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed". Example: Cancelling a previously granted subscription request: 3.4. Unsubscribing from Another Entity's Presence If a user would like to unsubscribe from the presence of another entity, it sends a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe". Example: Unsubscribing from an entity's presence: 4. Exchanging Presence Information 4.1. Overview The concept of presence refers to an entity's availability for communication over a network. At the most basic level, presence is a boolean "on/off" variable that signals whether an entity is available or unavailable for communication; the terms "online" and "offline" are also used. In XMPP, a principal's availability is signalled when a client controlled by the principal generates a stanza with no 'type' attribute, and an entity's lack of availability is signalled when a client or entity generates a stanza whose 'type' attribute has a value of "unavailable". In XMPP-based applications that combine messaging and presence functionality, the default type of communication for which presence signals availability is messaging; however, XMPP-based applications are not required to combine messaging and presence functionality, and can provide standalone presence features without messaging (in addition, XMPP servers do not require presence information in order to successfully Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 13] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 route message and IQ stanzas). XMPP presence typically follows a "publish-subscribe" or "observer" pattern, wherein an entity sends presence information to its server, and its server then broadcasts or multiplexes that information to all of the entity's contacts who have a subscription to the entity's presence (in the terminology of [IMP-MODEL], an entity that generates presence information is a "presentity" and the entities that receive presence information are "subscribers"). A client generates presence for broadcasting to all subscribed entities by sending a presence stanza to its server with no 'to' address, where the presence stanza has either no 'type' attribute or a 'type' attribute whose value is "unavailable". A user's server MUST NOT leak the user's network availability to entities who are not authorized to know the user's presence, either via an explicit subscription as described herein or via an existing trust relationship (such as presence-enabled user directories within organizations). However, a client MAY also send directed presence (Section 4.6) to entities that are not subscribed to the principal's presence (this does not constitute a presence leak, since it is initiated by the client); this is done by specifying a 'to' address on the relevant presence stanza. (Note: While presence information MAY be provided on a user's behalf by an automated service, normally it is provided by the user's client.) After a client completes the preconditions specified in [XMPP-CORE], it can establish a "presence session" at its server by sending "initial presence" as described below, that is by sending a presence stanza with to 'type' or 'to' attribute. The XMPP presence stanza is also used to negotiate and manage subscriptions to the presence of other entities. These tasks are completed via presence stanzas of type "subscribe", "unsubscribe", "subscribed", and "unsubscribed" as described under Section 3. If a user and contact are associated with different XMPP servers, those servers also use a special presence stanza of type "probe" in order to determine the availability of the entity on the peer server. Clients SHOULD NOT send presence stanzas of type "probe". Naturally, a presence stanza may also be of type "error". The values of the 'type' attribute are summarized below (the reader is reminded that a presence stanza with no 'type' attribute signals that the relevant entity is available for communication): o unavailable -- Signals that the entity is no longer available for communication. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 14] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 o subscribe -- The sender wishes to subscribe to the recipient's presence. o subscribed -- The sender has allowed the recipient to receive their presence. o unsubscribe -- The sender is unsubscribing from another entity's presence. o unsubscribed -- The subscription request has been denied or a previously-granted subscription has been cancelled. o probe -- A request for an entity's current presence; SHOULD be generated only by a server on behalf of a user. o error -- An error has occurred regarding processing or delivery of a previously-sent presence stanza. 4.2. Initial Presence After completing the preconditions described in [XMPP-CORE] (REQUIRED) and requesting the roster (RECOMMENDED), a client SHOULD send initial presence to its server in order to signal its availability for communications. As defined herein, the initial presence stanza (1) MUST possess no 'to' address (signalling that it is meant to be broadcasted by the server on behalf of the client) and (2) MUST possess no 'type' attribute (signalling the user's availability). After sending initial presence, a connected resource (in the terminology of [XMPP-CORE]) is said to be an "available resource". Upon receiving initial presence from a client, the user's server MUST do the following if there is not already one or more available resources for the user (if there is already one or more available resources for the user, the server obviously does not need to send the presence probes, since it already possesses the requisite information): 1. Send presence probes (i.e., presence stanzas whose 'type' attribute is set to a value of "probe") from the full JID (e.g., ) of the user to all contacts to which the user is subscribed in order to determine if they are available; such contacts are those for which a JID is present in the user's roster with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "to" or "both". 2. Broadcast initial presence from the full JID (e.g., ) of the user to all contacts that are subscribed to the user's presence information; such contacts are those for which a JID is present in the user's roster with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "from" or "both". In addition, the user's server MUST broadcast initial presence from the user's newly available resource to the user's existing available Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 15] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 resources (if any). Upon receiving initial presence from the user, the contact's server MUST deliver the user's presence stanza to the full JIDs (e.g., ) associated with all of the contact's available resources, but only if the user is in the contact's roster with a subscription state of "to" or "both". If the user's server receives a presence stanza of type "error" in response to the initial presence that it sent to a contact on behalf of the user, it SHOULD NOT send further presence updates to that contact (until and unless it receives a presence stanza from the contact). 4.3. Presence Probes Upon receiving a presence probe from the user's server on behalf of the user, the contact's server SHOULD reply as follows: 1. If the user is in the contact's roster with a subscription state other than "From", "From + Pending Out", or "Both" (as defined under Subscription States (Appendix B)), the contact's server MUST return a presence stanza of type "error" in response to the presence probe (however, if a server receives a presence probe from a subdomain of the server's hostname or another such trusted service, it MAY provide presence information about the user to that entity). Specifically: * if the user is in the contact's roster with a subscription state of "None", "None + Pending Out", or "To" (or is not in the contact's roster at all), the contact's server MUST return a stanza error in response to the presence probe. * if the user is in the contact's roster with a subscription state of "None + Pending In", "None + Pending Out/In", or "To + Pending In", the contact's server MUST return a stanza error in response to the presence probe. 2. Else, if the contact has no available resources, the server MUST either (1) reply to the presence probe by sending to the user the full XML of the last presence stanza of type "unavailable" received by the server from the contact, or (2) not reply at all. 3. Else, if the contact has at least one available resource, the server MUST reply to the presence probe by sending to the user the full XML of the last presence stanza with no 'to' attribute received by the server from each of the contact's available resources. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 16] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 4.4. Subsequent Presence Broadcast After sending initial presence, the user MAY update its availability for broadcasting at any time during its session by sending a presence stanza with no 'to' address and no 'type' attribute. (Note: A user's client SHOULD NOT send a presence update to broadcast information that changes independently of the user's presence and availability.) Upon receiving such a presence stanza expressing updated availability, the user's server MUST broadcast the full XML of that presence stanza to all contacts (1) that are in the user's roster with a subscription type of "from" or "both" and (2) from whom the server has not received unavailable presence or a presence error during the user's session, as well as to the user's other available resources. (Note: Regarding rule 2 above, if the subscription state is "both" then the server MAY broadcast subsequent presence only if the server has received available presence from the contact at some point during the user's session; i.e., if the server never received available presence from the contact and the user has a mutual presence subscription with the contact, it MAY decline to send subsequent presence to the contact.) 4.5. Unavailable Presence Before ending its session with a server, a client SHOULD gracefully become unavailable by sending a final presence stanza that possesses no 'to' attribute and that possesses a 'type' attribute whose value is "unavailable" (optionally, the final presence stanza MAY contain one or more elements specifying the reason why the user is no longer available). However, the user's server MUST NOT depend on receiving final presence from an available resource, since the resource may become unavailable unexpectedly or may be timed out by the server. If one of the user's resources becomes unavailable for any reason (either gracefully or ungracefully), the user's server MUST broadcast unavailable presence to all contacts (1) that are in the user's roster with a subscription type of "from" or "both" and (2) from whom the server has not received unavailable presence or a presence error during the user's session; the user's server MUST also send that unavailable presence stanza to the user's other available resources. (Note: Regarding rule 2 above, if the subscription state is "both" then the server MAY broadcast unavailable presence only if the server has received available presence from the contact at some point during the user's session; i.e., if the server never received available presence from the contact and the user has a mutual presence subscription with the contact, it MAY decline to send unavailable presence to the contact). If the unavailable presence stanza was received from the client, the server MUST broadcast the full XML of that presence stanza to all entities that fit the above Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 17] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 description. Any presence stanza with no 'type' attribute and no 'to' attribute that is sent after sending broadcasted unavailable presence MUST be broadcasted by the server to all subscribers (i.e., MUST be treated as equivalent to "initial presence" for a new presence session). 4.6. Directed Presence This section supplements and in some respects modifies the rules defined above, but only for the special case of "directed presence". Broadcasted presence is generated when a client sends a presence stanza with no type (or with type "unavailable") and no 'to' address over the XML to its server. However, a user MAY also send directed presence to another entity -- i.e., a presence stanza with a 'to' attribute whose value is the JID of the other entity and with either no 'type' attribute or a 'type' attribute whose value is "unavailable". There are three possible cases: 1. If the user sends directed available or unavailable presence to a contact that is in the user's roster with a subscription type of "from" or "both" after having sent initial presence and before sending broadcasted unavailable presence, the user's server MUST route or deliver the full XML of that presence stanza but SHOULD NOT otherwise modify the contact's status regarding broadcasted presence (i.e., it SHOULD include the contact's JID in any subsequent presence broadcasts initiated by the user). 2. If the user sends directed presence to an entity that is not in the user's roster with a subscription type of "from" or "both" after having sent initial presence and before sending broadcasted unavailable presence, the user's server MUST route or deliver the full XML of that presence stanza to the entity but MUST NOT modify the contact's status regarding available presence broadcast (i.e., it MUST NOT include the entity's JID in any subsequent broadcasts of available presence initiated by the user); however, if the available resource from which the user sent the directed presence become unavailable, the user's server MUST route that unavailable presence to the entity (if the user has not yet sent directed unavailable presence to that entity). 3. If the user sends directed presence without first sending initial presence or after having sent unavailable presence broadcast (i.e., the resource is connected but not available), the user's server MUST treat the entities to which the user sends directed presence in the same way that it treats the entities listed in case #2 above. A server SHOULD respond to presence probes from entities to which a Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 18] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 user has sent directed presence (before sending directed or broadcasted unavailable presence), even if such entities are not in the user's roster with a subscription type of "from" or "both". For instance, a user may join a multi-user chat room (see [XEP-0045]) by sending directed presence to the room: In order to discover if the user remains online, the chat service SHOULD send a presence probe to the user on behalf of the room: If the user is still online, the user's server SHOULD send an empty available presence to the requesting entity: If the user is now offline, the user's server SHOULD send an empty unavailable presence to the requesting entity: 4.7. Presence Syntax In accordance with the default namespace declaration, a presence stanza is qualified by the 'jabber:client' or 'jabber:server' namespace, which defines certain allowable children of presence stanzas, in particular the , , and elements. These child elements are used to provide more detailed information about an entity's availability. Typically these child elements are provided only if the presence stanza possesses no 'type' attribute, although exceptions are noted below. 4.7.1. Availability States The OPTIONAL element contains non-human-readable XML character data that specifies the particular availability sub-state of an entity or a specific resource thereof. A presence stanza MUST NOT contain more than one element. The element MUST NOT possess any attributes. If provided, the XML character data value MUST be one of the following (additional availability types could be defined through a properly-namespaced child element of the Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 19] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 presence stanza): o away -- The entity or resource is temporarily away. o chat -- The entity or resource is actively interested in chatting. o dnd -- The entity or resource is busy (dnd = "Do Not Disturb"). o xa -- The entity or resource is away for an extended period (xa = "eXtended Away"). If no element is provided, the entity is assumed to be online and available. Example: Availability status: dnd 4.7.2. Availability Description The OPTIONAL element contains XML character data specifying a natural-language description of an entity's availability. It is normally used in conjunction with the show element to provide a detailed description of an availability state (e.g., "In a meeting") when the presence stanza has no 'type' attribute. The element MUST NOT possess any attributes, with the exception of the 'xml:lang' attribute. Multiple instances of the element MAY be included, but only if each instance possesses an 'xml:lang' attribute with a distinct language value (either explicitly or by inheritance of the 'xml:lang' value of an element farther up in the XML hierarchy, which may include the XML stream header as described in Section 4.4 of [XMPP-CORE]). Example: Availability description: dnd Wooing Juliet Ja dvořím Juliet A presence stanza of type "unavailable" MAY also include a element to provide detailed information about why the entity is going offline. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 20] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Example: Unavailability description: Busy IRL The child MAY also be sent in a presence stanza of type "subscribe" to provide a description of the subscription request: Example: Description of subscription request: Hi, Juliet said I should add you to my buddy list. 4.7.3. Resource Priority The OPTIONAL element contains non-human-readable XML character data that specifies the priority level of the resource. The value MUST be an integer between -128 and +127. A presence stanza MUST NOT contain more than one element. The element MUST NOT possess any attributes. If no priority is provided, a server SHOULD consider the priority to be zero. Example: Presence priority: dnd Wooing Juliet Ja dvořím Juliet 1 For information regarding the semantics of priority values in stanza routing within instant messaging and presence applications, refer to Server Rules for Handling XML Stanzas (Section 8). 4.7.4. Presence Errors If the presence stanza is of type "error", it MUST include an child element; for details, see [XMPP-CORE]. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 21] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 4.7.5. Extended Namespaces As described in [XMPP-CORE], an XML stanza MAY contain any properly- namespaced child element; this applies to the presence stanza as well. 5. Exchanging Messages 5.1. Overview Once a client has authenticated with a server and bound a resource to an XML stream as described in [XMPP-CORE], an XMPP server will route XML stanzas to and from that client. One type of stanza that may be exchanged is . Exchanging messages is a basic use of XMPP and is brought about when a user generates a message stanza that is addressed to another entity. As defined under Server Rules for Handling XML Stanzas (Section 8), the sender's server is responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient (if the recipient is on the same server) or for routing the message to the recipient's server (if the recipient is on a different server). Thus the message stanza is used to "push" information to another entity. An instant messaging client SHOULD specify an intended recipient for a message by providing the JID of an entity other than the sender in the 'to' attribute of the stanza. If the message is being sent in reply to a message previously received from an address of the form (e.g., within the context of a chat session), the value of the 'to' address SHOULD be of the form rather than of the form unless the sender has knowledge (via presence) that the intended recipient's resource is no longer available. If the message is being sent outside the context of any existing chat session or received message, the value of the 'to' address SHOULD be of the form rather than of the form . Common uses of the message stanza in instant messaging applications include single messages, messages sent in the context of a chat conversation, messages sent in the context of a multi-user chat room, headlines and other alerts, and errors. These uses are differentiated via 'type' attribute. Inclusion of the 'type' attribute is RECOMMENDED. If included, the 'type' attribute MUST have one of the following values: o chat -- The message is sent in the context of a one-to-one chat conversation. A compliant client SHOULD present the message in an interface enabling one-to-one chat between the two parties, including an appropriate conversation history. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 22] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 o error -- An error has occurred related to a previous message sent by the sender (for details regarding stanza error syntax, refer to [XMPP-CORE]). A compliant client SHOULD present an appropriate interface informing the sender of the nature of the error. o groupchat -- The message is sent in the context of a multi-user chat environment (similar to that of [IRC]). A compliant client SHOULD present the message in an interface enabling many-to-many chat between the parties, including a roster of parties in the chatroom and an appropriate conversation history. Full definition of XMPP-based groupchat protocols is out of scope for this document (for details see [XEP-0045]). o headline -- The message is probably generated by an automated service that delivers or broadcasts content (news, sports, market information, syndicated content, etc.). No reply to the message is expected, and a compliant client SHOULD present the message in an interface that appropriately differentiates the message from standalone messages, chat sessions, or groupchat sessions (e.g., by not providing the recipient with the ability to reply). o normal -- The message is a single message that is sent outside the context of a one-to-one conversation or groupchat, and to which it is expected that the recipient will reply. A compliant client SHOULD present the message in an interface enabling the recipient to reply, but without a conversation history. This is the default value of the 'type' attribute. An IM application SHOULD support all of the foregoing message types; if an application receives a message with no 'type' attribute or the application does not understand the value of the 'type' attribute provided, it MUST consider the message to be of type "normal" (i.e., "normal" is the default). The "error" type MUST be generated only in response to an error related to a message received from another entity. Although the 'type' attribute is OPTIONAL, it is considered polite to mirror the type in any replies to a message; furthermore, some specialized applications (e.g., a multi-user chat service) MAY at their discretion enforce the use of a particular message type (e.g., type='groupchat'). In addition to the 'type' attribute (which differentiates the conversational context of the message), an XMPP message stanza MAY contain any allowable child elements qualified by the 'jabber:client' (or 'jabber:server') namespace, as well as any other properly- namespaced child element. These payloads are described below. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 23] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 5.2. Specifying a Message Body The element contains human-readable XML character data that specifies the textual contents of the message; this child element is normally included but is OPTIONAL. The element MUST NOT possess any attributes, with the exception of the 'xml:lang' attribute. Multiple instances of the element MAY be included, but only if each instance possesses an 'xml:lang' attribute with a distinct language value (either explicitly or by inheritance of the 'xml:lang' value of an element farther up in the XML hierarchy, which may include the XML stream header as described in Section 4.4 of [XMPP-CORE]). The element MUST NOT contain mixed content (as defined in Section 3.2.2 of [XML]). A message stanza often will contain a child element whose XML character data specifies the primary meaning of the message. Example: A message with a body: Wherefore art thou, Romeo? PročeŽ jsi ty, Romeo? 5.3. Specifying a Message Subject The element contains human-readable XML character data that specifies the topic of the message. The element MUST NOT possess any attributes, with the exception of the 'xml:lang' attribute. Multiple instances of the element MAY be included for the purpose of providing alternate versions of the same subject, but only if each instance possesses an 'xml:lang' attribute with a distinct language value (either explicitly or by inheritance of the 'xml:lang' value of an element farther up in the XML hierarchy, which may include the XML stream header as described in Section 4.4 of [XMPP-CORE]). The element MUST NOT contain mixed content (as defined in Section 3.2.2 of [XML]). Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 24] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Example: A message with a subject: I implore you! Úpěnlivě prosim! Wherefore art thou, Romeo? PročeŽ jsi ty, Romeo? 5.4. Specifying a Conversation Thread The element contains non-human-readable XML character data specifying an identifier that is used for tracking a conversation thread (sometimes referred to as an "instant messaging session") between two entities. The value of the element is generated by the sender and SHOULD be copied back in any replies. If used, it MUST be unique to that conversation thread within the stream and MUST be consistent throughout that conversation (a client that receives a message from the same full JID but with a different thread ID MUST assume that the message in question exists outside the context of the existing conversation thread). The use of the element is OPTIONAL and is not used to identify individual messages, only conversations. A message stanza MUST NOT contain more than one element. The element MUST NOT possess any attributes. The value of the element MUST be treated as opaque by entities; no semantic meaning may be derived from it, and only exact comparisons may be made against it. The element MUST NOT contain mixed content (as defined in Section 3.2.2 of [XML]). 5.5. Message Errors If the message stanza is of type "error", it MUST include an child; for details, see [XMPP-CORE]. 5.6. Extended Namespaces As described in [XMPP-CORE], an XML stanza MAY contain any properly- namespaced child element; this applies to the message stanza as well. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 25] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 6. Exchanging IQ Stanzas As described in [XMPP-CORE], IQ stanzas provide a structured request- response mechanism. The basic semantics of that mechanism (e.g., that the 'id' attribute is required) are defined in [XMPP-CORE], whereas the specific semantics required to complete particular use cases are defined in all cases by an extended namespace. Note that the 'jabber:client' and 'jabber:server' namespaces do not define any children of IQ stanzas other than the common . This document defines such an extended namespace, for Managing the Roster (Section 2). However, an IQ stanza MAY contain structured information qualified by any extended namespace. 7. Examples The examples in this section illustrate a possible instant messaging and presence session. The user is romeo@example.net, he has an available resource whose resource identifier is "orchard", and he has the following individuals in his roster: o juliet@example.com (subscription="both" and she has two available resources, one whose resource is "chamber" and another whose resource is "balcony") o benvolio@example.org (subscription="to") o mercutio@example.org (subscription="from") First, the user completes the preconditions (stream establishment, TLS and SASL negotiation, and resource binding) described in [XMPP-CORE]; those packet flows are not reproduced here. Next, the user requests his roster: Example 1: Client requests current roster from server: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 26] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Example 2: Client receives roster from server: Friends Now the user sends initial presence. Example 3: User sends initial presence: Example 4: User's server sends presence probes to contacts with subscription="to" and subscription="both" on behalf of the user's available resource: Example 5: User's server sends initial presence to contacts with subscription="from" and subscription="both" on behalf of the user's available resource: Example 6: Contacts' servers reply to presence probe on behalf of all available resources: away be right back 0 1 dnd gallivanting Example 7: Contacts' servers deliver user's initial presence to all available resources or return error to user: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 28] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Example 8: User sends directed presence to another user not in his roster: dnd courting Juliet 0 Now the user has a threaded conversation (chat session) with one of his contacts. Example 9: A threaded conversation Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague? e0ffe42b28561960c6b12b944a092794b9683a38 Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike. e0ffe42b28561960c6b12b944a092794b9683a38 How cam'st thou hither, tell me, and wherefore? e0ffe42b28561960c6b12b944a092794b9683a38 And so on. The user can also send subsequent presence broadcast. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 29] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Example 10: User sends updated available presence information for broadcasting: away I shall return! 1 Example 11: User's server broadcasts updated presence information only to one contact (not those from whom an error was received or to whom the user sent directed presence): away I shall return! 1 Example 12: Contact's server delivers updated presence information to all of the contact's available resources: [to "balcony" resource...] away I shall return! 1 [to "chamber" resource...] away I shall return! 1 Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 30] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Example 13: One of the contact's resources broadcasts final presence: Example 14: Contact's server sends unavailable presence information to user: Example 15: User sends unavailable presence: gone home Example 16: User's server broadcasts unavailable presence information to contact as well as to the person to whom the user sent directed presence: gone home gone home Now the user closes his stream: And the user's server closes its stream as well: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 31] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 THE END 8. Server Rules for Handling XML Stanzas Basic routing and delivery rules for servers are defined in [XMPP-CORE]. This section defines additional rules for XMPP- compliant instant messaging and presence servers. 8.1. Inbound Stanzas If the hostname of the domain identifier portion of the JID contained in the 'to' attribute of an inbound stanza matches a hostname of the server itself and the JID contained in the 'to' attribute is of the form or , the server MUST follow the rules defined below: 1. If the JID is of the form and an available resource matches the full JID, the recipient's server MUST deliver the stanza to that resource. 2. Else if the JID is of the form or and the associated user account does not exist, the recipient's server (a) SHOULD silently ignore the stanza (i.e., neither deliver it nor return an error) if it is a presence stanza, (b) MUST return a stanza error to the sender if it is an IQ stanza, and (c) SHOULD return a stanza error to the sender if it is a message stanza. 3. Else if the JID is of the form and no connected or available resource matches the full JID, the recipient's server (a) SHOULD silently ignore the stanza (i.e., neither deliver it nor return an error) if it is a presence stanza, (b) MUST return a stanza error to the sender if it is an IQ stanza, and (c) SHOULD treat the stanza as if it were addressed to if it is a message stanza. 4. Else if the JID is of the form and there is at least one available resource available for the user, the recipient's server MUST follow these rules: 1. For message stanzas, the server SHOULD deliver the stanza to the highest-priority available resource (if the resource did not provide a value for the element, the server SHOULD consider it to have provided a value of zero). If two or more available resources have the same priority, the server MAY use some other rule (e.g., most recent connect time, most recent activity time, or highest availability as determined by some hierarchy of values) to choose between them or MAY deliver the message to all such Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 32] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 resources. However, the server MUST NOT deliver the stanza to an available resource with a negative priority; if the only available resource has a negative priority, the server SHOULD handle the message as if there were no available resources (defined below). In addition, the server MUST NOT rewrite the 'to' attribute (i.e., it MUST leave it as rather than change it to ). 2. For presence stanzas other than those of type "probe", the server MUST deliver the stanza to all available resources; for presence probes, the server SHOULD reply based on the rules defined in Presence Probes (Section 4.3). In addition, the server MUST NOT rewrite the 'to' attribute (i.e., it MUST leave it as rather than change it to ). 3. For IQ stanzas, the server itself MUST reply on behalf of the user with either an IQ result or an IQ error, and MUST NOT deliver the IQ stanza to the available resources. Specifically, if the semantics of the qualifying namespace define a reply that the server can provide, the server MUST reply to the stanza on behalf of the user; if not, the server MUST reply with a stanza error. 5. Else if the JID is of the form and there are no available resources associated with the user, how the stanza shall be handled depends on the stanza type: 1. For presence stanzas of type "subscribe", "subscribed", "unsubscribe", and "unsubscribed", the server MUST maintain a record of the stanza and deliver the stanza at least once (i.e., when the user next creates an available resource and requests the roster); in addition, the server MUST continue to deliver presence stanzas of type "subscribe" until the user either approves or denies the subscription request (see also Managing Presence Subscriptions (Section 3)). 2. For all other presence stanzas, the server SHOULD silently ignore the stanza by not storing it for later delivery or replying to it on behalf of the user. 3. For message stanzas, the server MAY choose to store the stanza on behalf of the user and deliver it when the user next becomes available, or forward the message to the user via some other means (e.g., to the user's email account). However, if offline message storage or message forwarding is not enabled, the server MUST return to the sender a stanza error. (Note: Offline message storage and message forwarding are not defined in XMPP, since they are strictly a matter of implementation and service provisioning.) Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 33] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 4. For IQ stanzas, the server itself MUST reply on behalf of the user with either an IQ result or an IQ error. Specifically, if the semantics of the qualifying namespace define a reply that the server can provide, the server MUST reply to the stanza on behalf of the user; if not, the server MUST reply with a stanza error. 8.2. Outbound Stanzas If the hostname of the domain identifier portion of the address contained in the 'to' attribute of an outbound stanza matches a hostname of the server itself, the server MUST deliver the stanza to a local entity according the rules for Inbound Stanzas (Section 8.1). If the hostname of the domain identifier portion of the address contained in the 'to' attribute of an outbound stanza does not match a hostname of the server itself, the server MUST attempt to route the stanza to the foreign domain. The recommended order of actions is as follows: 1. First attempt to resolve the foreign hostname using an [SRV] Service of "xmpp-server" and Proto of "tcp", resulting in resource records such as "_xmpp-server._tcp.example.com.", as specified in [XMPP-CORE]. 2. If the "xmpp-server" address record resolution fails, attempt to resolve the "_im" or "_pres" [SRV] Service as specified in [IMP-SRV], using the "_im" Service for stanzas and the "_pres" Service for stanzas (it is up to the implementation how to handle stanzas). This will result in one or more resolutions of the form "_im..example.com." or "_pres..example.com.", where "" would be a label registered in the Instant Messaging SRV Protocol Label registry or the Presence SRV Protocol Label registry: either "_xmpp" for an XMPP-aware domain or some other IANA-registered label (e.g., "_simple") for a non-XMPP-aware domain. 3. If both SRV address record resolutions fail, attempt to perform a normal IPv4/IPv6 address record resolution to determine the IP address using the "xmpp-server" port of 5269 registered with the IANA, as specified in [XMPP-CORE]. Administrators of server deployments are strongly encouraged to keep the _im._xmpp, _pres._xmpp, and _xmpp._tcp SRV records properly synchronized, since different implementations might perform the "_im" and "_pres" lookups before the "xmpp-server" lookup. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 34] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 9. IM and Presence Compliance Requirements This section summarizes the specific aspects of the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol that MUST be supported by instant messaging and presence servers and clients in order to be considered compliant implementations. All such applications MUST comply with the requirements specified in [XMPP-CORE]. The text in this section specifies additional compliance requirements for instant messaging and presence servers and clients; note well that the requirements described here supplement but do not supersede the core requirements. Note also that a server or client MAY support only presence or instant messaging, and is not required to support both if only a presence service or an instant messaging service is desired. 9.1. Servers In addition to core server compliance requirements, an instant messaging and presence server MUST additionally support the following protocols: o All server-related instant messaging and presence syntax and semantics defined in this document, including presence broadcast on behalf of clients, presence subscriptions, roster storage and manipulation, and IM-specific routing and delivery rules 9.2. Clients In addition to core client compliance requirements, an instant messaging and presence client MUST additionally support the following protocols: o Generation and handling of the IM-specific semantics of XML stanzas as defined by the XML schemas, including the 'type' attribute of message and presence stanzas as well as their child elements o All client-related instant messaging syntax and semantics defined in this document, including presence subscriptions, and roster management o End-to-end object encryption as defined in End-to-End Object Encryption in the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) [XMPP-E2E] A client MUST also handle addresses that are encoded as "im:" URIs as specified in [CPIM], and MAY do so by removing the "im:" scheme and entrusting address resolution to the server as specified under Outbound Stanzas (Section 8.2). Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 35] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 10. Internationalization Considerations For internationalization considerations, refer to the relevant section of [XMPP-CORE]. 11. Security Considerations Core security considerations for XMPP are defined in the relevant section of [XMPP-CORE]. Additional considerations that apply only to instant messaging and presence applications of XMPP are defined in several places within this document; specifically: o When a server processes an inbound presence stanza of type "probe" whose intended recipient is a user associated with one of the server's hostnames, the server MUST NOT reveal the user's presence information if the sender is an entity that is not authorized to receive that information as determined by presence subscriptions (see Exchanging Presence Information (Section 4)). o When a server processes an outbound presence stanza with no type or of type "unavailable", it MUST follow the rules defined under Exchanging Presence Information (Section 4) in order to ensure that such presence information is not broadcasted to entities that are not authorized to know such information. o When a server generates an error stanza in response to receiving a stanza for a user who does not exist, the use of the error condition helps protect against well-known dictionary attacks, since this is the same error condition that is returned if, for instance, the namespace of an IQ child element is not understood, or if offline message storage or message forwarding is not enabled for a domain. 12. IANA Considerations For a number of related IANA considerations, refer to the relevant section of [XMPP-CORE]. 12.1. Instant Messaging SRV Protocol Label Registration Address Resolution for Instant Messaging and Presence [IMP-SRV] defines an Instant Messaging SRV Protocol Label registry for protocols that can provide services that conform to the "_im" SRV Service label. Because XMPP is one such protocol, the IANA registers the "_xmpp" protocol label in the appropriate registry, as follows: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 36] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Protocol label: _xmpp Specification: RFC 3921 Description: Instant messaging protocol label for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) as defined by RFC 3921. Registrant Contact: IETF, XMPP Working Group, 12.2. Presence SRV Protocol Label Registration Address Resolution for Instant Messaging and Presence [IMP-SRV] defines a Presence SRV Protocol Label registry for protocols that can provide services that conform to the "_pres" SRV Service label. Because XMPP is one such protocol, the IANA registers the "_xmpp" protocol label in the appropriate registry, as follows: Protocol label: _xmpp Specification: RFC 3921 Description: Presence protocol label for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) as defined by RFC 3921. Registrant Contact: IETF, XMPP Working Group, 13. References 13.1. Normative References [CPIM] Peterson, J., "Common Profile for Instant Messaging (CPIM)", RFC 3860, August 2004. [IMP-REQS] Day, M., Aggarwal, S., and J. Vincent, "Instant Messaging / Presence Protocol Requirements", RFC 2779, February 2000. [IMP-SRV] Peterson, J., "Address Resolution for Instant Messaging and Presence", RFC 3861, August 2004. [SRV] Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P., and L. Esibov, "A DNS RR for specifying the location of services (DNS SRV)", RFC 2782, February 2000. [TERMS] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [XML] Bray, T., Paoli, J., Sperberg-McQueen, C., and E. Maler, "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (2nd ed)", W3C REC- xml, October 2000, . [XML-NAMES] Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 37] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Bray, T., Hollander, D., and A. Layman, "Namespaces in XML", W3C REC-xml-names, January 1999, . [XMPP-CORE] Saint-Andre, P., "Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core", RFC 3920, October 2004. [XMPP-E2E] Saint-Andre, P., "End-to-End Signing and Object Encryption for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)", RFC 3923, October 2004. 13.2. Informative References [IMP-MODEL] Day, M., Rosenberg, J., and H. Sugano, "A Model for Presence and Instant Messaging", RFC 2778, February 2000. [IRC] Oikarinen, J. and D. Reed, "Internet Relay Chat Protocol", RFC 1459, May 1993. [XEP-0016] Millard, P. and P. Saint-Andre, "Privacy Lists", JSF XEP 0016, October 2006. [XEP-0045] Saint-Andre, P., "Multi-User Chat", JSF XEP 0045, June 2004. [XEP-0054] Saint-Andre, P., "vcard-temp", JSF XEP 0054, March 2003. [XEP-0191] Saint-Andre, P., "Simple Communications Blocking", JSF XEP 0191, August 2006. [VCARD] Dawson, F. and T. Howes, "vCard MIME Directory Profile", RFC 2426, September 1998. Appendix A. Integration of Roster Management and Presence Subscriptions This Appendix provides a detailed description of how roster management and presence subscriptions are integrated in XMPP-based instant messaging and presence applications, mainly for the benefit of server developers (most of the complexity specified here can be safely ignored by client developers). Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 38] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 A.1. Overview Some level of integration between roster items and presence subscriptions is normally expected by an instant messaging user regarding the user's subscriptions to and from other contacts. This section describes the level of integration that MUST be supported within XMPP instant messaging applications. There are four primary subscription states: o None -- the user does not have a subscription to the contact's presence information, and the contact does not have a subscription to the user's presence information o To -- the user has a subscription to the contact's presence information, but the contact does not have a subscription to the user's presence information o From -- the contact has a subscription to the user's presence information, but the user does not have a subscription to the contact's presence information o Both -- both the user and the contact have subscriptions to each other's presence information (i.e., the union of 'from' and 'to') Each of these states is reflected in the roster of both the user and the contact, thus resulting in durable subscription states. Narrative explanations of how these subscription states interact with roster items in order to complete certain defined use cases are provided in the following sub-sections. Full details regarding server and client handling of all subscription states (including pending states between the primary states listed above) is provided in Subscription States (Appendix B). The server MUST NOT send presence subscription requests or roster pushes to unavailable resources, nor to available resources that have not requested the roster. The 'from' and 'to' addresses are OPTIONAL in roster pushes; if included, their values SHOULD be the full JID of the resource for that session. A client MUST acknowledge each roster push with an IQ stanza of type "result" (for the sake of brevity, these stanzas are not shown in the following examples but are required by the IQ semantics defined in [XMPP-CORE]). A.2. User Subscribes to Contact The process by which a user subscribes to a contact, including the interaction between roster items and subscription states, is described below. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 39] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 1. In preparation for being able to render the contact in the user's client interface and for the server to keep track of the subscription, the user's client SHOULD perform a "roster set" for the new roster item. This request consists of sending an IQ stanza of type='set' containing a element qualified by the 'jabber:iq:roster' namespace, which in turn contains an element that defines the new roster item; the element MUST possess a 'jid' attribute, MAY possess a 'name' attribute, MUST NOT possess a 'subscription' attribute, and MAY contain one or more child elements: MyBuddies 2. As a result, the user's server (1) MUST initiate a roster push for the new roster item to all available resources associated with this user that have requested the roster, setting the 'subscription' attribute to a value of "none"; and (2) MUST reply to the sending resource with an IQ result indicating the success of the roster set: MyBuddies 3. If the user wants to request a subscription to the contact's presence information, the user's client MUST send a presence stanza of type='subscribe' to the contact: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 40] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 4. As a result, the user's server MUST initiate a second roster push to all of the user's interested resources, setting the contact to the pending sub-state of the 'none' subscription state; this pending sub-state is denoted by the inclusion of the ask='subscribe' attribute in the roster item: MyBuddies Note: If the user did not create a roster item before sending the subscription request, the server MUST now create one on behalf of the user, then send a roster push to all of the user's interested resources, absent the 'name' attribute and the child shown above. 5. The user's server MUST also stamp the presence stanza of type "subscribe" with the user's bare JID (i.e., ) as the 'from' address (if the user provided a 'from' address set to the user's full JID, the server SHOULD remove the resource identifier). If the contact is served by a different host than the user, the user's server MUST route the presence stanza to the contact's server for delivery to the contact (this case is assumed throughout; however, if the contact is served by the same host, then the server can simply deliver the presence stanza directly): Note: If the user's server receives a presence stanza of type "error" from the contact's server, it MUST deliver the error stanza to the user, whose client MAY determine that the error is in response to the outgoing presence stanza of type "subscribe" it sent previously (e.g., by tracking an 'id' attribute) and then choose to resend the "subscribe" request or revert the roster to its previous state by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the contact. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 41] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 6. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "subscribe" addressed to the contact, the contact's server MUST determine if there is at least one available resource from which the contact has requested the roster. If so, it MUST deliver the subscription request to the contact (if not, the contact's server MUST store the subscription request offline for delivery when this condition is next met; normally this is done by adding a roster item for the contact to the user's roster, with a state of "None + Pending In" as defined under Subscription States (Appendix B), however a server SHOULD NOT push or deliver roster items in that state to the contact). No matter when the subscription request is delivered, the contact must decide whether or not to approve it (subject to the contact's configured preferences, the contact's client MAY approve or refuse the subscription request without presenting it to the contact). Here we assume the "happy path" that the contact approves the subscription request (the alternate flow of declining the subscription request is defined in Appendix A.2.1). In this case, the contact's client (1) SHOULD perform a roster set specifying the desired handle and group for the user (if any); and (2) MUST send a presence stanza of type "subscribed" to the user in order to approve the subscription request. SomeGroup 7. As a result, the contact's server (1) MUST initiate a roster push to all available resources associated with the contact that have requested the roster, containing a roster item for the user with the subscription state set to 'from' (the server MUST send this even if the contact did not perform a roster set); (2) MUST return an IQ result to the sending resource indicating the success of the roster set; (3) MUST route the presence stanza of type "subscribed" to the user, first stamping the 'from' address as the bare JID () of the contact; and (4) MUST send available presence from all of the contact's available resources to the user: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 42] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 SomeGroup Note: If the contact's server receives a presence stanza of type "error" from the user's server, it MUST deliver the error stanza to the contact, whose client MAY determine that the error is in response to the outgoing presence stanza of type "subscribed" it sent previously (e.g., by tracking an 'id' attribute) and then choose to resend the "subscribed" notification or revert the roster to its previous state by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the user. 8. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "subscribed" addressed to the user, the user's server MUST first verify that the contact is in the user's roster with either of the following states: (a) subscription='none' and ask='subscribe' or (b) subscription='from' and ask='subscribe'. If the contact is not in the user's roster with either of those states, the user's server MUST silently ignore the presence stanza of type "subscribed" (i.e., it MUST NOT route it to the user, modify the user's roster, or generate a roster push to the user's available resources). If the contact is in the user's roster with either of those states, the user's server (1) MUST deliver the presence stanza of type "subscribed" from the contact to the user; (2) MUST initiate a roster push to all of the user's interested resources, containing an updated roster item for the contact with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "to"; and (3) MUST deliver the available presence stanza received from each of the contact's available resources to each of the user's available resources: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 43] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 MyBuddies 9. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "subscribed", the user SHOULD acknowledge receipt of that subscription state notification through either "affirming" it by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribe" to the contact or "denying" it by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the contact; this step does not necessarily affect the subscription state (see Subscription States (Appendix B) for details), but instead lets the user's server know that it MUST no longer send notification of the subscription state change to the user (see Appendix B.4). From the perspective of the user, there now exists a subscription to the contact's presence information; from the perspective of the contact, there now exists a subscription from the user. A.2.1. Alternate Flow: Contact Declines Subscription Request The above activity flow represents the "happy path" regarding the user's subscription request to the contact. The main alternate flow occurs if the contact refuses the user's subscription request, as described below. 1. If the contact wants to refuse the request, the contact's client MUST send a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the user (instead of the presence stanza of type "subscribed" sent in Step 6 of Appendix A.2): Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 44] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 2. As a result, the contact's server MUST route the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the user, first stamping the 'from' address as the bare JID () of the contact: Note: If the contact's server previously added the user to the contact's roster for tracking purposes, it MUST remove the relevant item at this time. 3. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" addressed to the user, the user's server (1) MUST deliver that presence stanza to the user and (2) MUST initiate a roster push to all of the user's interested resources, containing an updated roster item for the contact with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "none" and with no 'ask' attribute: MyBuddies 4. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed", the user SHOULD acknowledge receipt of that subscription state notification through either "affirming" it by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the contact or "denying" it by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribe" to the contact; this step does not necessarily affect the subscription state (see Subscription States (Appendix B) for details), but instead lets the user's server know that it MUST no longer send notification of the subscription state change to the user (see Appendix B.4). As a result of this activity, the contact is now in the user's roster with a subscription state of "none", whereas the user is not in the contact's roster at all. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 45] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 A.3. Creating a Mutual Subscription The user and contact can build on the "happy path" described above to create a mutual subscription (i.e., a subscription of type "both"). The process is described below. 1. If the contact wants to create a mutual subscription, the contact MUST send a subscription request to the user (subject to the contact's configured preferences, the contact's client MAY send this automatically): 2. As a result, the contact's server (1) MUST initiate a roster push to all available resources associated with the contact that have requested the roster, with the user still in the 'from' subscription state but with a pending 'to' subscription denoted by the inclusion of the ask='subscribe' attribute in the roster item; and (2) MUST route the presence stanza of type "subscribe" to the user, first stamping the 'from' address as the bare JID () of the contact: SomeGroup Note: If the contact's server receives a presence stanza of type "error" from the user's server, it MUST deliver the error stanza to the contact, whose client MAY determine that the error is in response to the outgoing presence stanza of type "subscribe" it sent previously (e.g., by tracking an 'id' attribute) and then choose to resend the "subscribe" request or revert the roster to its previous state by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the user. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 46] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 3. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "subscribe" addressed to the user, the user's server must determine if there is at least one available resource for which the user has requested the roster. If so, the user's server MUST deliver the subscription request to the user (if not, it MUST store the subscription request offline for delivery when this condition is next met). No matter when the subscription request is delivered, the user must then decide whether or not to approve it (subject to the user's configured preferences, the user's client MAY approve or refuse the subscription request without presenting it to the user). Here we assume the "happy path" that the user approves the subscription request (the alternate flow of declining the subscription request is defined in Appendix A.3.1). In this case, the user's client MUST send a presence stanza of type "subscribed" to the contact in order to approve the subscription request. 4. As a result, the user's server (1) MUST initiate a roster push to all of the user's interested resources, containing a roster item for the contact with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "both"; (2) MUST route the presence stanza of type "subscribed" to the contact, first stamping the 'from' address as the bare JID () of the user; and (3) MUST send to the contact the full XML of the last presence stanza with no 'to' attribute received by the server from each of the user's available resources: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 47] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 MyBuddies Note: If the user's server receives a presence stanza of type "error" from the contact's server, it MUST deliver the error stanza to the user, whose client MAY determine that the error is in response to the outgoing presence stanza of type "subscribed" it sent previously (e.g., by tracking an 'id' attribute) and then choose to resend the subscription request or revert the roster to its previous state by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the contact. 5. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "subscribed" addressed to the contact, the contact's server MUST first verify that the user is in the contact's roster with either of the following states: (a) subscription='none' and ask='subscribe' or (b) subscription='from' and ask='subscribe'. If the user is not in the contact's roster with either of those states, the contact's server MUST silently ignore the presence stanza of type "subscribed" (i.e., it MUST NOT route it to the contact, modify the contact's roster, or generate a roster push to the contact's available resources). If the user is in the contact's roster with either of those states, the contact's server (1) MUST deliver the presence stanza of type "subscribed" from the user to the contact; (2) MUST initiate a roster push to all available resources associated with the contact that have requested the roster, containing an updated roster item for the user with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "both"; and (3) MUST deliver the available presence stanza received from each of the user's available resources to each of the contact's available resources: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 48] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 SomeGroup 6. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "subscribed", the contact SHOULD acknowledge receipt of that subscription state notification through either "affirming" it by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribe" to the user or "denying" it by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the user; this step does not necessarily affect the subscription state (see Subscription States (Appendix B) for details), but instead lets the contact's server know that it MUST no longer send notification of the subscription state change to the contact (see Appendix B.4). The user and the contact now have a mutual subscription to each other's presence -- i.e., the subscription is of type "both". A.3.1. Alternate Flow: User Declines Subscription Request The above activity flow represents the "happy path" regarding the contact's subscription request to the user. The main alternate flow occurs if the user refuses the contact's subscription request, as described below. 1. If the user wants to refuse the request, the user's client MUST send a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the contact (instead of the presence stanza of type "subscribed" sent in Step 3 of Appendix A.3): Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 49] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 2. As a result, the user's server MUST route the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the contact, first stamping the 'from' address as the bare JID () of the user: 3. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" addressed to the contact, the contact's server (1) MUST deliver that presence stanza to the contact; and (2) MUST initiate a roster push to all available resources associated with the contact that have requested the roster, containing an updated roster item for the user with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "from" and with no 'ask' attribute: SomeGroup 4. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed", the contact SHOULD acknowledge receipt of that subscription state notification through either "affirming" it by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the user or "denying" it by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribe" to the user; this step does not necessarily affect the subscription state (see Subscription States (Appendix B) for details), but instead lets the contact's server know that it MUST no longer send notification of the subscription state change to the contact (see Appendix B.4). As a result of this activity, there has been no change in the subscription state; i.e., the contact is in the user's roster with a subscription state of "to" and the user is in the contact's roster with a subscription state of "from". Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 50] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 A.4. Unsubscribing At any time after subscribing to a contact's presence information, a user MAY unsubscribe. While the XML that the user sends to make this happen is the same in all instances, the subsequent subscription state is different depending on the subscription state obtaining when the unsubscribe "command" is sent. Both possible scenarios are described below. A.4.1. Case #1: Unsubscribing When Subscription is Not Mutual In the first case, the user has a subscription to the contact's presence information but the contact does not have a subscription to the user's presence information (i.e., the subscription is not yet mutual). 1. If the user wants to unsubscribe from the contact's presence information, the user MUST send a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the contact: 2. As a result, the user's server (1) MUST send a roster push to all of the user's interested resources, containing an updated roster item for the contact with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "none"; and (2) MUST route the presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the contact, first stamping the 'from' address as the bare JID () of the user: MyBuddies 3. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" addressed to the contact, the contact's server (1) MUST initiate a roster push to all available resources associated with the Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 51] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 contact that have requested the roster, containing an updated roster item for the user with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "none" (if the contact is unavailable or has not requested the roster, the contact's server MUST modify the roster item and send that modified item the next time the contact requests the roster); and (2) MUST deliver the "unsubscribe" state change notification to the contact: SomeGroup 4. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribe", the contact SHOULD acknowledge receipt of that subscription state notification through either "affirming" it by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the user or "denying" it by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribed" to the user; this step does not necessarily affect the subscription state (see Subscription States (Appendix B) for details), but instead lets the contact's server know that it MUST no longer send notification of the subscription state change to the contact (see Appendix B.4). 5. The contact's server then (1) MUST send a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the user; and (2) SHOULD send unavailable presence from all of the contact's available resources to the user: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 52] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 6. When the user's server receives the presence stanzas of type "unsubscribed" and "unavailable", it MUST deliver them to the user: 7. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed", the user SHOULD acknowledge receipt of that subscription state notification through either "affirming" it by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the contact or "denying" it by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribe" to the contact; this step does not necessarily affect the subscription state (see Subscription States (Appendix B) for details), but instead lets the user's server know that it MUST no longer send notification of the subscription state change to the user (see Appendix B.4). A.4.2. Case #2: Unsubscribing When Subscription is Mutual In the second case, the user has a subscription to the contact's presence information and the contact also has a subscription to the user's presence information (i.e., the subscription is mutual). 1. If the user wants to unsubscribe from the contact's presence information, the user MUST send a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the contact: 2. As a result, the user's server (1) MUST send a roster push to all of the user's interested resources, containing an updated roster item for the contact with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "from"; and (2) MUST route the presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the contact, first stamping the 'from' address as the bare JID () of the user: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 53] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 MyBuddies 3. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" addressed to the contact, the contact's server (1) MUST initiate a roster push to all available resources associated with the contact that have requested the roster, containing an updated roster item for the user with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "to" (if the contact is unavailable or has not requested the roster, the contact's server MUST modify the roster item and send that modified item the next time the contact requests the roster); and (2) MUST deliver the "unsubscribe" state change notification to the contact: SomeGroup 4. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribe", the contact SHOULD acknowledge receipt of that subscription state notification through either "affirming" it by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the user or "denying" it by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribed" to the user; this Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 54] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 step does not necessarily affect the subscription state (see Subscription States (Appendix B) for details), but instead lets the contact's server know that it MUST no longer send notification of the subscription state change to the contact (see Appendix B.4). 5. The contact's server then (1) MUST send a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the user; and (2) SHOULD send unavailable presence from all of the contact's available resources to the user: 6. When the user's server receives the presence stanzas of type "unsubscribed" and "unavailable", it MUST deliver them to the user: 7. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed", the user SHOULD acknowledge receipt of that subscription state notification through either "affirming" it by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the contact or "denying" it by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribe" to the contact; this step does not necessarily affect the subscription state (see Subscription States (Appendix B) for details), but instead lets the user's server know that it MUST no longer send notification of the subscription state change to the user (see Appendix B.4). Note: Obviously this does not result in removal of the roster item from the user's roster, and the contact still has a subscription to the user's presence information. In order to both completely cancel a mutual subscription and fully remove the roster item from the Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 55] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 user's roster, the user SHOULD update the roster item with subscription='remove' as defined under Removing a Roster Item and Cancelling All Subscriptions (Appendix A.6). A.5. Cancelling a Subscription At any time after approving a subscription request from a user, a contact MAY cancel that subscription. While the XML that the contact sends to make this happen is the same in all instances, the subsequent subscription state is different depending on the subscription state obtaining when the cancellation was sent. Both possible scenarios are described below. A.5.1. Case #1: Cancelling When Subscription is Not Mutual In the first case, the user has a subscription to the contact's presence information but the contact does not have a subscription to the user's presence information (i.e., the subscription is not yet mutual). 1. If the contact wants to cancel the user's subscription, the contact MUST send a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the user: 2. As a result, the contact's server (1) MUST send a roster push to all of the contact's interested resources, containing an updated roster item for the user with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "none"; (2) MUST route the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the user, first stamping the 'from' address as the bare JID () of the contact; and (3) SHOULD send unavailable presence from all of the contact's available resources to the user: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 56] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 SomeGroup 3. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" addressed to the user, the user's server (1) MUST initiate a roster push to all of the user's interested resources, containing an updated roster item for the contact with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "none" (if the user is unavailable or has not requested the roster, the user's server MUST modify the roster item and send that modified item the next time the user requests the roster); (2) MUST deliver the "unsubscribed" state change notification to all of the user's available resources; and (3) MUST deliver the unavailable presence to all of the user's available resources: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 57] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 MyBuddies 4. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed", the user SHOULD acknowledge receipt of that subscription state notification through either "affirming" it by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the contact or "denying" it by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribe" to the contact; this step does not necessarily affect the subscription state (see Subscription States (Appendix B) for details), but instead lets the user's server know that it MUST no longer send notification of the subscription state change to the user (see Appendix B.4). A.5.2. Case #2: Cancelling When Subscription is Mutual In the second case, the user has a subscription to the contact's presence information and the contact also has a subscription to the user's presence information (i.e., the subscription is mutual). 1. If the contact wants to cancel the user's subscription, the contact MUST send a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the user: 2. As a result, the contact's server (1) MUST send a roster push to all of the contact's interested resources, containing an updated roster item for the user with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "to"; (2) MUST route the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the user, first stamping the 'from' address as Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 58] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 the bare JID () of the contact; and (3) SHOULD send unavailable presence from all of the contact's available resources to all of the user's available resources: SomeGroup 3. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" addressed to the user, the user's server (1) MUST initiate a roster push to all of the user's interested resources, containing an updated roster item for the contact with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "from" (if the user is unavailable or has not requested the roster, the user's server MUST modify the roster item and send that modified item the next time the user requests the roster); and (2) MUST deliver the "unsubscribed" state change notification to all of the user's available resources; and (3) MUST deliver the unavailable presence to all of the user's available resources: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 59] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 MyBuddies 4. Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed", the user SHOULD acknowledge receipt of that subscription state notification through either "affirming" it by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" to the contact or "denying" it by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribe" to the contact; this step does not necessarily affect the subscription state (see Subscription States (Appendix B) for details), but instead lets the user's server know that it MUST no longer send notification of the subscription state change to the user (see Appendix B.4). Note: Obviously this does not result in removal of the roster item from the contact's roster, and the contact still has a subscription to the user's presence information. In order to both completely cancel a mutual subscription and fully remove the roster item from the contact's roster, the contact should update the roster item with subscription='remove' as defined under Removing a Roster Item and Cancelling All Subscriptions (Appendix A.6). A.6. Removing a Roster Item and Cancelling All Subscriptions Because there may be many steps involved in completely removing a roster item and cancelling subscriptions in both directions, the roster management protocol includes a "shortcut" method for doing so. The process may be initiated no matter what the current subscription state is by sending a roster set containing an item for the contact with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "remove": Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 60] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 When the user removes a contact from his or her roster by setting the 'subscription' attribute to a value of "remove", the user's server (1) MUST automatically cancel any existing presence subscription between the user and the contact (both 'to' and 'from' as appropriate); (2) MUST remove the roster item from the user's roster and inform all of the user's interested resources of the roster item removal; (3) MUST inform the resource that initiated the removal of success; and (4) SHOULD send unavailable presence from all of the user's available resources to the contact: Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribe", the contact's server (1) MUST initiate a roster push to all available resources associated with the contact that have requested the roster, containing an updated roster item for the user with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "to" (if the contact is Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 61] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 unavailable or has not requested the roster, the contact's server MUST modify the roster item and send that modified item the next time the contact requests the roster); and (2) MUST also deliver the "unsubscribe" state change notification to all of the contact's available resources: SomeGroup Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unsubscribed", the contact's server (1) MUST initiate a roster push to all available resources associated with the contact that have requested the roster, containing an updated roster item for the user with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "none" (if the contact is unavailable or has not requested the roster, the contact's server MUST modify the roster item and send that modified item the next time the contact requests the roster); and (2) MUST also deliver the "unsubscribe" state change notification to all of the contact's available resources: SomeGroup Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 62] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Upon receiving the presence stanza of type "unavailable" addressed to the contact, the contact's server MUST deliver the unavailable presence to all of the user's available resources: Note: When the user removes the contact from the user's roster, the end state of the contact's roster is that the user is still in the contact's roster with a subscription state of "none"; in order to completely remove the roster item for the user, the contact needs to also send a roster removal request. Appendix B. Subscription States This section provides detailed information about subscription states and server handling of subscription-related presence stanzas (i.e., presence stanzas of type "subscribe", "subscribed", "unsubscribe", and "unsubscribed"). B.1. Defined States There are nine possible subscription states, which are described here from the user's (not contact's) perspective: 1. "None" = contact and user are not subscribed to each other, and neither has requested a subscription from the other; this is reflected in the roster by subscription='none' 2. "None + Pending Out" = contact and user are not subscribed to each other, and user has sent contact a subscription request but contact has not replied yet; this is reflected in the roster by subscription='none' and ask='subscribe' 3. "None + Pending In" = contact and user are not subscribed to each other, and contact has sent user a subscription request but user has not replied yet (note: contact's server SHOULD NOT push or deliver roster items in this state, but instead SHOULD wait until user has approved subscription request from contact); this is reflected in the roster by subscription='none' 4. "None + Pending Out/In" = contact and user are not subscribed to each other, contact has sent user a subscription request but user has not replied yet, and user has sent contact a subscription request but contact has not replied yet; this is reflected in the roster by subscription='none' and ask='subscribe' Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 63] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 5. "To" = user is subscribed to contact (one-way); this is reflected in the roster by subscription='to' 6. "To + Pending In" = user is subscribed to contact, and contact has sent user a subscription request but user has not replied yet; this is reflected in the roster by subscription='to' 7. "From" = contact is subscribed to user (one-way); this is reflected in the roster by subscription='from' 8. "From + Pending Out" = contact is subscribed to user, and user has sent contact a subscription request but contact has not replied yet; this is reflected in the roster by subscription='none' and ask='subscribe' 9. "Both" = user and contact are subscribed to each other (two-way); this is reflected in the roster by subscription='both' B.2. Server Handling of Outbound Presence Subscription Stanzas Outbound presence subscription stanzas enable the user to manage his or her subscription to the contact's presence information (via the "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" types), and to manage the contact's access to the user's presence information (via the "subscribed" and "unsubscribed" types). Because it is possible for the user's server and the contact's server to lose synchronization regarding subscription states, the user's server MUST without exception route all outbound presence stanzas of type "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to the contact so that the user is able to resynchronize his or her subscription to the contact's presence information if needed. The user's server SHOULD NOT route a presence stanza of type "subscribed" or "unsubscribed" to the contact if the stanza does not result in a subscription state change from the user's perspective, and MUST NOT make a state change. If the stanza results in a subscription state change, the user's server MUST route the stanza to the contact and MUST make the appropriate state change. These rules are summarized in the following tables. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 64] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Table 1: Recommended handling of outbound "subscribed" stanzas +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | ROUTE? | NEW STATE | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | no | no state change | | "None + Pending Out" | no | no state change | | "None + Pending In" | yes | "From" | | "None + Pending Out/In" | yes | "From + Pending Out" | | "To" | no | no state change | | "To + Pending In" | yes | "Both" | | "From" | no | no state change | | "From + Pending Out" | no | no state change | | "Both" | no | no state change | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Table 2: Recommended handling of outbound "unsubscribed" stanzas +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | ROUTE? | NEW STATE | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | no | no state change | | "None + Pending Out" | no | no state change | | "None + Pending In" | yes | "None" | | "None + Pending Out/In" | yes | "None + Pending Out" | | "To" | no | no state change | | "To + Pending In" | yes | "To" | | "From" | yes | "None" | | "From + Pending Out" | yes | "None + Pending Out" | | "Both" | yes | "To" | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ B.3. Server Handling of Inbound Presence Subscription Stanzas Inbound presence subscription stanzas request a subscription-related action from the user (via the "subscribe" type), inform the user of subscription-related actions taken by the contact (via the "unsubscribe" type), or enable the contact to manage the user's access to the contact's presence information (via the "subscribed" and "unsubscribed" types). When the user's server receives a subscription request for the user from the contact (i.e., a presence stanza of type "subscribe"), it MUST deliver that request to the user for approval if the user has not already granted the contact access to the user's presence information and if there is no pending inbound subscription request; however, the user's server SHOULD NOT deliver the new request if there is a pending inbound subscription request, since the previous Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 65] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 subscription request will have been recorded. If the user has already granted the contact access to the user's presence information, the user's server SHOULD auto-reply to an inbound presence stanza of type "subscribe" from the contact by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribed" to the contact on behalf of the user; this rule enables the contact to resynchronize the subscription state if needed. These rules are summarized in the following table. Table 3: Recommended handling of inbound "subscribe" stanzas +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | DELIVER? | NEW STATE | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | yes | "None + Pending In" | | "None + Pending Out" | yes | "None + Pending Out/In" | | "None + Pending In" | no | no state change | | "None + Pending Out/In" | no | no state change | | "To" | yes | "To + Pending In" | | "To + Pending In" | no | no state change | | "From" | no * | no state change | | "From + Pending Out" | no * | no state change | | "Both" | no * | no state change | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ * Server SHOULD auto-reply with "subscribed" stanza When the user's server receives a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" for the user from the contact, if the stanza results in a subscription state change from the user's perspective then the user's server SHOULD auto-reply by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the contact on behalf of the user, MUST deliver the "unsubscribe" stanza to the user, and MUST change the state. If no subscription state change results, the user's server SHOULD NOT deliver the stanza and MUST NOT change the state. These rules are summarized in the following table. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 66] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Table 4: Recommended handling of inbound "unsubscribe" stanzas +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | DELIVER? | NEW STATE | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | no | no state change | | "None + Pending Out" | no | no state change | | "None + Pending In" | yes * | "None" | | "None + Pending Out/In" | yes * | "None + Pending Out" | | "To" | no | no state change | | "To + Pending In" | yes * | "To" | | "From" | yes * | "None" | | "From + Pending Out" | yes * | "None + Pending Out | | "Both" | yes * | "To" | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ * Server SHOULD auto-reply with "unsubscribed" stanza When the user's server receives a presence stanza of type "subscribed" for the user from the contact, it MUST NOT deliver the stanza to the user and MUST NOT change the subscription state if there is no pending outbound request for access to the contact's presence information. If there is a pending outbound request for access to the contact's presence information and the inbound presence stanza of type "subscribed" results in a subscription state change, the user's server MUST deliver the stanza to the user and MUST change the subscription state. If the user already has access to the contact's presence information, the inbound presence stanza of type "subscribed" does not result in a subscription state change; therefore the user's server SHOULD NOT deliver the stanza to the user and MUST NOT change the subscription state. These rules are summarized in the following table. Table 5: Recommended handling of inbound "subscribed" stanzas +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | DELIVER? | NEW STATE | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | no | no state change | | "None + Pending Out" | yes | "To" | | "None + Pending In" | no | no state change | | "None + Pending Out/In" | yes | "To + Pending In" | | "To" | no | no state change | | "To + Pending In" | no | no state change | | "From" | no | no state change | | "From + Pending Out" | yes | "Both" | | "Both" | no | no state change | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 67] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 When the user's server receives a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" for the user from the contact, it MUST deliver the stanza to the user and MUST change the subscription state if there is a pending outbound request for access to the contact's presence information or if the user currently has access to the contact's presence information. Otherwise, the user's server SHOULD NOT deliver the stanza and MUST NOT change the subscription state. These rules are summarized in the following table. Table 6: Recommended handling of inbound "unsubscribed" stanzas +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | DELIVER? | NEW STATE | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | no | no state change | | "None + Pending Out" | yes | "None" | | "None + Pending In" | no | no state change | | "None + Pending Out/In" | yes | "None + Pending In" | | "To" | yes | "None" | | "To + Pending In" | yes | "None + Pending In" | | "From" | no | no state change | | "From + Pending Out" | yes | "From" | | "Both" | yes | "From" | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ B.4. Server Delivery and Client Acknowledgement of Subscription Requests and State Change Notifications When a server receives an inbound presence stanza of type "subscribe" (i.e., a subscription request) or of type "subscribed", "unsubscribe", or "unsubscribed" (i.e., a subscription state change notification), in addition to sending the appropriate roster push (or updated roster when the roster is next requested by an available resource), it MUST deliver the request or notification to the intended recipient at least once. A server MAY require the recipient to acknowledge receipt of all state change notifications (and MUST require acknowledgement in the case of subscription requests, i.e., presence stanzas of type "subscribe"). In order to require acknowledgement, a server SHOULD send the request or notification to the recipient each time the recipient logs in, until the recipient acknowledges receipt of the notification by "affirming" or "denying" the notification, as shown in the following table: Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 68] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Table 7: Acknowledgement of subscription state change notifications +--------------------------------------------------+ | STANZA TYPE | ACCEPT | DENY | +--------------------------------------------------+ | subscribe | subscribed | unsubscribed | | subscribed | subscribe | unsubscribe | | unsubscribe | unsubscribed | subscribed | | unsubscribed | unsubscribe | subscribe | +--------------------------------------------------+ Obviously, given the foregoing subscription state charts, some of the acknowledgement stanzas will be routed to the contact and result in subscription state changes, while others will not. However, any such stanzas MUST result in the server's no longer sending the subscription state notification to the user. Because a user's server MUST automatically generate outbound presence stanzas of type "unsubscribe" and "unsubscribed" upon receiving a roster set with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "remove" (see Removing a Roster Item and Cancelling All Subscriptions (Appendix A.6)), the server MUST treat a roster remove request as equivalent to sending both of those presence stanzas for purposes of determining whether to continue sending subscription state change notifications of type "subscribe" or "subscribed" to the user. Appendix C. Blocking Communication Sections 2.3.5 and 5.4.10 of [IMP-REQS] requires that a compliant instant messaging and presence technology must enable a user to block communications from selected users. A protocol for doing so is specified in [XEP-0016] and a simplified "front-end" to that protocol is specified in [XEP-0191]. Appendix D. vCards Sections 3.1.3 and 4.1.4 of [IMP-REQS] require that it be possible to retrieve out-of-band contact information for other users (e.g., telephone number or email address). An XML representation of the vCard specification defined in RFC 2426 [VCARD] is in common use within the Jabber community to provide such information but is out of scope for XMPP (documentation of this protocol is contained in [XEP-0054]). Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 69] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Appendix E. XML Schemas The following XML schemas are descriptive, not normative. For schemas defining the core features of XMPP, refer to [XMPP-CORE]. E.1. jabber:client Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 70] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 72] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 73] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 E.2. jabber:server Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 74] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 76] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 77] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 E.3. jabber:iq:roster Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 78] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Appendix F. Differences From RFC 3921 This section is informative. Based on consensus derived from interoperability testing and implementation experience, the following modifications were made from RFC 3921. In addition, several smaller changes were made to more clearly specify and explain the protocols. o The protocol for session establishment was determined to be unnecessary and therefore the content previously defined in Section 3 of RFC 3921 was removed. However, server implementations may still want to advertise support for the feature in order to ensure backwards-compatibility, even though it is a "no-op". o The protocol for communications blocking specified in Section 10 of RFC 3921 has been moved to [XEP-0016] and a simplified "front- end" to that functionality has been defined in [XEP-0191] to ease the task of implementing communications blocking in servers and clients. Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 79] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Author's Address Peter Saint-Andre (editor) Jabber Software Foundation Email: stpeter@jabber.org Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 80] Internet-Draft XMPP IM October 2006 Full Copyright Statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006). This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. This document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. 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The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-ipr@ietf.org. Acknowledgment Funding for the RFC Editor function is provided by the IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA). Saint-Andre Expires April 16, 2007 [Page 81]