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This document defines extensions to core features of the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) that provide basic instant messaging (IM) and presence functionality in conformance with RFC 2779. This document obsoletes RFC 3921.
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as “work in progress.”
This Internet-Draft will expire on February 10, 2011.
Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.
1.
Introduction
1.1.
Overview
1.2.
History
1.3.
Requirements
1.4.
Functional Summary
1.5.
Conventions
1.6.
Acknowledgements
1.7.
Discussion Venue
2.
Managing the Roster
2.1.
Syntax and Semantics
2.1.1.
Ver Attribute
2.1.2.
Roster Items
2.1.2.1.
Ask Attribute
2.1.2.2.
JID Attribute
2.1.2.3.
Name Attribute
2.1.2.4.
Subscription Attribute
2.1.2.5.
Group Element
2.1.3.
Roster Get
2.1.4.
Roster Result
2.1.5.
Roster Set
2.1.6.
Roster Push
2.2.
Retrieving the Roster on Login
2.3.
Adding a Roster Item
2.3.1.
Request
2.3.2.
Success Case
2.3.3.
Error Cases
2.4.
Updating a Roster Item
2.4.1.
Request
2.4.2.
Success Case
2.4.3.
Error Cases
2.5.
Deleting a Roster Item
2.5.1.
Request
2.5.2.
Success Case
2.5.3.
Error Cases
2.6.
Roster Versioning
2.6.1.
Stream Feature
2.6.2.
Request
2.6.3.
Success Case
3.
Managing Presence Subscriptions
3.1.
Requesting a Subscription
3.1.1.
Client Generation of Outbound Subscription Request
3.1.2.
Server Processing of Outbound Subscription Request
3.1.3.
Server Processing of Inbound Subscription Request
3.1.4.
Client Processing of Inbound Subscription Request
3.1.5.
Server Processing of Outbound Subscription Approval
3.1.6.
Server Processing of Inbound Subscription Approval
3.2.
Cancelling a Subscription
3.2.1.
Client Generation of Subscription Cancellation
3.2.2.
Server Processing of Outbound Subscription Cancellation
3.2.3.
Server Processing of Inbound Subscription Cancellation
3.3.
Unsubscribing
3.3.1.
Client Generation of Unsubscribe
3.3.2.
Server Processing of Outbound Unsubscribe
3.3.3.
Server Processing of Inbound Unsubscribe
4.
Exchanging Presence Information
4.1.
Overview
4.2.
Initial Presence
4.2.1.
Client Generation of Initial Presence
4.2.2.
Server Processing of Outbound Initial Presence
4.2.3.
Server Processing of Inbound Initial Presence
4.2.4.
Client Processing of Initial Presence
4.3.
Presence Probes
4.3.1.
Server Generation of Outbound Presence Probe
4.3.2.
Server Processing of Inbound Presence Probe
4.4.
Subsequent Presence Broadcast
4.4.1.
Client Generation of Subsequent Presence Broadcast
4.4.2.
Server Processing of Outbound Presence
4.4.3.
Server Processing of Inbound Presence
4.4.4.
Client Processing of Subsequent Presence
4.5.
Unavailable Presence
4.5.1.
Client Generation of Unavailable Presence
4.5.2.
Server Processing of Outbound Unavailable Presence
4.5.3.
Server Processing of Inbound Unavailable Presence
4.5.4.
Client Processing of Unavailable Presence
4.6.
Directed Presence
4.6.1.
Client Generation of Directed Presence
4.6.2.
Server Processing of Outbound Directed Presence
4.6.3.
Server Processing of Inbound Directed Presence
4.6.4.
Client Processing of Inbound Directed Presence
4.7.
Presence Syntax
4.7.1.
Type Attribute
4.7.2.
Child Elements
4.7.2.1.
Show Element
4.7.2.2.
Status Element
4.7.2.3.
Priority Element
4.7.3.
Extended Content
5.
Exchanging Messages
5.1.
One-to-One Chat Sessions
5.2.
Message Syntax
5.2.1.
To Attribute
5.2.2.
Type Attribute
5.2.3.
Body Element
5.2.4.
Subject Element
5.2.5.
Thread Element
5.3.
Extended Content
6.
Exchanging IQ Stanzas
7.
A Sample Session
8.
Server Rules for Processing XML Stanzas
8.1.
No 'to' Address
8.2.
Remote Domain
8.3.
Local Domain
8.4.
Localpart at Domain
8.4.1.
No Such User
8.4.2.
Bare JID
8.4.2.1.
Available or Connected Resources
8.4.2.2.
No Available or Connected Resources
8.4.3.
Full JID
8.4.3.1.
Resource Matches
8.4.3.2.
No Resource Matches
8.4.4.
Summary of Message Delivery Rules
9.
Handling of URIs
10.
Internationalization Considerations
11.
Security Considerations
12.
IANA Considerations
13.
Conformance Requirements
14.
References
14.1.
Normative References
14.2.
Informative References
Appendix A.
Subscription States
A.1.
Defined States
A.2.
Server Processing of Outbound Presence Subscription Stanzas
A.2.1.
Subscribe
A.2.2.
Unsubscribe
A.2.3.
Subscribed
A.2.4.
Unsubscribed
A.3.
Server Processing of Inbound Presence Subscription Stanzas
A.3.1.
Subscribe
A.3.2.
Unsubscribe
A.3.3.
Subscribed
A.3.4.
Unsubscribed
Appendix B.
Blocking Communication
Appendix C.
vCards
Appendix D.
XML Schemas
D.1.
jabber:client
D.2.
jabber:server
D.3.
jabber:iq:roster
Appendix E.
Differences From RFC 3921
Appendix F.
Copying Conditions
§
Author's Address
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The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is an application profile of the Extensible Markup Language [XML] (Maler, E., Yergeau, F., Sperberg-McQueen, C., Paoli, J., and T. Bray, “Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition),” November 2008.) that enables the near-real-time exchange of structured yet extensible data between any two or more network entities. The core features of XMPP defined in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.) provide the building blocks for many types of near-real-time applications, which can be layered on top of the core by sending application-specific data qualified by particular XML namespaces (refer to [XML‑NAMES] (Bray, T., Hollander, D., and A. Layman, “Namespaces in XML,” January 1999.)). This document defines XMPP extensions that provide the basic functionality expected of an instant messaging (IM) and presence application as described in [IMP‑REQS] (Day, M., Aggarwal, S., and J. Vincent, “Instant Messaging / Presence Protocol Requirements,” February 2000.).
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The basic syntax and semantics of XMPP were developed originally within the Jabber open-source community, mainly in 1999. In late 2002, the XMPP Working Group was chartered with developing an adaptation of the core Jabber protocol that would be suitable as an IETF instant messaging (IM) and presence technology in accordance with [IMP‑REQS] (Day, M., Aggarwal, S., and J. Vincent, “Instant Messaging / Presence Protocol Requirements,” February 2000.). In October 2004, [RFC3920] (Saint-Andre, P., Ed., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” October 2004.) and [RFC3921] (Saint-Andre, P., Ed., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and Presence,” October 2004.) were published, representing the most complete definition of XMPP at that time.
Since 2004 the Internet community has gained extensive implementation and deployment experience with XMPP, including formal interoperability testing carried out under the auspices of the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF). This document incorporates comprehensive feedback from software developers and service providers, including a number of backward-compatible modifications summarized under Appendix E (Differences From RFC 3921). As a result, this document reflects the rough consensus of the Internet community regarding the instant messaging and presence features of XMPP 1.0, thus obsoleting RFC 3921.
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Traditionally, instant messaging applications have combined the following factors:
Thus at a high level this document assumes that a user needs to be able to complete the following use cases:
Detailed definitions of these functionality areas are contained in RFC 2779 [IMP‑REQS] (Day, M., Aggarwal, S., and J. Vincent, “Instant Messaging / Presence Protocol Requirements,” February 2000.), and the interested reader is referred to that document regarding detailed requirements. While the XMPP instant messaging and presence extensions specified herein meet the requirements of RFC 2779, they were not designed explicitly with that specification in mind, since the base protocol evolved through an open development process within the Jabber open-source community before RFC 2779 was written. Although XMPP protocol extensions addressing many other functionality areas have been defined in the XMPP Standards Foundation's XEP series (e.g., multi-user text chat as specified in [XEP‑0045] (Saint-Andre, P., “Multi-User Chat,” July 2008.)), such extensions are not specified in this document because they are not mandated by RFC 2779.
Implementation Note: RFC 2779 stipulates that presence services must be separable from instant messaging services and vice-versa; i.e., it must be possible to use the protocol to provide a presence service, an instant messaging service, or both. Although the text of this document assumes that implementations and deployments will want to offer a unified instant messaging and presence service, it is not mandatory for an XMPP service to offer both a presence service and an instant messaging service, and the protocol makes it possible to offer separate and distinct services for presence and for instant messaging. (For example, a presence-only service could return a <service-unavailable/> stanza error if a client attempts to send a <message/> stanza.)
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This non-normative section provides a developer-friendly, functional summary of XMPP-based instant messaging and presence features; consult the sections that follow for a normative definition of these features.
[XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.) specifies how an XMPP client connects to an XMPP server. In particular, it specifies the preconditions that need to be fulfilled before a client is allowed to send XML stanzas (the basic unit of meaning in XMPP) to other entities on an XMPP network. These preconditions comprise negotiation of the XML stream and include exchange of XML stream headers, optional channel encryption via Transport Layer Security [TLS] (Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, “The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2,” August 2008.), mandatory authentication via Simple Authentication and Security Layer [SASL] (Melnikov, A. and K. Zeilenga, “Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL),” June 2006.), and binding of a resource to the stream for client addressing. The reader is referred to [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.) for details regarding these preconditions, and knowledge of [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.) is assumed herein.
Interoperability Note: [RFC3921] (Saint-Andre, P., Ed., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and Presence,” October 2004.) specified one additional precondition: formal establishment of an instant messaging and presence session. Implementation and deployment experience has shown that this additional step is unnecessary. However, for backward compatibility an implementation SHOULD still offer that feature. This enables older software to connect while letting newer software skip a round trip.
Upon fulfillment of the preconditions specified in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.), an XMPP client has a long-lived XML stream with an XMPP server, which enables the user controlling that client to send and receive a potentially unlimited number of XML stanzas over the stream. Such a stream can be used to exchange messages, share presence information, and engage in structured request-response interactions in close to real time. After negotiation of the XML stream, the typical flow for an instant messaging and presence session is as follows:
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This document inherits the terminology defined in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.).
The following capitalized keywords are to be interpreted as described in [KEYWORDS] (Bradner, S., “Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels,” March 1997.): "MUST", "SHALL", "REQUIRED"; "MUST NOT", "SHALL NOT"; "SHOULD", "RECOMMENDED"; "SHOULD NOT", "NOT RECOMMENDED"; "MAY", "OPTIONAL".
For convenience, this document employs the term "user" to refer to the owner of an XMPP account; however, account owners need not be natural persons and can be bots, devices, or other automated applications.
Following the "XML Notation" used in [IRI] (Duerst, M. and M. Suignard, “Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs),” January 2005.) to represent characters that cannot be rendered in ASCII-only documents, some examples in this document use the form "&#x...." as a notational device to represent Unicode characters (e.g., the string "ř" stands for the Unicode character LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH CARON); this form is definitely not to be sent over the wire in XMPP systems.
In examples, lines have been wrapped for improved readability, "[...]" means elision, and the following prepended strings are used (these prepended strings are not to be sent over the wire):
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The editor of this document finds it impossible to appropriately acknowledge the many individuals who have provided comments regarding the protocols defined in this specification. However, thanks are due to those who have provided implementation feedback, bug reports, requests for clarification, and suggestions for improvement since the publication of the RFC this document supersedes. The editor has endeavored to address all such feedback, but is solely responsible for any remaining errors and ambiguities.
Some of the text about roster versioning was borrowed from [XEP‑0237] (Saint-Andre, P. and D. Cridland, “Roster Versioning,” March 2010.) and some of the text about message threads was borrowed from [XEP‑0201] (Saint-Andre, P., Paterson, I., and K. Smith, “Best Practices for Message Threads,” May 2010.).
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The document editor and the broader XMPP developer community welcome discussion and comments related to the topics presented in this document. The primary and preferred venue is the <xmpp@ietf.org> mailing list, for which archives and subscription information are available at https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/xmpp. Related discussions often occur on the <standards@xmpp.org> mailing list, for which archives and subscription information are available at http://mail.jabber.org/mailman/listinfo/standards.
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In XMPP, a user's roster contains any number of specific contacts. A user's roster is stored by the user's server on the user's behalf so that the user can access roster information from any device. When the user adds items to the roster or modifies existing items, if an error does not occur then the server SHOULD store that data unmodified if at all possible and MUST return the data it has stored when an authorized client requests the roster.
Security Note: Because the user's roster can contain confidential data, the server MUST restrict access to this data so that only authorized entities (typically limited to the account owner) are able to retrieve, modify, or delete it.
RFC 3921 assumed that the only place where a user stores their roster is the server where the user's account is registered and at which the user authenticates for access to the XMPP network. This specification removes that strict coupling of roster storage to account registration and network authentication, such that a user could store their roster at another location, or could have multiple rosters that are stored in multiple locations. However, in the absence of implementation and deployment experience with a more flexible roster storage model, this specification retains the terminology of RFC 3921 by using the terms "client" and server" (and "the roster" instead of "a roster"), rather than coining a new term for "a place where a user stores a roster". Future documents might provide normative rules for non-server roster storage or for the management of multiple rosters, but such rules are out of scope for this document.
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Rosters are managed using IQ stanzas, specifically by means of a <query/> child element qualified by the 'jabber:iq:roster' namespace. The detailed syntax and semantics are defined in the following sections.
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The 'ver' attribute is a string that identifies a particular version of the roster information. The value MUST be generated only by the server and MUST be treated by the client as opaque. The server can use any appropriate method for generating the version ID, such as a hash of the roster data or a strictly-increasing sequence number.
Inclusion of the 'ver' attribute is RECOMMENDED.
Use of the 'ver' attribute is described more fully under Section 2.6 (Roster Versioning).
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The <query/> element inside a roster set (Roster Set) contains one <item/> child, and a roster result (Roster Result) typically contains multiple <item/> children. Each <item/> element describes a unique ROSTER ITEM or "contact".
The syntax of the <item/> element is described in the following sections.
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The 'ask' attribute is used to specify subscription sub-states that include a "Pending Out" aspect as described under Section 3.1.2 (Server Processing of Outbound Subscription Request). A server SHOULD include the 'ask' attribute for those subscription sub-states when returning the roster to an authorized client. A client MUST NOT include the 'ask' attribute in the roster sets is sends to the server.
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The 'jid' attribute specifies the Jabber Identifier (JID) that uniquely identifies the roster item.
The 'jid' attribute is REQUIRED whenever a client or server adds, updates, deletes, or returns a roster item.
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The 'name' attribute specifies the "handle" to be associated with the JID, as determined by the user (not the contact). Although the value of the 'name' attribute MAY have meaning to a human user, it is opaque to the server. However, the 'name' attribute MAY be used by the server for matching purposes within the context of various XMPP extensions (one possible comparison method is that described for XMPP resourceparts in [XMPP‑ADDR] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Address Format,” July 2010.)).
It is OPTIONAL for a client to include the 'name' attribute when adding or updating a roster item.
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The state of the presence subscription is captured in the 'subscription' attribute of the <item/> element. The defined subscription-related values are:
- none:
- the user does not have a subscription to the contact's presence, and the contact does not have a subscription to the user's presence; this is the default value, so if the subscription attribute is not included then the state is to be understood as "none"
- to:
- the user has a subscription to the contact's presence, but the contact does not have a subscription to the user's presence
- from:
- the contact has a subscription to the user's presence, but the user does not have a subscription to the contact's presence
- both:
- the user and the contact have subscriptions to each other's presence (also called a "mutual subscription")
In a roster result (Roster Result), the client MUST ignore values of the 'subscription' attribute other than "none", "to", "from", or "both".
In a roster push (Roster Push), the client MUST ignore values of the 'subscription' attribute other than "none", "to", "from", "both", or "remove".
In a roster set (Roster Set), the 'subscription' attribute MAY be included with a value of "remove", which indicates that the item is to be removed from the roster; in a roster set the server MUST ignore all values of the 'subscription' attribute other than "remove".
Inclusion of the 'subscription' attribute is OPTIONAL.
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The <group/> child element specifies a category or "bucket" into which the roster item is to be grouped by a client. An <item/> element MAY contain more than one <group/> element, which means that roster groups are not exclusive. Although the XML character data of the <group/> element MAY have meaning to a human user, it is opaque to the server. However, the <group/> element MAY be used by the server for matching purposes within the context of various XMPP extensions (one possible comparison method is that described for XMPP resourceparts in [XMPP‑ADDR] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Address Format,” July 2010.)).
It is OPTIONAL for a client to include the <group/> element when adding or updating a roster item. If a roster set (Roster Set) includes no <group/> element, then the item is to be interpreted as being affiliated with no group.
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A ROSTER GET is a client's request for the server to return the roster; syntactically it is an IQ stanza of type "get" sent from client to server and containing a <query/> element qualified by the 'jabber:iq:roster' namespace, where the <query/> element MUST NOT contain any <item/> child elements.
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='bv1bs71f'
type='get'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'/>
</iq>
The expected outcome of sending a roster get is for the server to return a roster result.
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A ROSTER RESULT is the server's response to a roster get; syntactically it is an IQ stanza of type "result" sent from server to client and containing a <query/> element qualified by the 'jabber:iq:roster' namespace.
The <query/> element in a roster result contains one <item/> element for each contact and therefore can contain more than one <item/> element.
S: <iq id='bv1bs71f'
to='juliet@example.com/chamber'
type='result'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster' ver='ver7'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'/>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'/>
</query>
</iq>
If the roster exists but there are no contacts in the roster, then the server MUST return an IQ-result containing a child <query/> element that in turn contains no <item/> children (i.e. , the server MUST NOT return an empty <iq/> stanza of type "error").
S: <iq id='bv1bs71f'
to='juliet@example.com/chamber'
type='result'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster' ver='ver9'/>
</iq>
If the roster does not exist, then the server MUST return a stanza error with a condition of <item-not-found/>.
S: <iq id='bv1bs71f'
to='juliet@example.com/chamber'
type='error'>
<error type='auth'>
<item-not-found
xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>
</error>
</iq>
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A ROSTER SET is a client's request for the server to modify (i.e., create, update, or delete) a roster item; syntactically it is an IQ stanza of type "set" sent from client to server and containing a <query/> element qualified by the 'jabber:iq:roster' namespace.
The following rules apply to roster sets:
Implementation Note: Traditionally, the IQ stanza of the roster set included no 'to' address, with the result that all roster sets were sent from an authenticated resource (full JID) of the account whose roster was being updated. Furthermore, RFC 3921 required a server to perform special-case checking of roster set stanzas to ignore the 'to' address; however, this specification has removed that special-casing, which means that a roster set stanza might include a 'to' address other than that of the sender. Therefore, the server MUST verify that the sender of the roster set stanza is authorized to update the roster, and if not return a <forbidden/> error.
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='rs1'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'/>
</query>
</iq>
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A ROSTER PUSH is a newly created, updated, or deleted roster item that is sent from the server to the client; syntactically it is an IQ stanza of type "set" sent from server to client and containing a <query/> element qualified by the 'jabber:iq:roster' namespace.
The following rules apply to roster pushes:
S: <iq id='a78b4q6ha463'
to='juliet@example.com/chamber'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'/>
</query>
</iq>
As mandated by the semantics of the IQ stanza as defined in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.), each resource that receives a roster push MUST reply with an IQ stanza of type "result" (or "error").
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='a78b4q6ha463'
type='result'/>
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/chamber'
id='a78b4q6ha463'
type='result'/>
Implementation Note: There is no error case for client processing of roster pushes; if the server receives an IQ of type "error" in response to a roster push it SHOULD ignore the error.
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Upon authenticating with a server and binding a resource (thus becoming a connected resource as defined in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.)), a client SHOULD request the roster before sending initial presence (however, because receiving the roster is not necessarily desirable for all resources, e.g., a connection with limited bandwidth, the client's request for the roster is not mandatory). After a connected resource sends initial presence (see Section 4.2 (Initial Presence)), it is referred to as an AVAILABLE RESOURCE. If a connected resource or available resource requests the roster, it is referred to as an INTERESTED RESOURCE. The server MUST send roster pushes to all interested resources.
Implementation Note: Presence subscription requests are sent to available resources, whereas the roster pushes associated with subscription state changes are sent to interested resources. Therefore if a resource wishes to receive both subscription requests and roster pushes, it MUST both send initial presence and request the roster.
A client requests the roster by sending a roster get over its stream with the server.
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='hu2bac18'
type='get'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'/>
</iq>
S: <iq id='hu2bac18'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='result'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster' ver='ver11'>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'
name='Romeo'
subscription='both'>
<group>Friends</group>
</item>
<item jid='mercutio@example.com'
name='Mercutio'
subscription='from'/>
<item jid='benvolio@example.net'
name='Benvolio'
subscription='both'/>
</query>
</iq>
If the server cannot process the roster get, it MUST return an appropriate stanza error as described in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.) (such as <service-unavailable/> if the roster namespace is not supported or <internal-server-error/> if the server experiences trouble processing or returning the roster).
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At any time, a client can add an item to the roster. This is done by sending a roster set containing a new item.
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='ph1xaz53'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'
name='Nurse'>
<group>Servants</group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
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If the server can successfully process the roster set for the new item (i.e., if no error occurs), it MUST create the roster item in persistent storage.
The server MUST then return an IQ stanza of type "result" to the connected resource that sent the roster set.
S: <iq id='ph1xaz53'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='result'/>
The server MUST also send a roster push containing the new roster item to all of the user's interested resources, including the resource that generated the roster set.
S: <iq to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='a78b4q6ha463'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster' ver='ver13'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'
name='Nurse'
subscription='none'>
<group>Servants</group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
S: <iq to='juliet@example.com/chamber'
id='x81g3bdy4n19'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster' ver='ver13'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'
name='Nurse'
subscription='none'>
<group>Servants</group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
As mandated by the semantics of the IQ stanza as defined in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.), each resource that receives a roster push MUST reply with an IQ stanza of type "result" (or "error").
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='a78b4q6ha463'
type='result'/>
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/chamber'
id='x81g3bdy4n19'
type='result'/>
| TOC |
If the server cannot successfully process the roster set, it MUST return a stanza error. The following error cases are defined (naturally, other stanza errors can occur, such as <internal-server-error/>).
The server MUST return a <forbidden/> stanza error to the client if the sender of the roster set is not authorized to update the roster (where typically only an authenticated resource of the account itself is authorized).
The server MUST return a <bad-request/> stanza error to the client if the roster set contains any of the following violations:
The server MUST return a <not-acceptable/> stanza error to the client if the roster set contains any of the following violations:
Error: Roster set initiated by unauthorized entity
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='ix7s53v2'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'/>
</query>
</iq>
S: <iq id='ix7s53v2'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='error'>
<error type='auth'>
<forbidden xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>
</error>
</iq>
Error: Roster set contains more than one item
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='nw83vcj4'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'
name='Nurse'>
<group>Servants</group>
</item>
<item jid='mother@example.com'
name='Mom'>
<group>Family</group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
S: <iq id='nw83vcj4'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='error'>
<error type='modify'>
<bad-request xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>
</error>
</iq>
Error: Roster set contains item with oversized handle
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='yl491b3d'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'
name='[ ... some-very-long-handle ... ]'>
<group>Servants</group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
S: <iq id='yl491b3d'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='error'>
<error type='modify'>
<not-acceptable xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>
</error>
</iq>
Error: Roster set contains duplicate groups
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='tk3va749'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'
name='Nurse'>
<group>Servants</group>
<group>Servants</group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
S: <iq id='tk3va749'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='error'>
<error type='modify'>
<bad-request xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>
</error>
</iq>
Error: Roster set contains empty group
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='fl3b486u'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'
name='Nurse'>
<group></group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
S: <iq id='fl3b486u'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='error'>
<error type='modify'>
<not-acceptable xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>
</error>
</iq>
Error: Roster set contains oversized group name
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='qh3b4v19'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'
name='Nurse'>
<group>[ ... some-very-long-group-name ... ]</group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
S: <iq id='qh3b4v19'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='error'>
<error type='modify'>
<not-acceptable xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>
</error>
</iq>
Interoperability Note: Some servers return a <not-allowed/> stanza error to the client if the value of the <item/> element's 'jid' attribute matches the bare JID <node@domain> of the user's account.
| TOC |
| TOC |
Updating an existing roster item is done in the same way as adding a new roster item, i.e., by sending a roster set to the server. Because a roster item is atomic, the item MUST be updated exactly as provided in the roster set.
There are several reasons why a client might update a roster item:
Consider a roster item that is defined as follows:
<item jid='romeo@example.net'
name='Romeo'>
<group>Friends</group>
</item>
The user who has this item in her roster might want to add the item to another group.
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='di43b2x9'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'
name='Romeo'>
<group>Friends</group>
<group>Lovers</group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
Sometime later, the user might want to remove the item from the original group.
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='lf72v157'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'
name='Romeo'>
<group>Lovers</group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
The user might want to remove the item from all groups.
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='ju4b62a5'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'/>
</query>
</iq>
The user might also want to change the handle for the item.
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='gb3sv487'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'
name='MyRomeo'/>
</query>
</iq>
The user might then want to remove the handle altogether.
Implementation Note: Including an empty 'name' attribute is equivalent to including no 'name' attribute; both actions set the name to the empty string.
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='o3bx66s5'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'
name=''/>
</query>
</iq>
| TOC |
As with adding a roster item, if the roster item can be successfully processed then the server MUST update the roster information in persistent storage, send a roster push to all of the user's interested resources, and send an IQ result to the initiating resource; for details, see Section 2.3 (Adding a Roster Item).
| TOC |
The error cases described under Section 2.3.3 (Error Cases) also apply to updating a roster item.
| TOC |
| TOC |
At any time, a client can delete an item from his or her roster by sending a roster set and specifying a value of "remove" for the 'subscription' attribute.
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='hm4hs97y'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='nurse@example.com'
subscription='remove'/>
</query>
</iq>
| TOC |
As with adding a roster item, if the server can successfully process the roster set then it MUST update the roster information in persistent storage, send a roster push to all of the user's interested resources (with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "remove"), and send an IQ result to the initiating resource; for details, see Section 2.3 (Adding a Roster Item).
In addition, the user's server might need to generate one or more subscription-related presence stanzas, as follows:
S: <presence from='juliet@example.com'
id='lm3ba81g'
to='nurse@example.com'
type='unsubscribe'/>
S: <presence from='juliet@example.com'
id='xb2c1v4k'
to='nurse@example.com'
type='unsubscribed'/>
| TOC |
If the value of the 'jid' attribute specifies an item that is not in the roster, then the server MUST return an <item-not-found/> stanza error.
Error: Roster item not found
C: <iq from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='uj4b1ca8'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='[ ... non-existent-jid ... ]'
subscription='remove'/>
</query>
</iq>
S: <iq id='uj4b1ca8'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='error'>
<error type='modify'>
<item-not-found
xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>
</error>
</iq>
| TOC |
| TOC |
If a server supports roster versioning, then it MUST advertise the following stream feature during stream negotiation.
<ver xmlns='urn:xmpp:features:rosterver'> <optional/> </ver>
The roster versioning stream feature SHOULD always be voluntary (advertised by means of the <optional/> child element), not mandatory (advertised by means of the <required/> child element).
| TOC |
If a client supports roster versioning and the server to which it has connected advertises support for roster versioning as described in the foregoing section, then the client SHOULD include the 'ver' element in its request for the roster. If the server does not advertise support for roster versioning, the client MUST NOT include the 'ver' attribute. If the client includes the 'ver' attribute in its roster get, it sets the attribute's value to the version ID associated with its last cache of the roster.
C: <iq from='romeo@example.net/home'
id='r1h3vzp7'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='get'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster' ver='ver14'/>
</iq>
If the client has not yet cached the roster or the cache is lost or corrupted, but the client wishes to bootstrap the use of roster versioning, it MUST set the 'ver' attribute to the empty string (i.e., ver="").
Naturally, if the client does not support roster versioning or does not wish to bootstrap the use of roster versioning, it will not include the 'ver' attribute.
| TOC |
Whether or not the roster has been modified since the version ID enumerated by the client, the server MUST either return the complete roster as described under Section 2.1.4 (Roster Result) (including a 'ver' attribute that signals the latest version) or return an empty IQ-result (thus indicating that any roster modifications will be sent via roster pushes, as described below). In general, unless returning the complete roster would (1) use less bandwidth than sending individual roster pushes to the client (e.g., if the roster contains only a few items) or (2) the server cannot associate the version ID with any previous version it has on file, the server SHOULD send an empty IQ-result and then send the modifications (if any) via roster pushes.
S: <iq from='romeo@example.net'
id='r1h3vzp7'
to='romeo@example.net/home'
type='result'/>
Implementation Note: This empty IQ-result is different from an empty <query/> element, thus disambiguating this usage from an empty roster.
If roster versioning is enabled and the roster has not been modified since the version ID enumerated by the client, the server will simply not send any roster pushes to the client (until and unless some relevant event triggers a roster push during the lifetime of the client's session).
If the roster has been modified since the version ID enumerated by the client, the server MUST then send one roster push to the client for each roster item that has been modified since the version ID enumerated by the client. (We call a roster push that is sent for purposes of roster version synchronization an "interim roster push".)
Definition: A ROSTER MODIFICATION is any modification to the roster data that would result in a roster push to a connected client. Therefore internal states related to roster processing within the server that would not result in a roster push to a connected client do not necessitate a change to the version.
S: <iq from='romeo@example.net'
id='ah382g67'
to='romeo@example.net/home'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster' ver='ver34'>
<item jid='tybalt@example.org' subscription='remove'/>
</query>
</iq>
S: <iq from='romeo@example.net'
id='b2gs90j5'
to='romeo@example.net/home'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster' ver='ver42'>
<item jid='bill@example.org' subscription='both'/>
</query>
</iq>
S: <iq from='romeo@example.net'
id='c73gs419'
to='romeo@example.net/home'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster' ver='ver72'>
<item jid='nurse@example.org'
name='Nurse'
subscription='to'>
<group>Servants</group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
S: <iq from='romeo@example.net'
id='dh361f35'
to='romeo@example.net/home'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster' ver='ver96'>
<item jid='juliet@example.org'
name='Juliet'
subscription='both'>
<group>VIPs</group>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
These "interim roster pushes" can be understood as follows:
The client MUST handle an "interim roster push" in the same way it handles any roster push (indeed, from the client's perspective it cannot tell the difference between an "interim" roster push and a "live" roster push and therefore it has no way of knowing when it has received all of the interim roster pushes). When requesting the roster after reconnection, the client SHOULD request the version associated with the last roster push it received during its previous session, not the version associated with the roster result it received at the start of its previous session.
When roster versioning is enabled, the server MUST include the updated roster version with each roster push. Roster pushes MUST occur in order of modification and the version contained in a roster push MUST be unique. Even if the client has not included the 'ver' attribute in its roster gets or sets, the server SHOULD include the 'ver' attribute on all roster pushes and results that it sends to the client.
Implementation Note: Guidelines and more detailed examples for roster versioning are provided in [XEP‑0237] (Saint-Andre, P. and D. Cridland, “Roster Versioning,” March 2010.).
| TOC |
In order to protect the privacy of instant messaging users, presence information is disclosed only to other entities that a user has approved. When a user has agreed that another entity is allowed to view its presence, the entity is said to have a SUBSCRIPTION to the user's presence. An entity that has a subscription to a user's presence or to which a user has a presence subscription is called a CONTACT (in this document the term "contact" is also used in a less strict sense to refer to a potential contact or any item in a user's roster).
In XMPP, a subscription lasts across presence sessions; indeed, it lasts until the contact unsubscribes or the user cancels the previously-granted subscription.
Subscriptions are managed within XMPP by sending presence stanzas containing specially-defined attributes ("subscribe", "unsubscribe", "subscribed", and "unsubscribed").
Implementation Note: When a server processes or generates an outbound presence stanza of type "subscribe", "subscribed", "unsubscribe", or "unsubscribed", the server MUST stamp the outgoing presence stanza with the bare JID <node@domain> of the sending entity, not the full JID <node@domain/resource>. Enforcement of this rule simplifies the presence subscription model and helps to prevent presence leaks; for information about presence leaks, refer to the security considerations of [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.).
Subscription states are reflected in the rosters of both the user and the contact. This section does not cover every possible case related to presence subscriptions, and mainly narrates the protocol flows for bootstrapping a mutual subscription between a user and a contact. Complete details regarding subscription states can be found in Appendix A (Subscription States).
| TOC |
A SUBSCRIPTION REQUEST is a request from a user for authorization to permanently subscribe to a contact's presence information; syntactically it is a presence stanza whose 'type' attribute has a value of "subscribe". A subscription request is generated by a user's client, processed by the (potential) contact's server, and acted on by the contact via the contact's client. The workflow is described in the following sections.
Implementation Note: Presence subscription requests are sent to available resources, whereas the roster pushes associated with subscription state changes are sent to interested resources. Therefore if a resource wishes to receive both subscription requests and roster pushes, it MUST both send initial presence and request the roster.
| TOC |
A user's client generates a subscription request by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribe" and specifying a 'to' address of the potential contact's bare JID <contact@domain>.
UC: <presence id='xk3h1v69'
to='juliet@example.com'
type='subscribe'/>
When a user sends a presence subscription request to a potential instant messaging and presence contact, the value of the 'to' attribute MUST be a bare JID <contact@domain> rather a full JID <contact@domain/resource>, since the desired result is for the user to receive presence from all of the contact's resources, not merely the particular resource specified in the 'to' attribute. Use of bare JIDs also simplifies subscription processing, presence probes, and presence notifications by the user's server and the contact's server.
For tracking purposes, a client SHOULD include an 'id' attribute in a presence subscription request.
Implementation Note: Many XMPP clients prompt the user for information about the potential contact (e.g., "handle" and desired roster group) when generating an outbound presence subscription request and therefore send a roster set before sending the outbound presence subscription request. This behavior is OPTIONAL, because a client MAY instead wait until receiving the initial roster push from the server before uploading user-provided information about the contact. A server MUST process a roster set and outbound presence subscription request in either order.
| TOC |
Upon receiving the outbound presence subscription request, the user's server MUST proceed as follows.
As mentioned, before locally delivering or remotely routing the presence subscription request, the user's server MUST stamp the outbound subscription request with the bare JID <user@domain> of the user.
US: <presence from='romeo@example.net'
id='xk3h1v69'
to='juliet@example.com'
type='subscribe'/>
If the presence subscription request cannot be locally delivered or remotely routed (e.g., because the request is malformed, the local contact does not exist, the remote server does not exist, an attempt to contact the remote server times out, or any other error determined or experienced by the user's server), then the user's server MUST return an appropriate error stanza to the user. An example follows.
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com'
id='xk3h1v69'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='error'>
<error type='modify'>
<remote-server-not-found
xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>
</error>
</presence>
After locally delivering or remotely routing the presence subscription request, the user's server MUST then send a roster push to all of the user's interested resources, containing the potential contact with a subscription state of "none" and with notation that the subscription is pending (via an 'ask' attribute whose value is "subscribe").
US: <iq id='b89c5r7ib574'
to='romeo@example.net/foo'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item ask='subscribe'
jid='juliet@example.com'
subscription='none'/>
</query>
</iq>
US: <iq id='b89c5r7ib575'
to='romeo@example.net/bar'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item ask='subscribe'
jid='juliet@example.com'
subscription='none'/>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
If a remote contact does not approve or deny the subscription request within some configurable amount of time, the user's server SHOULD resend the subscription request to the contact based on an implementation-specific algorithm (e.g., whenever a new resource becomes available for the user, or after a certain amount of time has elapsed); this helps to recover from transient, silent errors that might have occurred when the original subscription request was routed to the remote domain. When doing so, it is RECOMMENDED for the server to include an 'id' attribute so that it can track responses to the resent subscription request.
| TOC |
Before processing the inbound presence subscription request, the contact's server SHOULD check the syntax of the JID contained in the 'to' attribute. If the JID is of the form <contact@domain/resource> instead of <contact@domain>, the contact's server SHOULD treat it as if the request had been directed to the contact's bare JID and modify the 'to' address accordingly. The server MAY also verify that the JID adheres to the format defined in [XMPP‑ADDR] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Address Format,” July 2010.) and possibly return a <jid-malformed/> stanza error.
When processing the inbound presence subscription request, the contact's server MUST adhere to the following rules:
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com'
id='xk3h1v69'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='subscribed'/>
Security Note: Until and unless the contact approves the subscription request as described under Section 3.1.4 (Client Processing of Inbound Subscription Request), the contact's server MUST NOT add an item for the user to the contact's roster.
| TOC |
When the contact's client receives a subscription request from the user, it MUST present the request to the contact for approval (unless the contact has explicitly configured the client to automatically approve or deny some or all subscription requests).
A subscription request is approved by sending a presence stanza of type "subscribed", which is processed as described under Section 3.1.5 (Server Processing of Outbound Subscription Approval) for the contact's server and Section 3.1.6 (Server Processing of Inbound Subscription Approval) for the user's server.
CC: <presence id='h4v1c4kj'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='subscribed'/>
A subscription request is denied by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed", which is processed as described under Section 3.2 (Cancelling a Subscription) for both the contact's server and the user's server.
CC: <presence id='tb2m1b59'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='unsubscribed'/>
| TOC |
When the contact's client sends the subscription approval, the contact's server MUST stamp the outbound stanza with the bare JID <contact@domain> of the contact and locally deliver or remotely route the stanza to the user.
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com'
id='h4v1c4kj'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='subscribed'/>
The contact's server then MUST send an updated roster push to all of the contact's interested resources, with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "from". (Here we assume that the contact does not already have a subscription to the user; if that were the case, the 'subscription' attribute would be set to a value of "both", as defined under Appendix A (Subscription States).)
CS: <iq id='a78b4q6ha463'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'
subscription='from'/>
</query>
</iq>
CS: <iq id='x81g3bdy4n19'
to='juliet@example.com/chamber'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'
subscription='from'/>
</query>
</iq>
From the perspective of the contact, there now exists a subscription from the user, which is why the 'subscription' attribute is set to a value of "from". (Here we assume that the contact does not already have a subscription to the user; if that were the case, the 'subscription' attribute would be set to a value of "both", as defined under Appendix A (Subscription States).)
The contact's server MUST then also send current presence to the user from each of the contact's available resources.
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='pw72bc5j'
to='romeo@example.net'/>
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com/chamber'
id='ux31da4q'
to='romeo@example.net'/>
In order to subscribe to the user's presence, the contact would then need to send a subscription request to the user. (XMPP clients will often automatically send the subscription request instead of requiring the contact to initiate the subscription request, since it is assumed that the desired end state is a mutual subscription.) Naturally, when the contact sends a subscription request to the user, the subscription states will be different from those shown in the foregoing examples (see Appendix A (Subscription States)) and the roles will be reversed.
| TOC |
When the user's server receives the subscription approval, it MUST first check if the contact is in the user's roster with subscription='none' or subscription='from' and the 'ask' flag set to "subscribe" (i.e., a subscription state of "None + Pending Out", "None + Pending Out+In", or "From + Pending Out"; see Appendix A (Subscription States)). If this check is successful, then the user's server MUST:
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com'
id='h4v1c4kj'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='subscribed'/>
US: <iq id='b89c5r7ib576'
to='romeo@example.net/foo'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='juliet@example.com'
subscription='to'/>
</query>
</iq>
US: <iq id='b89c5r7ib577'
to='romeo@example.net/bar'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='juliet@example.com'
subscription='to'/>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
[ ... to resource1 ... ]
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='pw72bc5j'
to='romeo@example.net'/>
[ ... to resource2 ... ]
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='pw72bc5j'
to='romeo@example.net'/>
[ ... to resource1 ... ]
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/chamber'
id='ux31da4q'
to='romeo@example.net'/>
[ ... to resource2 ... ]
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/chamber'
id='ux31da4q'
to='romeo@example.net'/>
Implementation Note: If the account has no available resources when the inbound subscribed notification is received, a server MAY keep a record of the notification (ideally the complete presence stanza) and then deliver the notification when the account next has an available resource. This behavior provides more complete signalling to the user regarding the reasons for the roster change that occurred while the user was offline.
Otherwise -- that is, if the user does not exist, if the contact is not in the user's roster, or if the contact is in the user's roster with a subscription state other than those described in the foregoing check -- then the user's server MUST silently ignore the subscription approval stanza by not delivering it to the user, not modifying the user's roster, and not generating a roster push to the user's interested resources.
From the perspective of the user, there now exists a subscription to the contact's presence (which is why the 'subscription' attribute is set to a value of "to").
| TOC |
| TOC |
If a contact would like to cancel a subscription that it has previously granted to a user (or deny a subscription request), it sends a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed".
CC: <presence id='ij5b1v7g'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='unsubscribed'/>
| TOC |
Upon receiving the outbound subscription cancellation, the contact's server MUST proceed as follows.
As mentioned, before locally delivering or remotely routing the stanza, the contact's server MUST stamp the outbound subscription cancellation with the bare JID <contact@domain> of the contact.
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com'
id='ij5b1v7g'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='unsubscribed'/>
The contact's server then MUST send a roster push with the updated roster item to all of the contact's interested resources, where the subscription state is now either "none" or "to" (see Appendix A (Subscription States)).
CS: <iq id='pw3f2v175b34'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'
subscription='none'/>
</query>
</iq>
CS: <iq id='zu2y3f571v35'
to='juliet@example.com/chamber'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'
subscription='none'/>
</query>
</iq>
The contact's server then MUST send a presence stanza of type "unavailable" from all of the contact's online resources to the user.
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='i8bsg3h3'
type='unavailable'/>
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com/chamber'
id='bvx2c9mk'
type='unavailable'/>
| TOC |
When the user's server receives the inbound subscription cancellation, it MUST first check if the contact is in the user's roster with subscription='to' or subscription='both' (see Appendix A (Subscription States)). If this check is successful, then the user's server MUST:
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com'
id='ij5b1v7g'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='unsubscribed'/>
US: <iq id='h37h3u1bv400'
to='romeo@example.net/foo'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='juliet@example.com'
subscription='none'/>
</query>
</iq>
US: <iq id='h37h3u1bv401'
to='romeo@example.net/bar'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='juliet@example.com'
subscription='none'/>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
The user's server MUST also deliver the inbound presence stanzas of type "unavailable".
Implementation Note: If the account has no available resources when the inbound unsubscribed notification is received, a server MAY keep a record of the notification (ideally the complete presence stanza) and then deliver the notification when the account next has an available resource. This behavior provides more complete signalling to the user regarding the reasons for the roster change that occurred while the user was offline.
Otherwise -- that is, if the user does not exist, if the contact is not in the user's roster, or if the contact is in the user's roster with a subscription state other than those described in the foregoing check -- then the user's server MUST silently ignore the subscription cancellation stanza by not delivering it to the user, not modifying the user's roster, and not generating a roster push to the user's interested resources.
| TOC |
| TOC |
If a user would like to unsubscribe from a contact's presence, it sends a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe".
UC: <presence id='ul4bs71n'
to='juliet@example.com'
type='unsubscribe'/>
| TOC |
Upon receiving the outbound unsubscribe, the user's server MUST proceed as follows.
As mentioned, before locally delivering or remotely routing the unsubscribe, the user's server MUST stamp the stanza with the bare JID <user@domain> of the user.
US: <presence from='romeo@example.net'
id='ul4bs71n'
to='juliet@example.com'
type='unsubscribe'/>
The user's server then MUST send a roster push with the updated roster item to all of the user's interested resources, where the subscription state is now either "none" or "from" (see Appendix A (Subscription States)).
US: <iq id='h37h3u1bv402'
to='romeo@example.net/foo'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='juliet@example.com'
subscription='none'/>
</query>
</iq>
US: <iq to='romeo@example.net/bar'
type='set'
id='h37h3u1bv403'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='juliet@example.com'
subscription='none'/>
</item>
</query>
</iq>
| TOC |
When the contact's server receives the unsubscribe notification, it MUST first check if the user is in the contact's roster with subscription='from' or subscription='both' (i.e., a subscription state of "From", "From + Pending Out", or "Both"; see Appendix A (Subscription States)). If this check is successful, then the contact's server MUST:
CS: <presence from='romeo@example.net'
id='ul4bs71n'
to='juliet@example.com'
type='unsubscribe'/>
CS: <iq id='tn2b5893g1s4'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'
subscription='none'/>
</query>
</iq>
CS: <iq id='sp3b56n27hrp'
to='juliet@example.com/chamber'
type='set'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='romeo@example.net'
subscription='none'/>
</query>
</iq>
CS: <presence from='romeo@example.net'
id='o5v91w49'
to='juliet@example.com'
type='unavailable'/>
Implementation Note: If the account has no available resources when the inbound unsubscribe notification is received, a server MAY keep a record of the notification (ideally the complete presence stanza) and then deliver the notification when the account next has an available resource. This behavior provides more complete signalling to the user regarding the reasons for the roster change that occurred while the user was offline.
Otherwise -- that is, if the contact does not exist, if the user is not in the contact's roster, or if the user is in the contact's roster with a subscription state other than those described in the foregoing check -- then the contact's server MUST silently ignore the unsubscribe stanza by not delivering it to the contact, not modifying the contact's roster, and not generating a roster push to the contact's interested resources. However, if the contact's server is keeping track of an inbound presence subscription request from the user to the contact but the user is not yet in the contact's roster (functionally equivalent to a subscription state of "None + Pending In" where the contact never added the user to the contact's roster), then the contact's server MUST simply remove any record of the inbound presence subscription request (it cannot remove the user from the contact's roster because the user was never added to the contact's roster).
Implementation Note: The user's client MUST NOT depend on receiving the unavailable presence notification, since it MUST consider its presence subscription to the contact, and its presence information about the contact, to be null and void when it sends the presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" or when it receives the roster push triggered by the unsubscribe request.
| TOC |
| TOC |
The concept of presence refers to an entity's availability for communication over a network. At the most basic level, presence is a boolean "on/off" variable that signals whether an entity is available or unavailable for communication (the terms "online" and "offline" are also used). In XMPP, an entity's availability is signalled when its client generates a <presence/> stanza with no 'type' attribute, and an entity's lack of availability is signalled when its client generates a <presence/> stanza whose 'type' attribute has a value of "unavailable".
XMPP presence typically follows a "publish-subscribe" or "observer" pattern, wherein an entity sends presence to its server, and its server then broadcasts that information to all of the entity's contacts who have a subscription to the entity's presence (in the terminology of [IMP‑MODEL] (Day, M., Rosenberg, J., and H. Sugano, “A Model for Presence and Instant Messaging,” February 2000.), an entity that generates presence is a "presentity" and the entities that receive presence are "subscribers"). A client generates presence for broadcasting to all subscribed entities by sending a presence stanza to its server with no 'to' address, where the presence stanza has either no 'type' attribute or a 'type' attribute whose value is "unavailable". This kind of presence is called BROADCAST PRESENCE. (A client can also send DIRECTED PRESENCE, i.e., a presence stanza with a 'to' address; this is less common but is sometimes used to send presence to entities that are not subscribed to the user's presence; see Section 4.6 (Directed Presence).)
After a client completes the preconditions specified in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.), it can establish a PRESENCE SESSION at its server by sending initial presence (Initial Presence), where the presence session is terminated by sending unavailable presence (Unavailable Presence). For the duration of its presence session, a connected resource (in the terminology of [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.)) is said to be an AVAILABLE RESOURCE.
In XMPP applications that combine messaging and presence functionality, the default type of communication for which presence signals availability is messaging; however, it is not necessary for XMPP applications to combine messaging and presence functionality, and they can provide standalone presence features without messaging (in addition, XMPP servers do not require information about network availability in order to successfully route message and IQ stanzas).
Informational Note: In the examples that follow, the user is <juliet@example.com>, she has two available resources ("balcony" and "chamber"), and she has three contacts in her roster with a subscription state of "from" or "both": <romeo@example.net>, <mercutio@example.com>, and <benvolio@example.net>.
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| TOC |
After completing the preconditions described in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.) (REQUIRED) and requesting the roster (RECOMMENDED), a client signals its availability for communication by sending INITIAL PRESENCE to its server, i.e., a presence stanza with no 'to' address (indicating that it is meant to be broadcast by the server on behalf of the client) and no 'type' attribute (indicating the user's availability).
UC: <presence/>
The initial presence stanza MAY contain the <priority/> element, the <show/> element, and one or more instances of the <status/> element, as well as extended content; see Section 4.7 (Presence Syntax) for details.
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Upon receiving initial presence from a client, the user's server MUST send the initial presence stanza from the full JID <user@domain/resource> of the user to all contacts that are subscribed to the user's presence; such contacts are those for which a JID is present in the user's roster with the 'subscription' attribute set to a value of "from" or "both".
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'/>
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='mercutio@example.com'/>
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='benvolio@example.net'/>
The user's server MUST also broadcast initial presence from the user's newly available resource to all of the user's available resources, including the resource that generated the presence notification in the first place (i.e., an entity is implicitly subscribed to its own presence).
[... to the "balcony" resource ...]
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='juliet@example.com'/>
[... to the "chamber" resource ...]
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='juliet@example.com'/>
In the absence of presence information about the user's contacts, the user's server MUST also send presence probes to the user's contacts on behalf of the user as specified under Section 4.3 (Presence Probes).
| TOC |
Upon receiving presence from the user, the contact's server MUST deliver the user's presence stanza to all of the contact's available resources.
[ ... to resource1 ... ]
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'/>
[ ... to resource2 ... ]
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'/>
| TOC |
When the contact's client receives presence from the user, the following behavior is suggested:
| TOC |
A PRESENCE PROBE is a request for a contact's current presence information, sent on behalf of a user by the user's server; syntactically it is a presence stanza whose 'type' attribute has a value of "probe". In the context of presence subscriptions, the value of the 'from' address MUST be the bare JID of the subscribed user and the value of the 'to' address MUST be the bare JID of the contact to which the user is subscribed, since presence subscriptions are based on the bare JID.
Interoperability Note: RFC 3921 specified that probes are sent from the full JID, not the bare JID. Some existing implementations follow the bare JID rule, and others follow the full JID rule.
Probes can also be sent outside the context of a presence subscription, e.g. when the contact has sent directed presence to an entity as described under Section 4.6 (Directed Presence); in this case the value of the 'from' or 'to' address can be a full JID instead of a bare JID.
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com'
id='ign291v5'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='probe'/>
Implementation Note: Although presence probes MAY be sent by a client, in general a client will not need to send them since the task of gathering presence from a user's contacts is managed by the user's server. However, if a client generates an outbound presence probe then the user's server SHOULD route the probe (if the contact is at another server) or process the probe (if the contact is at the same server) and MUST NOT return a stanza or stream error to the client.
| TOC |
When a server needs to discover the availability of a user's contact, it sends a presence probe from the bare JID <user@domain> of the user to the bare JID <contact@domain> of the contact.
Implementation Note: Although presence probes are intended for sending to contacts (i.e., entities to which a user is subscribed), a MAY send a presence probe to the full JID of an entity from which the user has received presence information during the current session.
The user's server SHOULD send a presence probe whenever the user starts a new presence session by sending initial presence; however, the server MAY choose not to send the probe at that point if it has what it deems to be reliable and up-to-date presence information about the user's contacts (e.g., because the user has another available resource or because the user briefly logged off and on before the new presence session began). In addition, a server MAY periodically send a presence probe to a contact if it has not received presence information or other traffic from the contact in some configurable amount of time; this can help to prevent "ghost" contacts who appear to be online but in fact are not.
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com'
id='ign291v5'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='probe'/>
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com'
id='xv291f38'
to='mercutio@example.com'
type='probe'/>
Naturally, the user's server does not need to send a presence probe to a contact if the contact's account resides on the same server as the user, since the server possesses the contact's information locally.
| TOC |
Upon receiving a presence probe to the contact's bare JID from the user's server on behalf of the user, the contact's server MUST reply as follows:
CS: <presence from='mercutio@example.com'
id='xv291f38'
to='juliet@example.com'
type='unsubscribed'/>
CS: <presence from='mercutio@example.com'
id='xv291f38'
to='juliet@example.com'
type='error'>
<error type='modify'>
<gone xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'>
xmpp:la-mer@example.com
</gone>
</error>
</presence>
CS: <presence from='mercutio@example.com'
id='xv291f38'
to='juliet@example.com'
type='unavailable'>
<delay xmlns='urn:xmpp:delay'
stamp='2002-09-10T23:41:07Z'/>
</presence>
CS: <presence from='romeo@example.net/foo'
id='hzf1v27k'
to='juliet@example.com'/>
CS: <presence from='romeo@example.net/bar'
id='ps6t1fu3'
to='juliet@example.com'>
<show>away</show>
</presence>
If the contact's server receives a presence probe addressed to a full JID of the contact, the server MUST NOT return presence information about any resource except the resource specified by the 'to' address of the probe. Rules #1 and #2 for a bare JID probe apply equally to the case of a full JID probe. If there is a resource matching the full JID and (a) the probing entity has authorization via a presence subscription to see the contact's presence or (b) the contact has sent directed available presence to the probing entity, then the server MUST return an available presence notification, which SHOULD communicate only the fact that the resource is available (not detailed information such as the <show/>, <status/>, <priority/>, or presence extensions).
CS: <presence from='romeo@example.net/bar'
to='lobby@chat.example.com'/>
Implementation Note: The handling of the 'id' attribute in relation to presence probes was unspecified in RFC 3921. Although the pattern of "send a probe and receive a reply" might seem like a request-response protocol, in fact it is not because the response to a probe might consist of multiple presence stanzas (one for each available resource currently active for the contact). For this reason, if the contact currently has available resources then the contact's server SHOULD preserve the 'id' attribute of the contact's original presence stanza (if any) when sending those presence notifications to the probing entity; however, if the contact currently has no available resources, the probing entity is not authorized (via presence subscription) to see the contact's presence, or an error occurs in relation to the proble, then the contact's server SHOULD mirror the 'id' of the user's presence probe when replying to the probing entity.
| TOC |
| TOC |
After sending initial presence, at any time during its session the user's client can update its availability for broadcasting by sending a presence stanza with no 'to' address and no 'type' attribute.
UC: <presence>
<show>away</show>
</presence>
The presence broadcast MAY contain the <priority/> element, the <show/> element, and one or more instances of the <status/> element, as well as extended content; see Section 4.7 (Presence Syntax) for details.
However, a user SHOULD send a presence update only to broadcast information that is relevant to the user's availability for communication or the communication capabilities of the resource. Information that is not relevant in this way might be of interest to the user's contacts but SHOULD be sent via other means, such as the XMPP message stanza.
| TOC |
Upon receiving a presence stanza expressing updated availability, the user's server MUST broadcast the full XML of that presence stanza to the contacts who meet all of the following criteria:
As an optimization, if the subscription type is "both", then the server MAY send subsequent presence notifications to a contact only if the contact is online according to the user's server. That is, if the user's server never received a positive indication that the contact is online in response to the presence probe it sent to the contact or if the last presence stanza it received from the contact during the user's presence session was of type "unavailable", the user's server MAY opt to ned send subsequent presence notifications from the user to the contact. This optimization helps to save bandwidth, since most presence subscriptions are bidirectional and many contacts will not be online at any given time.
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'>
<show>away</show>
</presence>
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='benvolio@example.net'>
<show>away</show>
</presence>
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='mercutio@example.com'>
<show>away</show>
</presence>
Implementation Note: See Section 4.6 (Directed Presence) regarding rules that supplement the foregoing for handling of directed presence.
The user's server MUST also send the presence stanza to all of the user's available resources (including the resource that generated the presence notification in the first place).
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='juliet@example.com/chamber'>
<show>away</show>
</presence>
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'>
<show>away</show>
</presence>
| TOC |
Upon receiving presence from the user, the contact's server MUST deliver the user's presence stanza to all of the contact's available resources.
[ ... to resource1 ... ]
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'>
<show>away</show>
</presence>
[ ... to resource2 ... ]
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'>
<show>away</show>
</presence>
| TOC |
From the perspective of the contact's client, there is no significant difference between initial presence broadcast and subsequent presence, so the contact's client follows the rules for processing of inbound presence defined under Section 4.4.3 (Server Processing of Inbound Presence).
| TOC |
| TOC |
Before ending its presence session with a server, the user's client SHOULD gracefully become unavailable by sending UNAVAILABLE PRESENCE, i.e., a presence stanza that possesses no 'to' attribute and that possesses a 'type' attribute whose value is "unavailable".
UC: <presence type='unavailable'/>
Optionally, the unavailable presence stanza MAY contain one or more <status/> elements specifying the reason why the user is no longer available.
UC: <presence type='unavailable'>
<status>going on vacation</status>
</presence>
However, the unavailable presence stanza MUST NOT contain the <priority/> element or the <show/> element, since these elements apply only to available resources.
| TOC |
The user's server MUST NOT depend on receiving unavailable presence from an available resource, since the resource can become unavailable ungracefully (e.g., the resource can be timed out by the server because of inactivity).
If an available resource becomes unavailable for any reason (either gracefully or ungracefully), the user's server MUST broadcast unavailable presence to all contacts that meet all of the following criteria:
Implementation Note: See Section 4.6 (Directed Presence) regarding rules that supplement the foregoing for handling of directed presence.
Implementation Note: The optimization employed for subsequent presence broadcast during a user's presence session (see Section 4.4.2 (Server Processing of Outbound Presence)) MUST NOT be employed for unavailable presence broadcast; if it were, the last presence received by the contact's server would be the user's initial presence for the presence session, with the result that the contact would consider the user to be online.
If the unavailable notification was gracefully received from the client, then the server MUST broadcast the full XML of the presence stanza.
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='unavailable'/>
<status>going on vacation</status>
</presence>
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='benvolio@example.net'
type='unavailable'>
<status>going on vacation</status>
</presence>
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='mercutio@example.com'
type='unavailable'>
<status>going on vacation</status>
</presence>
The user's server MUST also send the unavailable notification to all of the user's available resources (including the resource that generated the presence notification in the first place).
US: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='juliet@example.com/chamber'
type='unavailable'>
<status>going on vacation</status>
</presence>
If the server detects that the user has gone offline ungracefully, then the server MUST generate the unavailable presence broadcast on the user's behalf.
Implementation Note: Any presence stanza with no 'type' attribute and no 'to' attribute that the client sends after the server broadcasts or generates an unavailable presence notification MUST be routed or delivered by the user's server to all subscribers (i.e., MUST be treated as equivalent to initial presence for a new presence session).
| TOC |
Upon receiving an unavailable notification from the user, the contact's server MUST deliver the user's presence stanza to all of the contact's available resources.
[ ... to resource1 ... ]
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='unavailable'>
<status>going on vacation</status>
</presence>
[ ... to resource2 ... ]
CS: <presence from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='unavailable'>
<status>going on vacation</status>
</presence>
If the contact's server is optimizing subsequent presence delivery as described under Section 4.4.2 (Server Processing of Outbound Presence), it MUST also note that the user is unavailable and appropriately update its internal representation of which entities are online.
| TOC |
From the perspective of the contact's client, there is no significant difference between available presence broadcast and unavailable presence broadcast, so in general the contact's client follows the rules for processing of inbound presence defined under Section 4.4.3 (Server Processing of Inbound Presence). However, if the contact receives an unavailable notification from the bare JID of the user (rather than the full JID of a particular available resource), the contact's client SHOULD treat the unavailable notification as applying to all resources.
| TOC |
This section supplements and in some respects modifies the rules for client and server processing of presence notifications, but only for the special case of directed presence.
| TOC |
As noted, directed presence is a client-generated presence stanza with a 'to' attribute whose value is the bare JID or full JID of the other entity and with either no 'type' attribute (indicating availability) or a 'type' attribute whose value is "unavailable".
Information about the use of directed presence in the context of a one-to-one chat session is provided under Section 5.1 (One-to-One Chat Sessions).
| TOC |
When the user's server receives a directed presence stanza, it SHOULD process it according to the following rules.
| TOC |
From the perspective of the contact's server, there is no significant difference between presence broadcast and directed presence, so the contact's server follows the rules for processing of inbound presence defined under Section 4.3.2 (Server Processing of Inbound Presence Probe), Section 4.4.3 (Server Processing of Inbound Presence), and Section 4.5.3 (Server Processing of Inbound Unavailable Presence).
| TOC |
From the perspective of the contact's client, there is no significant difference between presence broadcast and directed presence, so the contact's client follows the rules for processing of inbound presence defined under Section 4.4.3 (Server Processing of Inbound Presence).
| TOC |
| TOC |
The absence of a 'type' attribute signals that the relevant entity is available for communication (see Section 4.2 (Initial Presence) and Section 4.4 (Subsequent Presence Broadcast)).
A 'type' attribute with a value of "unavailable" signals that the relevant entity is not available for communication (see Section 4.5 (Unavailable Presence)).
The XMPP presence stanza is also used to negotiate and manage subscriptions to the presence of other entities. These tasks are completed via presence stanzas of type "subscribe", "unsubscribe", "subscribed", and "unsubscribed" as described under Section 3 (Managing Presence Subscriptions).
If a user and contact are associated with different XMPP servers, those servers also use a special presence stanza of type "probe" in order to determine the availability of the entity on the peer server; for details, see Section 4.3 (Presence Probes). Clients SHOULD NOT send presence stanzas of type "probe".
The values of the 'type' attribute can be summarized as follows:
If the value of the 'type' attribute is not one of the foregoing values, the recipient or an intermediate router SHOULD return a stanza error of <bad-request/>.
Implementation Note: There is no default value for the 'type' attribute of the <presence/> element; in particular, there is no value of "available".
| TOC |
In accordance with the default namespace declaration, a presence stanza is qualified by the 'jabber:client' or 'jabber:server' namespace, which defines certain child elements of presence stanzas, in particular the <show/>, <status/>, and <priority/> elements. These child elements are used to provide more detailed information about an entity's availability. Typically these child elements are included only if the presence stanza possesses no 'type' attribute, although exceptions are noted in the text that follows.
| TOC |
The OPTIONAL <show/> element specifies the particular availability sub-state of an entity or a specific resource thereof. A presence stanza MUST NOT contain more than one <show/> element. There are no attributes defined for the <show/> element. The XML character data of the <show/> element is not meant for presentation to a human user. The XML character data MUST be one of the following (additional availability states could be defined through a child element of the presence stanza that is qualified by a namespace other than the default namespace):
If no <show/> element is provided, the entity is assumed to be online and available.
Any specialized processing of availability states by recipients and intermediate routers is up to the implementation (e.g., incorporation of availability states into stanza routing and delivery logic).
| TOC |
The OPTIONAL <status/> element contains human-readable XML character data specifying a natural-language description of an entity's availability. It is normally used in conjunction with the show element to provide a detailed description of an availability state (e.g., "In a meeting") when the presence stanza has no 'type' attribute.
<presence from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
xml:lang='en'>
<show>dnd</show>
<status>Wooing Juliet</status>
</presence>
There are no attributes defined for the <status/> element, with the exception of the 'xml:lang' attribute inherited from [XML] (Maler, E., Yergeau, F., Sperberg-McQueen, C., Paoli, J., and T. Bray, “Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition),” November 2008.). Multiple instances of the <status/> element MAY be included, but only if each instance possesses an 'xml:lang' attribute with a distinct language value (either explicitly or by inheritance from the 'xml:lang' value of an element farther up in the XML hierarchy, which from the sender's perspective can include the XML stream header as described in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.)).
<presence from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
id='jx62vs97'
xml:lang='en'>
<show>dnd</show>
<status>Wooing Juliet</status>
<status xml:lang='cs'>Dvořím se Julii</status>
</presence>
A presence stanza of type "unavailable" MAY also include a <status/> element to provide detailed information about why the entity is going offline.
<presence from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
id='oy6sb241'
type='unavailable'
xml:lang='en'>
<status>Busy IRL</status>
</presence>
The <status/> child MAY also be sent in a subscription-related presence stanza (i.e., type "subscribe", "subscribed", "unsubscribe", or "unsubscribed") to provide a description of the action. The receiving client MAY present this <status/> information to a human user (see Section 11 (Security Considerations)).
<presence from='romeo@example.net'
id='uc51xs63'
to='nurse@example.com'
type='subscribe'>
<status>Hi, Juliet told me to add you to my buddy list.</status>
</presence>
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The OPTIONAL <priority/> element contains non-human-readable XML character data that specifies the priority level of the resource. The value MUST be an integer between -128 and +127. A presence stanza MUST NOT contain more than one <priority/> element. There are no attributes defined for the <priority/> element.
<presence xml:lang='en'> <show>dnd</show> <status>Wooing Juliet</status> <status xml:lang='cs'>Dvořím se Julii</status> <priority>1</priority> </presence>
If no priority is provided, the processing server or client MUST consider the priority to be zero ("0").
The client's server MAY override the priority value provided by the client (e.g., in order to impose a message handling rule of delivering a message intended for the account's bare JID to all of the account's available resources); if the server does so, it MUST include the modified priority value (typically zero) when it echoes the client's presence back to itself and sends the presence notification to the user's contacts.
For information regarding the semantics of priority values in stanza processing within instant messaging and presence applications, refer to Section 8 (Server Rules for Processing XML Stanzas).
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As described in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.), an XML stanza MAY contain any child element that is qualified by a namespace other than the default namespace; this applies to the presence stanza as well.
(In the following example, the presence stanza includes entity capabilities information as defined in [XEP‑0115] (Hildebrand, J., Saint-Andre, P., and R. Tronçon, “Entity Capabilities,” February 2008.)).)
<presence from='romeo@example.net'>
<c xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/caps'
hash='sha-1'
node='http://psi-im.org'
ver='q07IKJEyjvHSyhy//CH0CxmKi8w='/>
</presence>
Any extended content included in a presence stanza SHOULD represent aspects of an entity's availability for communication or provide information about communication-related capabilities.
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Once a client has authenticated with a server and bound a resource to an XML stream as described in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.), an XMPP server will route XML stanzas to and from that client. One kind of stanza that can be exchanged is <message/> (if, that is, messaging functionality is enabled on the server). Exchanging messages is a basic use of XMPP and occurs when a user generates a message stanza that is addressed to another entity. As defined under Section 8 (Server Rules for Processing XML Stanzas), the sender's server is responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient (if the recipient is on the same local server) or for routing the message to the recipient's server (if the recipient is on a remote server). Thus a message stanza is used to "push" information to another entity.
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In practice, instant messaging activity between human users tends to occur in the form of a conversational burst that we call a CHAT SESSION: the exchange of multiple messages between two parties in relatively rapid succession within a relatively brief period of time.
When a human user intends to engage in such a chat session with a contact (rather than sending a single message to which no reply is expected), the message type generated by the user's client SHOULD be "chat" and the contact's client SHOULD preserve that message type in subsequent replies. The user's client also SHOULD include a <thread/> element with its initial message, which the contact's client SHOULD also preserve during the life of the chat session (see Section 5.2.5 (Thread Element)).
The user's client SHOULD address the initial message in a chat session to the bare JID <contact@domain> of the contact (rather than attempting to guess an appropriate full JID <contact@domain/resource> based on the <show/>, <status/>, or <priority/> value of any presence notifications it has received from the contact). Until and unless the user's client receives a reply from the contact, it SHOULD send any further messages to the contact's bare JID. The contact's client SHOULD address its replies to the user's full JID <user@domain/resource> as provided in the 'from' address of the initial message. Once the user's client receives a reply from the contact's full JID, it SHOULD address its subsequent messages to the contact's full JID as provided in the 'from' address of the contact's replies, thus "locking in" on that full JID. A client SHOULD "unlock" after having received a <message/> or <presence/> stanza from any other resource controlled by the peer (or a presence stanza from the locked resource); as a result, it SHOULD address its next message(s) in the chat session to the bare JID of the peer (thus "unlocking" the previous "lock") until it receives a message from one of the peer's full JIDs.
When two parties engage in a chat session but do not share presence with each other based on a presence subscription, they SHOULD send directed presence to each other so that either party can easily discover if the peer changes its availability or goes offline during the course of the chat session. However, a client MUST provide a way for a user to disable such presence sharing globally or to enable it only with particular entities. Furthermore, a party SHOULD send directed unavailable presence to the peer when it has reason to believe that the chat session is over (e.g., if, after some reasonable amount of time, no subsequent messages have been exchanged between the parties).
An example of a chat session is provided under Section 7 (A Sample Session).
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The following sections describe the syntax of the <message/> stanza.
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An instant messaging client specifies an intended recipient for a message by providing the JID of the intended recipient in the 'to' attribute of the <message/> stanza.
If the message is being sent outside the context of any existing chat session or received message, the value of the 'to' address SHOULD be of the form <user@domain> rather than of the form <user@domain/resource> (see Section 5.1 (One-to-One Chat Sessions)).
<message
from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='ktx72v49'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<body>Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?</body>
</message>
If the message is being sent in reply to a message previously received from an address of the form <user@domain/resource> (e.g., within the context of a one-to-one chat session as described under Section 5.1 (One-to-One Chat Sessions)), the value of the 'to' address SHOULD be of the form <user@domain/resource> rather than of the form <user@domain> unless the sender has knowledge (e.g., via presence) that the intended recipient's resource is no longer available.
<message
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
id='sl3nx51f'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<body>Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike.</body>
</message>
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Common uses of the message stanza in instant messaging applications include: single messages; messages sent in the context of a one-to-one chat session; messages sent in the context of a multi-user chat room; alerts, notifications, or other information to which no reply is expected; and errors. These uses are differentiated via the 'type' attribute. Inclusion of the 'type' attribute is RECOMMENDED. If included, the 'type' attribute MUST have one of the following values:
An IM application SHOULD support all of the foregoing message types. If an application receives a message with no 'type' attribute or the application does not understand the value of the 'type' attribute provided, it MUST consider the message to be of type "normal" (i.e., "normal" is the default).
Guidelines for server handling of different message types is provided under Section 8 (Server Rules for Processing XML Stanzas).
Although the 'type' attribute is OPTIONAL, it is considered polite to mirror the type in any replies to a message; furthermore, some specialized applications (e.g., a multi-user chat service) MAY at their discretion enforce the use of a particular message type (e.g., type='groupchat').
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The <body/> element contains human-readable XML character data that specifies the textual contents of the message; this child element is normally included but is OPTIONAL.
<message
from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='b4vs9km4'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<body>Wherefore art thou, Romeo?</body>
</message>
There are no attributes defined for the <body/> element, with the exception of the 'xml:lang' attribute. Multiple instances of the <body/> element MAY be included in a message stanza, but only if each instance possesses an 'xml:lang' attribute with a distinct language value (either explicitly or by inheritance from the 'xml:lang' value of an element farther up in the XML hierarchy, which from the sender's perspective can include the XML stream header as described in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.)).
<message
from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='z94nb37h'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<body>Wherefore art thou, Romeo?</body>
<body xml:lang='cs'>
PročeŽ jsi ty, Romeo?
</body>
</message>
The <body/> element MUST NOT contain mixed content (as defined in Section 3.2.2 of [XML] (Maler, E., Yergeau, F., Sperberg-McQueen, C., Paoli, J., and T. Bray, “Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition),” November 2008.)).
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The <subject/> element contains human-readable XML character data that specifies the topic of the message.
<message
from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='c8xg3nf8'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<subject>I implore you!</subject>
<body>Wherefore art thou, Romeo?</body>
</message>
There are no attributes defined for the <subject/> element, with the exception of the 'xml:lang' attribute inherited from [XML] (Maler, E., Yergeau, F., Sperberg-McQueen, C., Paoli, J., and T. Bray, “Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition),” November 2008.). Multiple instances of the <subject/> element MAY be included for the purpose of providing alternate versions of the same subject, but only if each instance possesses an 'xml:lang' attribute with a distinct language value (either explicitly or by inheritance from the 'xml:lang' value of an element farther up in the XML hierarchy, which from the sender's perspective can include the XML stream header as described in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.)).
<message
from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
id='jk3v47gw'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<subject>I implore you!</subject>
<subject xml:lang='cs'>
Úpěnlivě prosím!
</subject>
<body>Wherefore art thou, Romeo?</body>
<body xml:lang='cs'>
Pročež jsi ty, Romeo?
</body>
</message>
The <subject/> element MUST NOT contain mixed content (as defined in Section 3.2.2 of [XML] (Maler, E., Yergeau, F., Sperberg-McQueen, C., Paoli, J., and T. Bray, “Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition),” November 2008.)).
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The primary use of the XMPP <thread/> element is to uniquely identify a conversation thread or "chat session" between two entities instantiated by <message/> stanzas of type 'chat'. However, the XMPP <thread/> element MAY also be used to uniquely identify an analogous thread between two entities instantiated by <message/> stanzas of type 'headline' or 'normal', or among multiple entities in the context of a multi-user chat room instantiated by <message/> stanzas of type 'groupchat'. It MAY also be used for <message/> stanzas not related to a human conversation, such as a game session or an interaction between plugins. The <thread/> element is not used to identify individual messages, only conversations or messaging sessions.
The inclusion of the <thread/> element is OPTIONAL for messages of type "normal", "headline", and "groupchat", and RECOMMENDED for messages of type "chat". Because the <thread/> element identifies the particular conversation thread to which a message belongs, a message stanza MUST NOT contain more than one <thread/> element.
The <thread/> element MAY possess a 'parent' attribute that identifies another thread of which the current thread is an offshoot or child; the value of the 'parent' attribute MUST conform to the syntax of the <thread/> element itself.
The value of the <thread/> element is not human-readable and MUST be treated as opaque by entities; no semantic meaning can be derived from it, and only exact comparisons can be made against it. The value of the <thread/> element MUST uniquely identify the conversation thread either between the conversation partners or more generally (one way to ensure uniqueness is by generating a universally unique identifier (UUID) as described in [UUID] (Leach, P., Mealling, M., and R. Salz, “A Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace,” July 2005.)).
The <thread/> element MUST NOT contain mixed content (as defined in Section 3.2.2 of [XML] (Maler, E., Yergeau, F., Sperberg-McQueen, C., Paoli, J., and T. Bray, “Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition),” November 2008.)).
<message
from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<subject>I implore you!</subject>
<subject xml:lang='cs'>
Úpěnlivě prosím!
</subject>
<body>Wherefore art thou, Romeo?</body>
<body xml:lang='cs'>
Pročež jsi ty, Romeo?
</body>
<thread parent='e0ffe42b28561960c6b12b944a092794b9683a38'>
0e3141cd80894871a68e6fe6b1ec56fa
</thread>
</message>
For detailed recommendations regarding use of the <thread/> element, refer to [XEP‑0201] (Saint-Andre, P., Paterson, I., and K. Smith, “Best Practices for Message Threads,” May 2010.).
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As described in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.), an XML stanza MAY contain any child element that is qualified by a namespace other than the default namespace; this applies to the message stanza as well.
(In the following example, the message stanza includes an XHTML-formatted version of the message as defined in [XEP‑0071] (Saint-Andre, P., “XHTML-IM,” September 2008.)).)
<message
from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<body>Wherefore art thou, Romeo?</body>
<html xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/xhtml-im'>
<body xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<p>Wherefore <span style='font-style: italic'>art</span>
thou, <span style='color:red'>Romeo</span>?</p>
</body>
</html>
</message>
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As described in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.), IQ stanzas provide a structured request-response mechanism. The basic semantics of that mechanism (e.g., that the 'id' attribute is mandatory) are defined in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.), whereas the specific semantics needed to complete particular use cases are defined in all instances by the extended namespace that qualifies the direct child element of an IQ stanza of type "get" or "set". The 'jabber:client' and 'jabber:server' namespaces do not define any children of IQ stanzas other than the <error/> element common to all stanza types. This document defines one such extended namespace, for Managing the Roster (Managing the Roster). However, an IQ stanza MAY contain structured information qualified by any extended namespace.
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The examples in this section illustrate a possible instant messaging and presence session. The user is <romeo@example.net>, he has an available resource whose resource identifier is "orchard", and he has the following individuals in his roster:
First, the user completes the preconditions (stream establishment, TLS and SASL negotiation, and resource binding) described in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.); those protocol flows are not reproduced here.
Next, the user requests his roster.
Example 1: User requests current roster from server:
UC: <iq from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
id='hf61v3n7'
type='get'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'/>
</iq>
Example 2: User receives roster from server:
US: <iq id='hf61v3n7'
to='romeo@example.net/orchard'
type='result'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'>
<item jid='juliet@example.com'
name='Juliet'
subscription='both'>
<group>Friends</group>
</item>
<item jid='benvolio@example.org'
name='Benvolio'
subscription='to'/>
<item jid='mercutio@example.org'
name='Mercutio'
subscription='from'/>
</query>
</iq>
Now the user begins a presence session.
Example 3: User sends initial presence:
UC: <presence/>
Example 4: User's server sends presence probes to contacts with subscription="to" and subscription="both" on behalf of the user:
US: <presence
from='romeo@example.net'
to='juliet@example.com'
type='probe'/>
US: <presence
from='romeo@example.net'
to='benvolio@example.org'
type='probe'/>
Example 5: User's server sends initial presence to contacts with subscription="from" and subscription="both" on behalf of the user's available resource:
US: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='juliet@example.com'/>
US: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='mercutio@example.org'/>
Example 6: Contacts' servers reply to presence probe on behalf of all available resources:
CS: <presence
from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'
xml:lang='en'>
<show>away</show>
<status>be right back</status>
<priority>0</priority>
</presence>
CS: <presence
from='juliet@example.com/chamber'
to='romeo@example.net'>
<priority>1</priority>
</presence>
CS: <presence
from='benvolio@example.org/pda'
to='romeo@example.net'
xml:lang='en'>
<show>dnd</show>
<status>gallivanting</status>
</presence>
Example 7: Contacts' servers deliver user's initial presence to all available resources:
CS: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='juliet@example.com'/>
CS: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='juliet@example.com'/>
CS: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='mercutio@example.org'/>
Example 8: User sends directed presence to another user not in his roster:
UC: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='nurse@example.com'
xml:lang='en'>
<show>dnd</show>
<status>courting Juliet</status>
<priority>0</priority>
</presence>
Now the user engages in a chat session with one of his contacts.
Example 9: A threaded conversation
CC: <message
from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<body>My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words</body>
<thread>e0ffe42b28561960c6b12b944a092794b9683a38</thread>
</message>
CC: <message
from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<body>Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound:</body>
<thread>e0ffe42b28561960c6b12b944a092794b9683a38</thread>
</message>
CC: <message
from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<body>Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?</body>
<thread>e0ffe42b28561960c6b12b944a092794b9683a38</thread>
</message>
UC: <message
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='juliet@example.com/balcony'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<body>Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike.</body>
<thread>e0ffe42b28561960c6b12b944a092794b9683a38</thread>
</message>
CC: <message
from='juliet@example.com/balcony'
to='romeo@example.net/orchard'
type='chat'
xml:lang='en'>
<body>How cam'st thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?</body>
<thread>e0ffe42b28561960c6b12b944a092794b9683a38</thread>
</message>
And so on.
The user can also send subsequent presence broadcast.
Example 10: User sends updated available presence for broadcasting:
UC: <presence xml:lang='en'>
<show>away</show>
<status>I shall return!</status>
<priority>1</priority>
</presence>
Example 11: User's server broadcasts updated presence to the contacts who have a subscription of type "both" or "from" (but not to the entity to which the user sent directed presence):
US: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='juliet@example.com'
xml:lang='en'>
<show>away</show>
<status>I shall return!</status>
<priority>1</priority>
</presence>
US: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='mercutio@example.org'
xml:lang='en'>
<show>away</show>
<status>I shall return!</status>
<priority>1</priority>
</presence>
Example 12: Contacts' servers deliver updated presence:
CS: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='juliet@example.com'
xml:lang='en'>
<show>away</show>
<status>I shall return!</status>
<priority>1</priority>
</presence>
CS: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='juliet@example.com'
xml:lang='en'>
<show>away</show>
<status>I shall return!</status>
<priority>1</priority>
</presence>
CS: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='mercutio@example.org'
xml:lang='en'>
<show>away</show>
<status>I shall return!</status>
<priority>1</priority>
</presence>
Example 13: One of the contact's resources broadcasts unavailable notification:
CC: <presence from='juliet@example.com/chamber' type='unavailable'/>
Example 14: Contact's server sends unavailable notification to user:
CS: <presence
from='juliet@example.com/chamber'
to='romeo@example.net'
type='unavailable'/>
Now the user ends his presence session.
Example 15: User sends unavailable notification:
UC: <presence type='unavailable' xml:lang='en'>
<status>gone home</status>
</presence>
Example 16: User's server broadcasts unavailable notification to contacts as well as to the entity to whom the user sent directed presence:
US: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='juliet@example.com'
type='unavailable'
xml:lang='en'>
<status>gone home</status>
</presence>
US: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='mercutio@example.org'
type='unavailable'
xml:lang='en'>
<status>gone home</status>
</presence>
US: <presence
from='romeo@example.net/orchard'
to='nurse@example.com'
type='unavailable'
xml:lang='en'>
<status>gone home</status>
</presence>
Finally the user closes his stream and the server responds in kind.
Example 17: User closes stream:
UC: </stream:stream>
Example 18: User's server closes stream:
US: </stream:stream>
THE END
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Basic server rules for processing XML stanzas are defined in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.), and the reader is referred to that specification for general considerations and security implications. This section defines supplementary rules for XMPP instant messaging and presence servers.
Some delivery rules defined in this section specify the use of OFFLINE STORAGE, i.e., the server's storing a message stanza on behalf of the user and then delivering it when the user next becomes available. For recommendations regarding offline message storage, refer to [XEP‑0160] (Saint-Andre, P., “Best Practices for Handling Offline Messages,” January 2006.).
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In this case, the rules defined in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.) apply.
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If the hostname of the domain identifier portion of the address contained in the 'to' attribute of an outbound stanza does not match a configured hostname of the server itself, then the server MUST attempt to route the stanza to the remote domain. If there exists an active stream between the two peers, then the server SHOULD route the stanza over that stream for processing by the peer server; if not, then the server SHOULD attempt to resolve the hostname of the remote server in adherence with the rules defined in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.), negotiate XML streams with the remote domain, and route the stanza to the remote domain. However, if the server cannot resolve the remote domain, then it MUST return a <remote-server-not-found/> stanza error to the local sender.
Implementation Note: RFC 3921 described use of the _im._xmpp and _pres._xmpp SRV records (defined in [IMP‑SRV] (Peterson, J., “Address Resolution for Instant Messaging and Presence,” August 2004.)) to discover the appropriate protocol for communication with remote instant messaging and presence services. Because those SRV records have not been widely deployed, this specification no longer actively recommends that they be deployed or supported; see RFC 3921 regarding the proper formats and resolution processes.
| TOC |
In this case, the rules defined in [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.) apply.
| TOC |
If the 'to' address specifies a bare JID <user@domain> or full JID <user@domain/resourcepart> where the domainpart of the JID matches a configured domain that is serviced by the server itself, the server MUST proceed as follows.
| TOC |
If the user account identified by the 'to' attribute does not exist, how the stanza is processed depends on the stanza type.
| TOC |
If the JID contained in the 'to' attribute is of the form <user@domain>, then the server MUST adhere to the following rules.
| TOC |
If there is at least one available resource or connected resource, how the stanza is processed depends on the stanza type.
| TOC |
For a message stanza of type "normal":
For a message stanza of type "chat":
For a message stanza of type "groupchat", the server MUST NOT deliver the stanza to any of the available resources but instead MUST return a stanza error to the sender, which SHOULD be <service-unavailable/>.
For a message stanza of type "headline":
For a message stanza of type "error", the server MUST silently ignore the message.
However, for any message type the server MUST NOT deliver the stanza to any available resource with a negative priority; if the only available resource has a negative priority, the server SHOULD handle the message as if there were no available resources or connected resources as described under Section 8.4.2.2 (No Available or Connected Resources).
In all cases, the server MUST NOT rewrite the 'to' attribute (i.e., it MUST leave it as <user@domain> rather than change it to <user@domain/resource>).
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For a presence stanza with no type or of type "unavailable", the server MUST deliver it to all available resources.
For a presence stanza of type "subscribe", "subscribed", "unsubscribe", or "unsubscribed", the server MUST adhere to the rules defined under Section 3 (Managing Presence Subscriptions) and summarized under Appendix A (Subscription States).
For a presence stanza of type "probe", the server MUST handle it directly as described under Section 4.3 (Presence Probes).
In all cases, the server MUST NOT rewrite the 'to' attribute (i.e., it MUST leave it as <user@domain> rather than change it to <user@domain/resource>).
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For an IQ stanza, the server itself MUST reply on behalf of the user with either an IQ result or an IQ error, and MUST NOT deliver the IQ stanza to any of the user's available resources. Specifically, if the semantics of the qualifying namespace define a reply that the server can provide on behalf of the user, then the server MUST reply to the stanza on behalf of the user by returning either an IQ stanza of type "result" or an IQ stanza of type "error" that is appropriate to the original payload; if not, then the server MUST reply with a <service-unavailable/> stanza error.
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If there are no available resources or connected resources associated with the user, how the stanza is processed depends on the stanza type.
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For a message stanza of type "normal" or "chat", the server SHOULD either (a) add the message to offline storage or (b) return a stanza error to the sender, which SHOULD be <service-unavailable/>.
For a message stanza of type "groupchat", the server MUST return an error to the sender, which SHOULD be <service-unavailable/>.
For a message stanza of type "headline" or "error", the server MUST silently ignore the message.
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For a presence stanza with no type or of type "unavailable", the server SHOULD silently ignore the stanza by not storing it for later delivery and not replying to it on behalf of the user.
For a presence stanza of type "subscribe", "subscribed", "unsubscribe", or "unsubscribed", the server MUST adhere to the rules defined under Section 3 (Managing Presence Subscriptions) and summarized under Appendix A (Subscription States).
For a presence stanza of type "probe", the server MUST handle it directly as described under Section 4.3 (Presence Probes).
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For an IQ stanza, the server itself MUST reply on behalf of the user with either an IQ result or an IQ error. Specifically, if the semantics of the qualifying namespace define a reply that the server can provide on behalf of the user, then the server MUST reply to the stanza on behalf of the user by returning either an IQ stanza of type "result" or an IQ stanza of type "error" that is appropriate to the original payload; if not, then the server MUST reply with a <service-unavailable/> stanza error.
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If the hostname of the domain identifier portion of the JID contained in the 'to' attribute of an inbound stanza matches one of the configured hostnames of the server itself and the JID contained in the 'to' attribute is of the form <user@domain/resource>, then the server MUST adhere to the following rules (subject to enforcement of relevant privacy and security policies, such as those deployed by means of [XEP‑0016] (Millard, P. and P. Saint-Andre, “Privacy Lists,” February 2007.) or [XEP‑0191] (Saint-Andre, P., “Simple Communications Blocking,” February 2007.)).
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If an available resource or connected resource exactly matches the full JID, how the stanza is processed depends on the stanza type.
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If no available resource or connected resource exactly matches the full JID, how the stanza is processed depends on the stanza type.
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For a message stanza of type "normal", "groupchat", or "headline", the server MUST either (a) silently ignore the stanza or (b) return an error stanza to the sender, which SHOULD be &;lt;service-unavailable/>.
For a message stanza of type "chat":
For a message stanza of type "error", the server MUST silently ignore the stanza.
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For a presence stanza with no 'type' attribute or a 'type' attribute of "unavailable", the server MUST silently ignore the stanza.
For a presence stanza of type "subscribe", the server MUST follow the guidelines provided under Section 3.1.3 (Server Processing of Inbound Subscription Request).
For a presence stanza of type "subscribed", "unsubscribe", or "unsubscribed", the server MUST ignore the stanza.
For a presence stanza of type "probe", the server MUST follow the guidelines provided under Section 4.3 (Presence Probes).
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For an IQ stanza, the server MUST return a <service-unavailable/> stanza error to the sender.
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The following table summarizes the message delivery rules described earlier in this section. The left column shows various combinations of conditions (non-existent account, no active resources, only one resource and it has a negative presence priority, only one resource and it has a non-negative presence priority, or more than one resource and each one has a non-negative presence priority) and 'to' addresses (bare JID, full JID matching an available resource, or full JID matching no available resource). The subsequent columns list the four message types (normal, chat, groupchat, or headline) along with six possible delivery options: storing the message offline (O), bouncing the message with a stanza error (E), silently ignoring the message (S), delivering the message to the resource specified in the 'to' address (D), delivering the message to the "most available" resource or resources according to the server's implementation-specific algorithm, e.g., treating the resource or resources with the highest presence priority as "most available" (M), or delivering the message to all resources with non-negative presence priority (A -- where for chat messages "all resources" can mean the set of resources that have explicitly opted in to receiving every chat message). The '/' character stands for "or".
Table 1: Message Delivery Rules
+----------------------------------------------------------+ | Condition | Normal | Chat | Groupchat | Headline | +----------------------------------------------------------+ | ACCOUNT DOES NOT EXIST | | bare | S/E | S/E | E | S | | full | S/E | S/E | S/E | S/E | +----------------------------------------------------------+ | ACCOUNT EXISTS, BUT NO ACTIVE RESOURCES | | bare | O/E | O/E | E | S | | full (no match) | S/E | O/E | S/E | S/E | +----------------------------------------------------------+ | 1 NEGATIVE RESOURCE | | bare | O/E | O/E | E | S | | full match | D | D | D | D | | full no match | S/E | O/E | S/E | S/E | +----------------------------------------------------------+ | 1 NON-NEGATIVE RESOURCE | | bare | D | D | E | D | | full match | D | D | D | D | | full no match | S/E | D | S/E | S/E | +----------------------------------------------------------+ | 1+ NON-NEGATIVE RESOURCES | | bare | M/A | M/A* | E | A | | full match | D | D/A* | D | D | | full no match | S/E | M/A* | S/E | S/E | +----------------------------------------------------------+
* For messages of type "chat", a server SHOULD NOT act in accordance with option (A) unless clients can explicitly opt in to receiving all chat messages; however, methods for opting in are outside the scope of this specification.
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The addresses of XMPP entities as used in communication over an XMPP network (e.g., in the 'from' and 'to' addresses of an XML stanza) MUST NOT be prepended with a Uniform Resource Identifier [URI] (Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, “Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax,” January 2005.) scheme. However, an application that is external to XMPP itself (e.g., a page on the World Wide Web) might need to identify an XMPP entity either as a URI or as an Internationalized Resource Identifier [IRI] (Duerst, M. and M. Suignard, “Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs),” January 2005.), and an XMPP client might need to interact with such an external application (for example, an XMPP client might be invoked by clicking a link provided on a web page).
In the context of such interactions, an XMPP client SHOULD handle addresses that are encoded as "xmpp:" URIs and IRIs as specified in [XMPP‑URI] (Saint-Andre, P., “Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs) and Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP),” February 2008.) and further described in [XEP‑0147] (Saint-Andre, P., “XMPP URI Scheme Query Components,” September 2006.). A client SHOULD also handle addresses that are encoded as "im:" URIs as specified in [CPIM] (Peterson, J., “Common Profile for Instant Messaging (CPIM),” August 2004.) and "pres:" URIs as specified in [CPP] (Peterson, J., “Common Profile for Presence (CPP),” August 2004.), although it MAY do so by removing the "im:" or "pres:" scheme and entrusting address resolution to the server as specified under Section 8.2 (Remote Domain).
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For internationalization considerations, refer to the relevant section of [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.).
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Core security considerations for XMPP are defined in the relevant section of [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.).
Additional considerations that apply only to instant messaging and presence applications of XMPP are defined in several places within this document; specifically:
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This specification requests no actions from the IANA.
| TOC |
This section describes a protocol feature set that summarizes the conformance requirements of this specification. This feature set is appropriate for use in software certification, interoperability testing, and implementation reports. For each feature, this section provides the following information:
The feature set specified here attempts to adhere to the concepts and formats proposed by Larry Masinter within the IETF's NEWTRK Working Group in 2005, as captured in [INTEROP] (Masinter, L., “Formalizing IETF Interoperability Reporting,” October 2005.). Although this feature set is more detailed than called for by [REPORTS] (Dusseault, L. and R. Sparks, “Guidance on Interoperation and Implementation Reports for Advancement to Draft Standard,” September 2009.), it provides a suitable basis for the generation of implementation reports to be submitted in support of advancing this specification from Proposed Standard to Draft Standard in accordance with [PROCESS] (Bradner, S., “The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3,” October 1996.).
- Feature:
- message-body
- Description:
- Support the <body/> child element of the <message/> stanza.
- Section:
- Section 5.2.3 (Body Element)
- Roles:
- Client MUST, Server N/A.
- Feature:
- message-subject
- Description:
- Support the <subject/> child element of the <message/> stanza.
- Section:
- Section 5.2.4 (Subject Element)
- Roles:
- Client SHOULD, Server N/A.
- Feature:
- message-thread
- Description:
- Support the <thread/> child element of the <message/> stanza.
- Section:
- Section 5.2.5 (Thread Element)
- Roles:
- Client SHOULD, Server N/A.
- Feature:
- message-type-support
- Description:
- Support reception of messages of type "normal", "chat", "groupchat", "headline", and "error".
- Section:
- Section 5.2.2 (Type Attribute)
- Roles:
- Client SHOULD, Server N/A.
- Feature:
- message-type-deliver
- Description:
- Appropriately deliver messages of type "normal", "chat", "groupchat", "headline", and "error".
- Section:
- Section 8 (Server Rules for Processing XML Stanzas)
- Roles:
- Client N/A, Server SHOULD.
- Feature:
- presence-notype
- Description:
- Treat a presence stanza with no 'type' attribute as indicating availability.
- Section:
- Section 4.7.1 (Type Attribute)
- Roles:
- Client MUST, Server MUST.
- Feature:
- presence-probe
- Description:
- Send and receive presence stanzas with a 'type' attribute of "probe" for the discovery of presence information.
- Section:
- Section 4.7.1 (Type Attribute)
- Roles:
- Client N/A, Server MUST.
- Feature:
- presence-sub-approval
- Description:
- Treat an outbound presence stanza of type "subscribed" as the act of approving a presence subscription request previously received from another entity, and treat an inbound presence stanza of type "subscribed" as a subscription approval from another entity.
- Section:
- Section 3.1 (Requesting a Subscription)
- Roles:
- Client MUST, Server MUST.
- Feature:
- presence-sub-cancel
- Description:
- Treat an outbound presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" as the act of denying a subscription request received from another entity or cancelling a subscription approval previously granted to another entity, and treat an inbound presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" as an subscription denial or cancellation from another entity.
- Section:
- Section 3.2 (Cancelling a Subscription)
- Roles:
- Client MUST, Server MUST.
- Feature:
- presence-sub-request
- Description:
- Treat an outbound presence stanza of type "subscribe" as the act of requesting a subscription to the presence information of another entity, and treat an inbound presence stanza of type "subscribe" as a presence subscription request from another entity.
- Section:
- Section 3.1 (Requesting a Subscription)
- Roles:
- Client MUST, Server MUST.
- Feature:
- presence-sub-unsubscribe
- Description:
- Treat an outbound presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" as the act of unsubscribing from another entity, and treat an inbound presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" as an unsubscribe notification from another entity.
- Section:
- Section 3.3 (Unsubscribing)
- Roles:
- Client MUST, Server MUST.
- Feature:
- presence-unavailable
- Description:
- Treat a presence stanza with a 'type' attribute of "unavailable" as indicating lack of availability.
- Section:
- Section 4.7.1 (Type Attribute)
- Roles:
- Client MUST, Server MUST.
- Feature:
- roster-get
- Description:
- Treat an IQ stanza of type "get" containing an empty <query/> element qualified by the 'jabber:iq:roster' namespace as a request to retrieve the roster information associated with an account on a server.
- Section:
- Section 2.1.3 (Roster Get)
- Roles:
- Client MUST, Server MUST.
- Feature:
- roster-set
- Description:
- Treat an IQ stanza of type "set" containing a <query/> element qualified by the 'jabber:iq:roster' namespace as a request to add or update the item contained in the <query/> element.
- Section:
- Section 2.1.5 (Roster Set)
- Roles:
- Client MUST, Server MUST.
- Feature:
- roster-push
- Description:
- Send a roster push to each interested resource whenever the server-side representation of the roster information materially changes, or handle such a push when received from the server.
- Section:
- Section 2.1.6 (Roster Push)
- Roles:
- Client MUST, Server MUST.
- Feature:
- roster-version
- Description:
- Treat the 'ver' attribute of the <query/> element qualified by the 'jabber:iq:roster' namespace as an identifier of the particular version of roster information being sent or received.
- Section:
- Section 2.1.1 (Ver Attribute)
- Roles:
- Client SHOULD, Server MUST.
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| [DELAY] | Saint-Andre, P., “Delayed Delivery,” XSF XEP 0203, September 2009. |
| [KEYWORDS] | Bradner, S., “Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels,” BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997 (TXT, HTML, XML). |
| [XML] | Maler, E., Yergeau, F., Sperberg-McQueen, C., Paoli, J., and T. Bray, “Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition),” World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation REC-xml-20081126, November 2008 (HTML). |
| [XML-NAMES] | Bray, T., Hollander, D., and A. Layman, “Namespaces in XML,” W3C REC-xml-names, January 1999. |
| [XMPP-CORE] | Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” draft-ietf-xmpp-3920bis-12 (work in progress), August 2010 (TXT). |
| [XMPP-URI] | Saint-Andre, P., “Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs) and Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP),” RFC 5122, February 2008 (TXT). |
| TOC |
| TOC |
This section provides detailed information about subscription states and server processing of subscription-related presence stanzas (i.e., presence stanzas of type "subscribe", "subscribed", "unsubscribe", and "unsubscribed").
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There are four primary subscription states (these states are described from the perspective of the user, not the contact):
- None:
- the user does not have a subscription to the contact's presence, and the contact does not have a subscription to the user's presence
- To:
- the user has a subscription to the contact's presence, but the contact does not have a subscription to the user's presence
- From:
- the contact has a subscription to the user's presence, but the user does not have a subscription to the contact's presence
- Both:
- both the user and the contact have subscriptions to each other's presence (i.e., the union of 'from' and 'to')
These states are supplemented by various pending sub-states to yield nine possible subscription states:
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Outbound presence subscription stanzas enable the user to manage his or her subscription to the contact's presence (via the "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" types), and to manage the contact's access to the user's presence (via the "subscribed" and "unsubscribed" types).
The following rules apply to outbound routing of the stanza as well as changes to the user's roster. (These rules are described from the perspective of the user, not the contact. In addition, "S.N." stands for SHOULD NOT.)
| TOC |
Table 2: Processing of outbound "subscribe" stanzas
+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | ROUTE? | NEW STATE | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | MUST [1] | "None + Pending Out" | | "None + Pending Out" | MUST | no state change | | "None + Pending In" | MUST [1] | "None + Pending Out+In" | | "None + Pending Out+In" | MUST | no state change | | "To" | MUST | no state change | | "To + Pending In" | MUST | no state change | | "From" | MUST [1] | "From + Pending Out" | | "From + Pending Out" | MUST | no state change | | "Both" | MUST | no state change | +------------------------------------------------------------------+
[1] A state change to "pending out" includes setting the 'ask' flag to a value of "subscribe" in the user's roster.
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Table 3: Processing of outbound "unsubscribe" stanzas
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | ROUTE? | NEW STATE | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | MUST | no state change | | "None + Pending Out" | MUST | "None" | | "None + Pending In" | MUST | no state change | | "None + Pending Out+In" | MUST | "None + Pending In" | | "To" | MUST | "None" | | "To + Pending In" | MUST | "None + Pending In" | | "From" | MUST | no state change | | "From + Pending Out" | MUST | "From" | | "Both" | MUST | "From" | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| TOC |
Table 4: Processing of outbound "subscribed" stanzas
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | ROUTE? | NEW STATE | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | S.N. | no state change [1] | | "None + Pending Out" | S.N. | no state change | | "None + Pending In" | MUST | "From" | | "None + Pending Out+In" | MUST | "From + Pending Out" | | "To" | S.N. | no state change | | "To + Pending In" | MUST | "Both" | | "From" | S.N. | no state change | | "From + Pending Out" | S.N. | no state change | | "Both" | S.N. | no state change | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
[1] A server MAY note the fact that the user wishes to allow the contact to be subscribed to the user's presence and automatically approve any subscription request received from the contact; if it does so, upon the receiving presence stanza of type "subscribed" from the user's client it MUST add a roster item for the contact to the user's roster and set the 'ask' flag to a value of "subscribed". However, the user's server still SHOULD NOT route the presence stanza of type "subscribed" to the contact. This optional functionality applies only if the contact is not already in the user's roster or if the contact is in the user's roster with a state of "None" (not including a state of "None + Pending Out").
| TOC |
Table 5: Processing of outbound "unsubscribed" stanzas
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | ROUTE? | NEW STATE | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | S.N. | no state change | | "None + Pending Out" | S.N. | no state change | | "None + Pending In" | MUST | "None" | | "None + Pending Out+In" | MUST | "None + Pending Out" | | "To" | S.N. | no state change | | "To + Pending In" | MUST | "To" | | "From" | MUST | "None" | | "From + Pending Out" | MUST | "None + Pending Out" | | "Both" | MUST | "To" | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
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Inbound presence subscription stanzas request a subscription-related action from the user (via the "subscribe" type), inform the user of subscription-related actions taken by the contact (via the "unsubscribe" type), or enable the user to manage the contact's access to the user's presence information (via the "subscribed" and "unsubscribed" types).
The following rules apply to delivery of the inbound stanza as well as changes to the user's roster. (These rules for server processing of inbound presence subscription stanzas are described from the perspective of the user, not the contact. In addition, "S.N." stands for SHOULD NOT.)
| TOC |
Table 6: Processing of inbound "subscribe" stanzas
+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | DELIVER? | NEW STATE | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | MUST [1] | "None + Pending In" | | "None + Pending Out" | MUST | "None + Pending Out+In" | | "None + Pending In" | S.N. | no state change | | "None + Pending Out+In" | S.N. | no state change | | "To" | MUST | "To + Pending In" | | "To + Pending In" | S.N. | no state change | | "From" | S.N. [2] | no state change | | "From + Pending Out" | S.N. [2] | no state change | | "Both" | S.N. [2] | no state change | +------------------------------------------------------------------+
[1] If the user previously sent presence of type "subscribed" as described under Appendix A.2.3 (Subscribed), then the server MAY auto-reply with "subscribed" and change the state to "From" rather than "None + Pending In".
[2] Server SHOULD auto-reply with "subscribed".
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When the user's server receives a presence stanza of type "unsubscribe" for the user from the contact, if the stanza results in a subscription state change from the user's perspective then the user's server MUST change the state, MUST deliver the presence stanza from the contact to the user, and SHOULD auto-reply by sending a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" to the contact on behalf of the user. Otherwise the user's server MUST NOT change the state and (because there is no state change) SHOULD NOT deliver the stanza. These rules are summarized in the following table.
Table 7: Processing of inbound "unsubscribe" stanzas
+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | DELIVER? | NEW STATE | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | S.N. | no state change | | "None + Pending Out" | S.N. | no state change | | "None + Pending In" | MUST [1] | "None" | | "None + Pending Out+In" | MUST [1] | "None + Pending Out" | | "To" | S.N. | no state change | | "To + Pending In" | MUST [1] | "To" | | "From" | MUST [1] | "None" | | "From + Pending Out" | MUST [1] | "None + Pending Out | | "Both" | MUST [1] | "To" | +------------------------------------------------------------------+
[1] Server SHOULD auto-reply with "unsubscribed".
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When the user's server receives a presence stanza of type "subscribed" for the user from the contact, if there is no pending outbound request for access to the contact's presence information, then it MUST NOT change the subscription state and (because there is no state change) SHOULD NOT deliver the stanza to the user. If there is a pending outbound request for access to the contact's presence information and the inbound presence stanza of type "subscribed" results in a subscription state change, then the user's server MUST change the subscription state and MUST deliver the stanza to the user. If the user already is subscribed to the contact's presence information, the inbound presence stanza of type "subscribed" does not result in a subscription state change; therefore the user's server MUST NOT change the subscription state and (because there is no state change) SHOULD NOT deliver the stanza to the user. These rules are summarized in the following table.
Table 8: Processing of inbound "subscribed" stanzas
+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | DELIVER? | NEW STATE | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | S.N. | no state change | | "None + Pending Out" | MUST | "To" | | "None + Pending In" | S.N. | no state change | | "None + Pending Out+In" | MUST | "To + Pending In" | | "To" | S.N. | no state change | | "To + Pending In" | S.N. | no state change | | "From" | S.N. | no state change | | "From + Pending Out" | MUST | "Both" | | "Both" | S.N. | no state change | +------------------------------------------------------------------+
| TOC |
When the user's server receives a presence stanza of type "unsubscribed" for the user from the contact, if there is a pending outbound request for access to the contact's presence information or if the user currently is subscribed to the contact's presence information, then the user's server MUST change the subscription state and MUST deliver the stanza to the user. Otherwise, the user's server MUST NOT change the subscription state and (because there is no state change) SHOULD NOT deliver the stanza. These rules are summarized in the following table.
Table 9: Processing of inbound "unsubscribed" stanzas
+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXISTING STATE | DELIVER? | NEW STATE | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "None" | S.N. | no state change | | "None + Pending Out" | MUST | "None" | | "None + Pending In" | S.N. | no state change | | "None + Pending Out+In" | MUST | "None + Pending In" | | "To" | MUST | "None" | | "To + Pending In" | MUST | "None + Pending In" | | "From" | S.N. | no state change | | "From + Pending Out" | MUST | "From" | | "Both" | MUST | "From" | +------------------------------------------------------------------+
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Sections 2.3.5 and 5.4.10 of [IMP‑REQS] (Day, M., Aggarwal, S., and J. Vincent, “Instant Messaging / Presence Protocol Requirements,” February 2000.) require that a compliant instant messaging and presence technology needs to enable a user to block communications from selected users. Protocols for doing so are specified in [XEP‑0016] (Millard, P. and P. Saint-Andre, “Privacy Lists,” February 2007.) and [XEP‑0191] (Saint-Andre, P., “Simple Communications Blocking,” February 2007.).
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Sections 3.1.3 and 4.1.4 of [IMP‑REQS] (Day, M., Aggarwal, S., and J. Vincent, “Instant Messaging / Presence Protocol Requirements,” February 2000.) require that it be possible to retrieve out-of-band contact information for other users (e.g., telephone number or email address). An XML representation of the vCard specification defined in RFC 2426 (Dawson, F. and T. Howes, “vCard MIME Directory Profile,” September 1998.) [VCARD] is in common use within the XMPP community to provide such information but is out of scope for this specification (documentation of this protocol is contained in [XEP‑0054] (Saint-Andre, P., “vcard-temp,” July 2008.)).
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Because validation of XML streams and stanzas is optional, the following XML schemas are provided for descriptive purposes only. These schemas are not normative.
The following schemas formally define various XML namespaces used in the core XMPP protocols, in conformance with [XML‑SCHEMA] (Thompson, H., Maloney, M., Mendelsohn, N., and D. Beech, “XML Schema Part 1: Structures Second Edition,” October 2004.). For schemas defining namespaces for XML streams and other core aspects of XMPP, refer to [XMPP‑CORE] (Saint-Andre, P., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core,” August 2010.).
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<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<xs:schema
xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'
targetNamespace='jabber:client'
xmlns='jabber:client'
elementFormDefault='qualified'>
<xs:import
namespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>
<xs:element name='message'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:choice minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='unbounded'>
<xs:element ref='subject'/>
<xs:element ref='body'/>
<xs:element ref='thread'/>
</xs:choice>
<xs:any namespace='##other'
minOccurs='0'
maxOccurs='unbounded'/>
<xs:element ref='error'
minOccurs='0'/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name='from'
type='xs:string'
use='optional'/>
<xs:attribute name='id'
type='xs:NMTOKEN'
use='optional'/>
<xs:attribute name='to'
type='xs:string'
use='optional'/>
<xs:attribute name='type'
use='optional'
default='normal'>
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
<xs:enumeration value='chat'/>
<xs:enumeration value='error'/>
<xs:enumeration value='groupchat'/>
<xs:enumeration value='headline'/>
<xs:enumeration value='normal'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:attribute>
<xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='body'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:simpleContent>
<xs:extension base='xs:string'>
<xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>
</xs:extension>
</xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='subject'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:simpleContent>
<xs:extension base='xs:string'>
<xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>
</xs:extension>
</xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='thread'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:simpleContent>
<xs:extension base='xs:NMTOKEN'>
<xs:attribute name='parent'
type='xs:NMTOKEN'
use='optional'/>
</xs:extension>
</xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='presence'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:choice minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='unbounded'>
<xs:element ref='show'/>
<xs:element ref='status'/>
<xs:element ref='priority'/>
</xs:choice>
<xs:any namespace='##other'
minOccurs='0'
maxOccurs='unbounded'/>
<xs:element ref='error'
minOccurs='0'/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name='from'
type='xs:string'
use='optional'/>
<xs:attribute name='id'
type='xs:NMTOKEN'
use='optional'/>
<xs:attribute name='to'
type='xs:string'
use='optional'/>
<xs:attribute name='type' use='optional'>
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
<xs:enumeration value='error'/>
<xs:enumeration value='probe'/>
<xs:enumeration value='subscribe'/>
<xs:enumeration value='subscribed'/>
<xs:enumeration value='unavailable'/>
<xs:enumeration value='unsubscribe'/>
<xs:enumeration value='unsubscribed'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:attribute>
<xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='show'>
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
<xs:enumeration value='away'/>
<xs:enumeration value='chat'/>
<xs:enumeration value='dnd'/>
<xs:enumeration value='xa'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='status'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:simpleContent>
<xs:extension base='string1024'>
<xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>
</xs:extension>
</xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:simpleType name='string1024'>
<xs:restriction base='xs:string'>
<xs:minLength value='1'/>
<xs:maxLength value='1024'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
<xs:element name='priority' type='xs:byte'/>
<xs:element name='iq'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:any namespace='##other'
minOccurs='0'/>
<xs:element ref='error'
minOccurs='0'/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name='from'
type='xs:string'
use='optional'/>
<xs:attribute name='id'
type='xs:NMTOKEN'
use='required'/>
<xs:attribute name='to'
type='xs:string'
use='optional'/>
<xs:attribute name='type' use='required'>
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
<xs:enumeration value='error'/>
<xs:enumeration value='get'/>
<xs:enumeration value='result'/>
<xs:enumeration value='set'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:attribute>
<xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='error'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence xmlns:err='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'>
<xs:group ref='err:stanzaErrorGroup'/>
<xs:element ref='err:text'
minOccurs='0'/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name='by'
type='xs:string'
use='optional'>
<xs:attribute name='type' use='required'>
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
<xs:enumeration value='auth'/>
<xs:enumeration value='cancel'/>
<xs:enumeration value='continue'/>
<xs:enumeration value='modify'/>
<xs:enumeration value='wait'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:attribute>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
| TOC |
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<xs:schema
xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'
targetNamespace='jabber:server'
xmlns='jabber:server'
elementFormDefault='qualified'>
<xs:import
namespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>
<xs:element name='message'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:choice minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='unbounded'>
<xs:element ref='subject'/>
<xs:element ref='body'/>
<xs:element ref='thread'/>
</xs:choice>
<xs:any namespace='##other'
minOccurs='0'
maxOccurs='unbounded'/>
<xs:element ref='error'
minOccurs='0'/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name='from'
type='xs:string'
use='required'/>
<xs:attribute name='id'
type='xs:NMTOKEN'
use='optional'/>
<xs:attribute name='to'
type='xs:string'
use='required'/>
<xs:attribute name='type'
use='optional'
default='normal'>
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
<xs:enumeration value='chat'/>
<xs:enumeration value='error'/>
<xs:enumeration value='groupchat'/>
<xs:enumeration value='headline'/>
<xs:enumeration value='normal'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:attribute>
<xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='body'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:simpleContent>
<xs:extension base='xs:string'>
<xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>
</xs:extension>
</xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='subject'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:simpleContent>
<xs:extension base='xs:string'>
<xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>
</xs:extension>
</xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='thread'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:simpleContent>
<xs:extension base='xs:NMTOKEN'>
<xs:attribute name='parent'
type='xs:NMTOKEN'
use='optional'/>
</xs:extension>
</xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='subject'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:simpleContent>
<xs:extension base='xs:NMTOKEN'>
<xs:attribute name='parent'
type='xs:NMTOKEN'
use='optional'/>
</xs:extension>
</xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='presence'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:choice minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='unbounded'>
<xs:element ref='show'/>
<xs:element ref='status'/>
<xs:element ref='priority'/>
</xs:choice>
<xs:any namespace='##other'
minOccurs='0'
maxOccurs='unbounded'/>
<xs:element ref='error'
minOccurs='0'/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name='from'
type='xs:string'
use='required'/>
<xs:attribute name='id'
type='xs:NMTOKEN'
use='optional'/>
<xs:attribute name='to'
type='xs:string'
use='required'/>
<xs:attribute name='type' use='optional'>
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
<xs:enumeration value='error'/>
<xs:enumeration value='probe'/>
<xs:enumeration value='subscribe'/>
<xs:enumeration value='subscribed'/>
<xs:enumeration value='unavailable'/>
<xs:enumeration value='unsubscribe'/>
<xs:enumeration value='unsubscribed'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:attribute>
<xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='show'>
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
<xs:enumeration value='away'/>
<xs:enumeration value='chat'/>
<xs:enumeration value='dnd'/>
<xs:enumeration value='xa'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='status'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:simpleContent>
<xs:extension base='string1024'>
<xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>
</xs:extension>
</xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:simpleType name='string1024'>
<xs:restriction base='xs:string'>
<xs:minLength value='1'/>
<xs:maxLength value='1024'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
<xs:element name='priority' type='xs:byte' default='0'/>
<xs:element name='iq'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:any namespace='##other'
minOccurs='0'/>
<xs:element ref='error'
minOccurs='0'/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name='from'
type='xs:string'
use='required'/>
<xs:attribute name='id'
type='xs:NMTOKEN'
use='required'/>
<xs:attribute name='to'
type='xs:string'
use='required'/>
<xs:attribute name='type' use='required'>
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
<xs:enumeration value='error'/>
<xs:enumeration value='get'/>
<xs:enumeration value='result'/>
<xs:enumeration value='set'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:attribute>
<xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='error'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence xmlns:err='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'>
<xs:group ref='err:stanzaErrorGroup'/>
<xs:element ref='err:text'
minOccurs='0'/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name='by'
type='xs:string'
use='optional'>
<xs:attribute name='type' use='required'>
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
<xs:enumeration value='auth'/>
<xs:enumeration value='cancel'/>
<xs:enumeration value='continue'/>
<xs:enumeration value='modify'/>
<xs:enumeration value='wait'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:attribute>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
| TOC |
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<xs:schema
xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'
targetNamespace='jabber:iq:roster'
xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'
elementFormDefault='qualified'>
<xs:element name='query'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element ref='item'
minOccurs='0'
maxOccurs='unbounded'/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name='ver'
type='xs:string'
use='optional'/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='item'>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element ref='group'
minOccurs='0'
maxOccurs='unbounded'/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name='ask' use='optional'>
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
<xs:enumeration value='subscribe'/>
<xs:enumeration value='subscribed'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:attribute>
<xs:attribute name='jid'
type='xs:string'
use='required'/>
<xs:attribute name='name'
type='xs:string'
use='optional'/>
<xs:attribute name='subscription'
use='optional'
default='none'>
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
<xs:enumeration value='both'/>
<xs:enumeration value='from'/>
<xs:enumeration value='none'/>
<xs:enumeration value='remove'/>
<xs:enumeration value='to'/>
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:attribute>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='group' type='xs:string'/>
</xs:schema>
| TOC |
Based on consensus derived from implementation and deployment experience as well as formal interoperability testing, the following substantive modifications were made from [RFC3921] (Saint-Andre, P., Ed., “Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and Presence,” October 2004.).
In addition, numerous changes of an editorial nature were made in order to more fully specify and clearly explain the protocols.
| TOC |
Regarding this entire document or any portion of it, the author makes no guarantees and is not responsible for any damage resulting from its use. The author grants irrevocable permission to anyone to use, modify, and distribute it in any way that does not diminish the rights of anyone else to use, modify, and distribute it, provided that redistributed derivative works do not contain misleading author or version information. Derivative works need not be licensed under similar terms.
| TOC |
| Peter Saint-Andre | |
| Cisco | |
| 1899 Wyknoop Street, Suite 600 | |
| Denver, CO 80202 | |
| USA | |
| Phone: | +1-303-308-3282 |
| Email: | psaintan@cisco.com |