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Vacation Messages A protocol for setting up vacation messages in Jabber. &LEGALNOTICE; 0109 Deferred Informational Standards JIG JEP-0030, JEP-0082 None None vacation Robert Norris rob@cataclysm.cx rob@cataclysm.cx 0.2 2003-08-12 rn Added use cases for removing vacation settings; described semantics when start and end times are not specified; changed JEP type to Informational; small editorial changes. 0.1 2003-07-28 rn Initial version.

Popular electronic mail systems have long including features that allow 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 "vacation messages", because it is most commonly used when a user is unable to read their messages because they are on vacation.

This document describes a similar system that allows Jabber users to setup vacation messages when they are away.

The requirements for this document are fairly straightforward. A user MUST be able to:

Additionally, a server supporting vacation messages MUST respond to a message sent to a local user that has an active vacation message set by automatically sending that message to the sender.

Before attempting to set or retrieve its current vacation settings, a user SHOULD first verify that their server supports vacation messages. To do this, the user makes a &jep0030; "#info" query to their server. If supported, the server includes a feature of "http://www.jabber.org/protocol/vacation" in the result.

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A user may request their current vacation settings by sending an IQ get to the local server like so:

]]> 2003-07-06T10:30:00+10:00 2003-07-13T08:00:00+10:00 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. ]]>

<start/> and <end/> define the times between which this vacation message is valid. These are in the format specified by &jep0082;.

<message/> contains the text of the message that will be sent to a remote user that sends the user a message while they have active vacation settings.

If the user has no stored vacation settings, the user will receive a result like the following:

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A user may set new vacation settings by sending a IQ to the local server like so:

2003-07-06T10:30:00+10:00 2003-07-13T08:00:00+10:00 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. ]]> ]]>

The meaning of each element is as outlined above. All elements are required.

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

A user may remove all stored vacation settings by sending a IQ to the local server like so:

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A server implementing vacation messages MUST reply to the message using the text specified in the receiving users' vacation settings if the time that message arrived from the remote users falls within data range specified, but only if the received message is to be queued for later delivery.

Implementing servers SHOULD (if local resource contraints allow) only send one automated response to a remote user for each local user that has active vacation settings. The memory of this action MUST be reset when the active settings have expired or when the user resets or removes them.

None yet defined.

This JEP requires no interaction with &IANA;.

The 'http://jabber.org/protocol/vacation' namespace shall be registered with the ®ISTRAR; as a result of this JEP.

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