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vCard Infobits Mapping NOTE: This proposal was retracted by the author on 2004-02-19. &LEGALNOTICE; 0125 Retracted Informational Standards XEP-0120 N/A &stpeter; 0.1 2003-12-15 psa Initial version, split off from version 0.5 of XEP-0121 (with revisions to more clearly map vCard elements); further mapping and description required.

&xep0120; defines a protocol for capturing granular information (or "infobits") about users, servers, services, rooms, nodes, commands, files, and other phenomena on the Jabber/XMPP network; however, that document defines the protocol only, not the infobits themselves. This document specifies how to encapsulate one sort of metadata in infobits: the metadata elements about entities defined by &rfc2426; (supplemented by vCard-like metadata that is not defined in RFC 2426), thus enabling the Jabber community to supersede &xep0054;. Note well that this document is decidedly not meant to provide an exhaustive catalog of possible infobits. Future registrations, whether in XMPP Extension Protocol specifications or direct submissions to the ®ISTRAR;, will specify additional infobits.

In order to supersede the vCard-XML protocol currently in use within the Jabber community, it is necessary to define infobits that correspond to the data elements defined by the vCard-XML DTD (more precisely, the vCard Profile Features specified in section 3 of RFC 2426). These are shown in the following table. (Note: this mapping uses the vCard entity names specified in &dawson3;, not those specified in XEP-0054.)

Infobit Key vCard Element Comments
birthdate bday (partial) Date of birth (DD); prepend with birthyear and birthmonth (with "-" separators) to create vCard bday content
birthmonth bday (partial) Month of birth (MM); prepend with birthyear and append with birthdate (with "-" separators) to create vCard bday content
birthyear bday (partial) Year of birth (YYYY); append with birthmonth and birthdate (with "-" separators) to create vCard bday content; the vCard "bday" element is separated into three infobits so that users can abstain from providing a birthyear
cellphone tel + cell A cellphone (mobile phone) number; if more than one cellphone number is specified, this infobit keyname should be appended with one of the following modifiers: home, work
city city If more than one address is specified (e.g., work and home), this infobit keyname may be appended with any of the following address modifiers: home, work, postal, parcel (e.g., city.home)
country country If more than one address is specified (e.g., work and home), this infobit keyname may be appended with any of the following address modifiers: home, work, postal, parcel (e.g., country.home)
email email If more than one email address is specified, this infobit name should be appended with one of the following address modifiers: home, work
extadd extadd Extended address; if more than one address is specified (e.g., work and home), this infobit keyname may be appended with any of the following address modifiers: home, work, postal, parcel (e.g., extadd.home)
family family A family name or surname; in some cultures, known as a "last name"
fax tel + fax A fax number; if more than one fax number is specified, this infobit keyname should be appended with one of the following modifiers: home, work
fn fn A full name
given given A given name; in some cultures, known as a "first name"
key key This SHOULD be a URL to or identifier for a public key, but MAY be the key information itself
lat lat Latitude in decimal degrees North
logo logo This MUST be a URL to a logo; recipients should be prepared to parse the URL in order to retrieve and then decode the binary information
lon lon Longitude in decimal degrees East
middle middle A person's middle name or initial
nickname nickname A person's preferred nickname or less formal name
orgnam orgnam A name for an organization
orgunit orgunit A name for an organizational unit
pager tel + pager A pager number; if more than one pager number is specified, this infobit keyname should be appended with one of the following modifiers: home, work
pcode pcode A postal code; if more than one address is specified (e.g., work and home), this infobit name may be appended with any of the following address modifiers: home, work, postal, parcel
phone tel + voice A voice phone number; if more than one voice phone number is specified, this infobit keyname should be appended with one of the following modifiers: home, work
photo photo + extval This MUST be a URL to a photo; recipients should be prepared to parse the URL in order to retrieve and then decode the binary information
prefix prefix A prefix to a name (e.g., "Dr.")
region region If more than one address is specified, this infobit keyname may be appended with any of the following address modifiers: home, work, postal, parcel (e.g., region.home)
role role A person's role within an organization
sound sound + extval This MUST be a URL to a sound file; recipients should be prepared to parse the URL in order to retrieve and then decode the binary information
street street Street number and name; if more than one address is specified, this infobit keyname may be appended with any of the following address modifiers: home, work, postal, parcel (e.g., street.home)
suffix suffix A suffix to a name (e.g., "Esq.")
title title This is a job title, and is not to be confused with the &DUBLINCORE; "title" metadata term
vmail tel + msg A voicemail (message) number; if more than one voicemail number is specified, this infobit keyname should be appended with one of the following modifiers: home, work
website url URL for any website

The vCard specification does not include the following infobits because either (1) it is not that granular or (2) they represent entities or properties that did not exist when the vCard format was defined.

Infobit Comments
alt Altitude in meters above sea level
area An area within a locality; if more than one address is specified, this infobit keyname may be appended with any of the following address modifiers: home, work, postal, parcel (e.g., area.home)
building The name of a specific building; if more than one address is specified, this infobit keyname may be appended with any of the following address modifiers: home, work, postal, parcel (e.g., building.home)
expertise A self-defined area of expertise (no guarantees provided)
floor The floor of a building; if more than one address is specified, this infobit keyname may be appended with any of the following address modifiers: home, work, postal, parcel (e.g., floor.home)
gender The self-defined gender of a user (this is not limited to "male" and "female", although those are the expected values in most instances)
interest A self-defined area of interest
jid An entity's Jabber Identifier
orgurl URL for organization's website
room A specific room; if more than one address is specified, this infobit keyname may be appended with any of the following address modifiers: home, work, postal, parcel (e.g., room.home)
weblog URL for weblog

This document introduces no security considerations above and beyond those already defined in XEP-0120.

This document requires no interaction with &IANA;.

The following is a submission to the infobits registry called for by XEP-0120.

To follow.

To follow.