xeps/xep-0109.xml

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<!DOCTYPE xep SYSTEM 'xep.dtd' [
  <!ENTITY % ents SYSTEM 'xep.ent'>
%ents;
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<xep>
<header>
  <title>Out-of-Office Messages</title>
  <abstract>This document defines an XMPP protocol extension for communicating out-of-office status.</abstract>
  &LEGALNOTICE;
  <number>0109</number>
  <status>Deferred</status>
  <type>Standards Track</type>
  <sig>Standards</sig>
  <dependencies>XEP-0060, XEP-0163</dependencies>
  <supersedes>None</supersedes>
  <supersededby>None</supersededby>
  <shortname>ooo</shortname>
  <author>
    <firstname>Darrell</firstname>
    <surname>Piner</surname>
    <email>dpiner@cisco.com</email>
    <jid>dpiner@cisco.com</jid>
  </author>
  <author>
    <firstname>Robert</firstname>
    <surname>Norris</surname>
    <email>rob@cataclysm.cx</email>
    <jid>rob@cataclysm.cx</jid>
  </author>
  <revision>
    <version>0.3</version>
    <date>2010-05-24</date>
    <initials>rdp</initials>
    <remark>Modified specification to use PEP instead of a dedicated protocol; streamlined use cases; changed namespace to urn:xmpp:ooo:0.</remark>
  </revision>
  <revision>
    <version>0.2</version>
    <date>2003-08-12</date>
    <initials>rn</initials>
    <remark>Added use cases for removing vacation settings; described semantics when start and end times are not specified; changed document type to Informational; small editorial changes.</remark>
  </revision>
  <revision>
    <version>0.1</version>
    <date>2003-07-28</date>
    <initials>rn</initials>
    <remark>Initial version.</remark>
  </revision>
</header>

<section1 topic='Introduction'>
  <p>Popular electronic mail systems include features allowing users to set up
  automated messages that are returned to message senders when the user is not
  able to deal with the message immediately. This feature is commonly known as
  "out-of-office" or "vacation" messages, because it is most commonly used when
  a user is unable to read their messages because they are out of the office
  (e.g., on vacation).</p>
  <p>This document describes a similar system that enables XMPP users to setup
  out-of-office messages when they are away.</p>
  <p>The basis for the e-mail system mechanism is considering an incoming
  message at the server level and determining whether to respond with a canned
  out-of-office message. While a system may send a response for each incoming
  message, many systems provide an optimization where a response to subsequent
  e-mail messages is sent after some period of time expires.</p>
</section1>

<section1 topic='Requirements'>
  <p>The requirements for this feature are fairly straightforward. A user MUST be able to:</p>

  <ul>
    <li>Retrieve their current out-of-office settings.</li>
    <li>Set new out-of-office settings.</li>
    <li>Remove out-of-office settings.</li>
    <li>Notify interested parties of the out-of-office settings when it
    is in effect.</li>
  </ul>

  <p>All these requirements are satisfied by &xep0163;, which is a subset of &xep0060;.</p> 

</section1>

<section1 topic='Format'>
  <p>The out-of-office setting contains a start-time, an end-time and a
  short message text.</p>

  <example caption="Sample Out-of-Office message"><![CDATA[
<start>2003-07-06T10:30:00+10:00</start>
<end>2003-07-13T08:00:00+10:00</end>
<message>I'm attending OSCON in sunny Portland and won't be able to
       read your message until I get back. If its urgent, please
       send email to rob@cataclysm.cx.</message>
]]></example>

  <p>The start and end times are informational only; i.e., the server does
  nothing with these values other than store them. PEP does not include node
  lifetime management (i.e., start and end times for the node); therefore, the server is unable
  to enforce any start and end times included in the settings.</p>

  <p>Using the PEP mechanism a client creates
  out-of-office settings on a PEP node with the desired access model (such as Presence or Open). When
  a user (or their client) sends presence containing CAPS (see &xep0115;) with an
  entry for out-of-office to a contact with an out-of-office message, the user's
  client is notified of the out-of-office message and may display, in a client-defined 
  fashion, the out-of-office settings information.</p>

  <p>Clients may rely on the PEP node for notifications of changes as well as
  automatic notification when the user logs-in (i.e., a user is notified of the
  current item on the out-of-office PEP node of another user on sending initial
  presence).</p>
</section1>

<section1 topic='Use cases'>

  <section2 topic='Retrieving the current out-of-office settings'>

    <p>A user may request their current out-of-office message by sending an IQ get to the local server like so:</p>

    <example caption='Retrieving the current out-of-office settings'><![CDATA[
<iq type='get'
    from='user@example.com'
    to='example.com'
    id='get1'>
  <pubsub xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub'>
    <items node='urn:xmpp:ooo:0'/>
  </pubsub>
</iq>
 ]]></example>

    <example caption='Server returns out-of-office settings'><![CDATA[
<iq type='result' 
    from='example.com'
    id='get1'>
  <pubsub xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub>
    <items node='urn:xmpp:ooo:0>
      <item id='current'>
        <ooo xmlns='urn:xmpp:ooo:0'>
          <start>2003-07-06T10:30:00+10:00</start>
          <end>2003-07-13T08:00:00+10:00</end>
          <message>I'm attending OSCON in sunny Portland and won't be able to
                   read your message until I get back. If its urgent, please
                   send email to rob@cataclysm.cx.</message>
        </ooo>
      </item>
    </items>
  </pubsub>
</iq>
 ]]></example>

    <p>The &lt;start/> and &lt;end/> elements define the times between which this vacation
    message should be considered valid by a supporting client; the times are in
    the format specified by &xep0082;.</p> 
    
    <p>The &lt;message/> element contains the text of the message which the client may
    display for the user (when appropriate).</p>

    <p>If the user has no stored vacation message, the user will receive a
    result like the following:</p>

    <example caption='User does not have any out-of-office settings'><![CDATA[
<iq type='result' id='get1'/>
 ]]></example>

  </section2>

  <section2 topic='Publishing new out-of-office settings'>

    <p>A user may set new vacation message by publishing a new item with an id
    of 'current' to the out-of-office node:</p>

    <example caption='Publishing new out-of-office settings'><![CDATA[
<iq type='set' 
    from='user@example.com/client' 
    to='example.com' 
    id='publish1'>
  <pubsub xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub'>
    <publish node='urn:xmpp:ooo:0'>
      <item id='current'>
        <ooo xmlns='urn:xmpp:ooo:0'>
          <start>2003-07-06T10:30:00+10:00</start>
          <end>2003-07-13T08:00:00+10:00</end>
          <message>I'm attending OSCON in sunny Portland and won't be able to
                   read your message until I get back. If its urgent, please
                   send email to rob@cataclysm.cx.</message>
        </ooo>
      </item>
    </publish>
  </pubsub>
</iq>
 ]]></example>

   <example caption='Out-of-office settings published successfully'><![CDATA[
<iq type='result' 
    from='example.com' 
    to='user@example.com/client' 
    id='publish1'>
  <pubsub xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub'>
    <publish node='urn:xmpp:ooo:0'>
      <item id='current'>
        <ooo xmlns='urn:xmpp:ooo:0'>
           <start>2003-07-06T10:30:00+10:00</start>
           <end>2003-07-13T08:00:00+10:00</end>
           <message>I'm attending OSCON in sunny Portland and won't be able to
                    read your message until I get back. If its urgent, please
                    send email to rob@cataclysm.cx.</message>
        </ooo>
      </item>
    </publish>
  </pubsub>
</iq>
]]></example>

    <p>And by design, PEP sends a notification to all the user's resources.</p>

    <example caption="PEP node notification sent to user"><![CDATA[
<message from='user@example.com' 
         id='notification_1781477179'
         to='user@example.com/client' type='headline'>
  <event xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub#event'>
    <items node='urn:xmpp:ooo:0'>
      <item id='current'>
        <ooo xmlns='urn:xmpp:ooo:0'>
           <start>2003-07-06T10:30:00+10:00</start>
           <end>2003-07-13T08:00:00+10:00</end>
           <message>I'm attending OSCON in sunny Portland and won't be able to
                    read your message until I get back. If its urgent, please
                    send email to rob@cataclysm.cx.</message>
        </ooo>
      </item>
    </items>
  </event>
</message>
 ]]></example>

    <p>The meaning of each element is as outlined above. All elements are required.</p>

    <p>Additionally, the &lt;start/> and &lt;end/> elements MAY be empty (i.e.,
    have no CDATA). When &lt;start/> is empty, the client MUST take this to mean
    that the settings should take effect immediately. Similarly, when &lt;end/>
    is empty, the client MUST take this to mean that the settings should never
    expire (unless they are explicitly removed).</p>

  </section2>

  <section2 topic='Removing out-of-office settings'>

    <p>A user may remove all stored vacation settings by sending an IQ to the local server like so:</p>

    <example caption='Remove vacation settings'><![CDATA[
<iq type='set'
    from='user@example.com/client'
    to='example.com'
    it='retract1'>
  <pubsub xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub'>
    <retract node='urn:xmpp:ooo:0'>
      <item id='current' />
    </retract>
  </pubsub>
</iq>
 ]]></example>

   <example caption='Vacation settings removed successfully'><![CDATA[
<iq type='result'
    from='example.com'
    to='user@example.com/client'
    id='retract1' />
 ]]></example>

    <p>TODO: Is the Delete And Notify functionality described in XEP-0060
    7.2.2.1 widely implemented? If so, should that case be included here?</p>

  </section2>

  <section2 topic='Hiding vacation settings'>
    <p>In PEP, a node's default access model is 'presence' (i.e., any other user
    with a subscription type "from" or "both" may subscribe to the node. PEP
    provides other access models including a 'whitelist.' See &xep0060; section
    4.5 for a list of Node Access Models.</p>

    <p>The whitelist access model can be used to hide the current
    out-of-office message. With an empty whitelist, no other users
    receive notification when the node changes. The client may also use this
    fact to allow the client's user to set up an out-of-office message
    before it becomes active.</p>

    <p>See &xep0060; Section 8.2 for details on configuration the out-of-office
    node's access model.</p>

    <p>See also &xep0223;.</p>

    <p>PEP and PubSub allow for publishing an item and setting configuration on
    a node. A user may wish to create an initial, hidden out-of-office
    setting. They may do so by publishing an item with id='archive' and an
    access model of 'whitelist.' When the user enables the
    out-of-office settings, a configuration changing the access model
    to some other mode sends notifications as defined by PEP.</p>

    <p>TODO: add an example of publishing an item and setting configuration with
    a single stanza i.e., find the appropriate example from &xep0060; or
    &xep0163; and include it here.</p>

  </section2>
</section1>

<section1 topic='Server requirements'>
  <p>A server implementing out-of-office messages MUST implement
  &xep0163;.</p> 
</section1>
<section1 topic='Security Considerations'>
  <p>None yet defined.</p>
</section1>
<section1 topic='IANA Considerations'>
  <p>This document requires no interaction with &IANA;.</p>
</section1>
<section1 topic='XMPP Registrar Considerations'>
  <p>The 'urn:xmpp:ooo:0' namespace shall be registered with the &REGISTRAR; as a result of this document.</p>
</section1>

<section1 topic='XML Schema'>
  <code><![CDATA[
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<xs:schema
    xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'
    targetNamespace='urn:xmpp:ooo:0'
    xmlns='urn:xmpp:ooo:0'
    elementFormDefault='qualified'>

  <xs:element name='item'>
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:sequence>
        <xs:element name='start' minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='1' type='xs:string'/>
        <xs:element name='end' minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='1' type='xs:string'/>
        <xs:element name='message' minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='1' type='xs:string'/>
      </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>

</xs:schema>
  ]]></code>
</section1>

</xep>