XEP-0307: Unique Room Names for Multi-User Chat

Abstract
This specification defines an XMPP protocol extension for requesting a unique room ID from a multi-user chat service.
Author
Peter Saint-Andre
Copyright
© 2011 – 2011 XMPP Standards Foundation. SEE LEGAL NOTICES.
Status

Deferred

WARNING: This document has been automatically Deferred after 12 months of inactivity in its previous Experimental state. Implementation of the protocol described herein is not recommended for production systems. However, exploratory implementations are encouraged to resume the standards process.
Type
Standards Track
Version
0.1 (2011-11-10)
Document Lifecycle
  1. Experimental
  2. Deferred
  3. Proposed
  4. Stable
  5. Final

1. Introduction

Multi-User Chat (XEP-0045) [1] defines the protocol for groupchat in XMPP. In some situations, the room creator may want to request a unique room name before attempting to create the room (e.g., to avoid the possibility of a room conflict). Naturally, one way to do so is for the creator's client to generate a globally unique identifier, for example as defined in RFC 4122 [2]. Another way is for the client to ask the MUC service for a unique room ID (which the service will thus reserve for that user).

2. Protocol

The room creator requests a unique room name by sending an IQ-get to the service itself, containing an empty <unique/> element qualified by the 'http://jabber.org/protocol/muc#unique' namespace:

Example 1. Entity Requests Unique Room Name
<iq from='crone1@shakespeare.lit/desktop'
    id='unique1'
    to='chat.shakespeare.lit'
    type='get'>
  <unique xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc#unique'/>
</iq>

If the service supports this feature, it SHOULD return a unique room name as the XML character data of the <unique/> element (but not create the room):

Example 2. Service Returns Unique Room Name
<iq from='chat.shakespeare.lit'
    id='unique1'
    to='crone1@shakespeare.lit/desktop'
    type='result'>
  <unique xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc#unique'>
    6d9423a55f499b29ad20bf7b2bdea4f4b885ead1
  </unique>
</iq>

The service MAY refuse to return a unique room name to entities that are not entitled to create rooms, entities that have sent an excessive number of requests for unique room names, etc.

The service MAY use any algorithm that ensures the creation of a room name that will be permanently unique in the context of the service (e.g., a cryptographic hash of the requesting JID, datetime, and random salt), or simply use a UUID as defined by RFC 4122 [2].

The room creator would then use the XML character data of the <unique/> element as the node identifier portion of the room JID it requests:

Example 3. Owner Creates Room With Unique Name
<presence
    from='crone1@shakespeare.lit/desktop'
    to='6d9423a55f499b29ad20bf7b2bdea4f4b885ead1@chat.shakespeare.lit/firstwitch'>
  <x xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc'/>
</presence>

3. Determining Support

If a MUC service supports the protocol specified herein, it MUST advertise that fact by returning a feature of "http://jabber.org/protocol/muc#unique" in response to Service Discovery (XEP-0030) [3] information requests (see Protocol Namespaces regarding issuance of one or more permanent namespaces).

Example 4. Service discovery information request
<iq from='crone1@shakespeare.lit/desktop'
    id='disco1'
    to='chat.shakespeare.lit'
    type='get'>
  <query xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/disco#info'/>
</iq>
Example 5. Service discovery information response
<iq from='chat.shakespeare.lit'
    id='disco1'
    to='crone1@shakespeare.lit/desktop'
    type='result'>
  <query xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/disco#info'>
    [...]
    <feature var='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc#unique'/>
    [...]
  </query>
</iq>

4. XML Schema

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<xs:schema
    xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'
    targetNamespace='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc#unique'
    xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc#unique'
    elementFormDefault='qualified'>

  <xs:element name='unique' type='xs:string'/>

</xs:schema>

Appendices

Appendix A: Document Information

Series
XEP
Number
0307
Publisher
XMPP Standards Foundation
Status
Deferred
Type
Standards Track
Version
0.1
Last Updated
2011-11-10
Approving Body
XMPP Council
Dependencies
XMPP Core, XEP-0045
Supersedes
None
Superseded By
None
Short Name
muc-unique
Schema
<http://www.xmpp.org/schemas/muc-unique.xsd>
Source Control
HTML

This document in other formats: XML  PDF

Appendix B: Author Information

Peter Saint-Andre
Email
stpeter@stpeter.im
JabberID
stpeter@jabber.org
URI
https://stpeter.im/

Copyright

This XMPP Extension Protocol is copyright © 1999 – 2024 by the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF).

Permissions

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this specification (the "Specification"), to make use of the Specification without restriction, including without limitation the rights to implement the Specification in a software program, deploy the Specification in a network service, and copy, modify, merge, publish, translate, distribute, sublicense, or sell copies of the Specification, and to permit persons to whom the Specification is furnished to do so, subject to the condition that the foregoing copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Specification. Unless separate permission is granted, modified works that are redistributed shall not contain misleading information regarding the authors, title, number, or publisher of the Specification, and shall not claim endorsement of the modified works by the authors, any organization or project to which the authors belong, or the XMPP Standards Foundation.

Disclaimer of Warranty

## NOTE WELL: This Specification is provided on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ##

Limitation of Liability

In no event and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall the XMPP Standards Foundation or any author of this Specification be liable for damages, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising from, out of, or in connection with the Specification or the implementation, deployment, or other use of the Specification (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses), even if the XMPP Standards Foundation or such author has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

IPR Conformance

This XMPP Extension Protocol has been contributed in full conformance with the XSF's Intellectual Property Rights Policy (a copy of which can be found at <https://xmpp.org/about/xsf/ipr-policy> or obtained by writing to XMPP Standards Foundation, P.O. Box 787, Parker, CO 80134 USA).

Visual Presentation

The HTML representation (you are looking at) is maintained by the XSF. It is based on the YAML CSS Framework, which is licensed under the terms of the CC-BY-SA 2.0 license.

Appendix D: Relation to XMPP

The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is defined in the XMPP Core (RFC 6120) and XMPP IM (RFC 6121) specifications contributed by the XMPP Standards Foundation to the Internet Standards Process, which is managed by the Internet Engineering Task Force in accordance with RFC 2026. Any protocol defined in this document has been developed outside the Internet Standards Process and is to be understood as an extension to XMPP rather than as an evolution, development, or modification of XMPP itself.

Appendix E: Discussion Venue

The primary venue for discussion of XMPP Extension Protocols is the <standards@xmpp.org> discussion list.

Discussion on other xmpp.org discussion lists might also be appropriate; see <https://xmpp.org/community/> for a complete list.

Errata can be sent to <editor@xmpp.org>.

Appendix F: Requirements Conformance

The following requirements keywords as used in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119: "MUST", "SHALL", "REQUIRED"; "MUST NOT", "SHALL NOT"; "SHOULD", "RECOMMENDED"; "SHOULD NOT", "NOT RECOMMENDED"; "MAY", "OPTIONAL".

Appendix G: Notes

1. XEP-0045: Multi-User Chat <https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0045.html>.

2. RFC 4122: A Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4122>.

3. XEP-0030: Service Discovery <https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0030.html>.

Appendix H: Revision History

Note: Older versions of this specification might be available at https://xmpp.org/extensions/attic/

  1. Version 0.1 (2011-11-10)

    Initial published version.

    psa
  2. Version 0.0.1 (2011-09-26)

    First version, moved from XEP-0045.

    psa

Appendix I: Bib(La)TeX Entry

@report{saint-andre2011muc-unique,
  title = {Unique Room Names for Multi-User Chat},
  author = {Saint-Andre, Peter},
  type = {XEP},
  number = {0307},
  version = {0.1},
  institution = {XMPP Standards Foundation},
  url = {https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0307.html},
  date = {2011-09-26/2011-11-10},
}

END