XEP-0006: Profiles

Abstract
A proposal for a more powerful and extensible protocol for the management of personal information within Jabber.
Authors
  • Adam Theo
  • Michael Hearn
  • Eric Murphy
Copyright
© 2001 – 2002 XMPP Standards Foundation. SEE LEGAL NOTICES.
Status

Obsolete

WARNING: This document has been obsoleted by the XMPP Standards Foundation. Implementation of the protocol described herein is not recommended. Developers desiring similar functionality are advised to implement the protocol that supersedes this one (if any).
Type
SIG Formation
Version
1.1 (2002-05-08)
Document Lifecycle
  1. Obsolete

1. Introduction

Although popular, the vCard spec is too inflexible and limited. These problems become apparent when a User wants to set information outside the scope of the vCard in a standard format others will know is there. The so called 'IQ-Set' in custom namespaces is not sufficient because set information is often not in a standard format that others recognize or support. A short list of problems with vCard:

But instead of bringing down the entire customization of the 'IQ-Set' to only pre-defined schemas, it is important to keep the flexibility and power of it.

Therefore, we propose that Jabber needs a very flexible, extensible, and powerful information structure and retrieval system. There exist four aspects to solve for when designing an improved information storage and retrieval system for any platform, especially Jabber: Interface, Structure, Storage, and Gate.

2. Specification

2.1 Interface

Interface is the process, steps, and protocol a Service has to go through to access the information with the User's approval, for the User to approve or reject the access, and the User's Server to manage and secure it all.

Although it will be part of the Jabber protocol, it is still undecided how heavily the Profiles specification will rely on and use the Jabber system. This is the first thing that will have to be decided on, but thankfully there are some plans we have already outlined as possibilities.

2.2 Structure

Structure is the format that the information will be stored in and accessed by. It will have to be very flexible, likely eventually allowing the User to specify the info-sets they want to use instead of having them all set by this project.

The personal information will be stored in XML documents or info-sets, called 'Profiles', possibly making use of RDF, and usually following Schema specifications, although that should not be a requirement.

2.3 Storage

Storage is describing and accessing the physical location where the Profiles are kept. It will likely start off being only the Jabber Server, but will eventually allow for remote (specialized network hard drive services) and local (on the User's local machine or a portable floppy) storage. It also describes how this data will be transferred between computers and networks in an efficient and secure manner.

This will likely be the most other-SIG dependent part of the system, since we will have to make heavy use of encryption in Jabber, and likely file transfers. So we may want to help out those related SIGs when we get to this point to make sure their results can be used by this system.

2.4 Gate

Gate gives the User complete control at all times of others' access to and power over their Profiles. Since this system is designed to hold the bulk, if not all, of a User's personal information, they *must* have a powerful way to prevent unwanted others to access their data. So there must exist a powerful access regulation framework to precisely control which, when, and how other parties can get this information.

Since we want this kept flexible and very secure, the techniques used in this system will likely be a new Jabber server module that receives special 'jabber:profiles' namespaces, compares the sending JID to a User-stored list of permission-granted JIDs, and acts upon the message accordingly, either following through or rejecting the requested transfer of information.

3. Road-map

To make sure this project progresses smoothly and orderly, it has been decided it will be split up into steps, or 'Phases'. Each of the above four aspects will be split into two to four Phases, and the Road-map for the entire project will follow along these Phases. Version 1.0 of the Profiles system will be little more than an expanded vCard schema with simple rules and permissions to regulate access to it. It will progress up to Version 4.0 or 5.0, adding in advanced verification to persuade Services to use a User's Jabber Profiles instead of forcing them to set up a local account, and also adding write permissions so Services can set receipts of purchases and similar information in a User's Account.

This Road-map will be produced soon after the SIG is set up, and will give a good feature list and time-line to follow.

4. Benefits

Such an improved system would obviously provide for more types of information storage and management, but there are some other side-benefits that can be conceived of.

5. Conclusion

Eventually we would like this Profiles specification to completely replace the strict vCard schema that is 'hard-coded' into the protocol. We do not expect vCard to disappear from Jabber at all, simply be one possible Profile among many in a User's Account. At the end of this SIGs existence, we would like to see it integrate the Profiles and special 'jabber:profiles' namespaces fully into the rest of the Jabber protocol, having it become the method by which all User information (such as Roster, client-side preferences, and filters) is stored and retrieved.

It is important to note that this SIG will not be a stand-alone SIG. It will draw upon many other SIGs (that currently exist and that have yet to be created). It will need encryption from the Security SIG for safe transfer of the information, a versatile forms format from the Forms SIG for Profiles administration, and advanced authentication from a future SIG for Services to authenticate the User against their Jabber account.

6. History

The concept of Jabber Profiles was started by Eric Murphy and Mike Hearn. They both had begun to come up with similar ideas, but did not meet and exchange ideas until around early 2001. Adam Theo also came across them soon after that, and after some discussion, the three authors of this document agreed to start a serious effort on developing it. We started it as a project at Theoretic Solutions, although at that time it was as a full-fledged identity specification, complete with Profiles, Authentication, and Trust. It was not until we have now moved to set it up as an official SIG that we have split the individual parts up, to make it easier to develop.


Appendices

Appendix A: Document Information

Series
XEP
Number
0006
Publisher
XMPP Standards Foundation
Status
Obsolete
Type
SIG Formation
Version
1.1
Last Updated
2002-05-08
Approving Body
XSF Board of Directors
Dependencies
None
Supersedes
None
Superseded By
None
Short Name
N/A
Source Control
HTML

This document in other formats: XML  PDF

Appendix B: Author Information

Adam Theo
Email
adamtheo@theoretic.com
JabberID
adamtheo@theoretic.com
Michael Hearn
Email
mhearn@subdimension.com
JabberID
tweedledee@jabber.org
Eric Murphy
Email
ericmurphy@jabber.org
JabberID
ericmurphy@jabber.org

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

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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 by the membership of the XSF might also be appropriate (see <https://mail.jabber.org/mailman/listinfo/members> for details).

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

Appendix H: Revision History

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

  1. Version 1.1 (2002-05-08)
    Changed Status to Obsolete per approval of XEP-0019.
    psa
  2. Version 1.0 (2001-07-30)
    Initial release
    at

Appendix I: Bib(La)TeX Entry

@report{theo2001n/a,
  title = {Profiles},
  author = {Theo, Adam and Hearn, Michael and Murphy, Eric},
  type = {XEP},
  number = {0006},
  version = {1.1},
  institution = {XMPP Standards Foundation},
  url = {https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0006.html},
  date = {2001-07-30/2002-05-08},
}

END