XEP-0057: Extended Roster

1. Introduction¶

The main purpose of this document is to make roster not only a "contact list", but also a "list of useful items". This means that the user has the ability to store not only users' JIDs, but any JID that he wants to quickly access with more information than just the name, subscription and roster groups.

2. What we need to store¶

All information, that can be stored for each item can be divided into three categories:

1. Information necessary only for server-side. E.g. we can have a server module that can process "visibility" to each user in roster (by sending custom presence to this user automatically, without special client-side support of this).
2. Information, neccessary only for client-side. E.g. user description of this item.
3. Information for both sides. This is at least the JID, category and type.

3. Where to store¶

Using jabber:iq:private as in Bookmark Storage (XEP-0048) [1] for storing this information has one big problem: it is hard to mantain roster data in two separate places. When a client is online, then the client application can handle jabber:iq:roster changes and make similar changes in private storage, but when the user is online with a few different resources, or when he is offline, then making the information consistent is very hard task (a roster can be changed when user offline, e.g. if someone is making an account transfer).

But we have a place where this problem does not exist: jabber:iq:roster. We can store it in <item/> subtags. Existing server implementation MUST NOT remove <x/> tags from it. In this case all information always relates to its JID and disappears when this JID removed.

4. How to store¶

<item jid="jdev@conference.jabber.org"
      category="conference"
      type="text">

<item jid="romeo@montague.net"
      name="Romeo"
      subscription="both">
  <x xmlns='jabber:x:data' type='form'>
    <field type='list-single' label='Visibility' var='visibility'>
      <value>visible</value>
      <option label='Normal'>
        <value>normal</value>
      </option>
      <option label='Always visible'>
        <value>visible</value>
      </option>
      <option label='Always invisible'>
        <value>invisible</value>
      </option>
    </field>
  </x>
  ...
</item>

<x xmlns="jabber:x:roster:item">
  <always-visible/>
  <desc>My old good friend</desc>
</x>

<iq id="roster_1" type="result">
  <query xmlns="jabber:iq:roster">
    <item jid="romeo@montague.net"
  	name="Romeo"
        category="user"
  	type="client"
  	subscription="both">
      <x xmlns="jabber:x:roster:item">
        <always-visible/>
        <desc>bla bla bla</desc>
      </x>
      <x xmlns='jabber:x:data' type='form'>
        <field type='list-single' label='Visibility' var='visibility'>
          <value>visible</value>
          <option label='Normal'>
            <value>normal</value>
          </option>
          <option label='Always visible'>
            <value>visible</value>
          </option>
          <option label='Always invisible'>
            <value>invisible</value>
          </option>
        </field>
      </x>
    </item>
    <item jid="jdev@conference.jabber.org"
  	name="Developers Zone"
          category="conference"
  	type="text"
  	subscription="none">
      <x xmlns="jabber:x:roster:item">
        <password>bigsecret</password>
        <auto-join/>
        <nick>aleksey</nick>
        <nick>alexey</nick>
        <desc>Jabber developers talks</desc>
      </x>
    </item>
  </query>
</iq> 

Appendices

Appendix A: Document Information¶

Series

XEP

Number

0057

Publisher

XMPP Standards Foundation

Status

Retracted

Type

Standards Track

Version

0.2

Last Updated

2003-04-28

Approving Body

XMPP Council

Dependencies

None

Supersedes

None

Superseded By

None

Short Name

None

Source Control

HTML

This document in other formats: XML  PDF

Appendix B: Author Information¶

Alexey Shchepin

Email

alexey@sevcom.net

JabberID

aleksey@jabber.ru

Appendix C: Legal Notices¶

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¶

Appendix H: Revision History¶

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

1. Version 0.2 (2003-04-28)¶
   Changed the status to Retracted at the request of the author, since the proposed protocol was incompatible with XMPP and clients have begun using jabber:iq:private for this kind of functionality.
   psa
2. Version 0.1 (2002-11-12)¶
   Initial version.
   as

Appendix I: Bib(La)TeX Entry

@report{shchepin2002none,
  title = {Extended Roster},
  author = {Shchepin, Alexey},
  type = {XEP},
  number = {0057},
  version = {0.2},
  institution = {XMPP Standards Foundation},
  url = {https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0057.html},
  date = {2002-11-12/2003-04-28},
}

END