WDIFF

draft-daboo-imap-annotatemore-04.txt --> draft-daboo-imap-annotatemore-05.txt

Network Working Group C. Daboo
Internet Draft: IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension
Document: draft-daboo-imap-annotatemore-04.txt
Internet-Draft Cyrusoft International, Inc.
Expires: October 2003 18, 2004 April 19, 2004

IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension
draft-daboo-imap-annotatemore-05

Status of this Memo

This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other
groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts.

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."

The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. http://
www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.

The list of Internet- Draft Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

This Internet-Draft will expire on October 18, 2004.

Abstract

The ANNOTATEMORE extension to the Internet Message Access Protocol
permits clients and servers to maintain "metadata" on IMAP4 servers.
It is possible to store data on a per-mailbox basis or on the server
as a whole.

Change History (to be removed prior to publication as an RFC)

Changes from -04 to -05:
1. Fix for valid IMAP state of commands.
2. Fix formatting, ID nits etc.

Changes from -03 to -04:

Daboo Expires April October 18, 2004 [Page 1]
Internet Draft

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

1. Allow retrieval of shared annotations for READ-ONLY mailbox.
2. Clarification of annotation loss on implicit removal of \Noselect
mailboxes.
3. Now requires roll-back of all changes to matching mailboxes if
there is a partial failure in SETANNOTATION.

Changes from -02 to -03:
1. Reworked entry naming scheme to split out mailbox name and use
empty string for server items.

Changes from -01 to -02:
1. SETANNOTATION lists use (..).
2. Explicitly state behaviour of unsolicited responses.
3. Adding SHOULD behaviour for rename/delete of mailboxes.
4. Added statement about supporting annotations on \Noselect
mailboxes.
5. Cleaned up formal syntax to use IMAP string type for entry and
attributes, with requirements on how the string is formatted.
6. Use of ACAP vendor subtree registry for vendor tokens.

Changes from -00 to -01:
1. Multiple entry-att responses are now simply delimited by spaces
in line with ANNOTATE spec. Adjusted examples to match.
2. Fixed entry-list formal syntax item to account for unsolicited
parenthesised list of entries.
3. Removed setentries formal syntax item for simplicity since its
only used once.
4. Removed reference to 'message annotation' in section 5.1.
5. Changed formal syntax to restrict top level entries to /server
and /mailbox/{...} only. Re-arranged entry names section to
account for this change.
6. Added comment and example for ANNOTATION response to allow
servers to return separate responses for each entry if desired.

Daboo Expires October 2003 18, 2004 [Page 2]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

Table of Contents
1 Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3 Change History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4

1. Introduction and Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5 4
2. Data Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5.1
2.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5.2
2.2 Namespace of entries and attributes . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5.2.1 . 5
2.2.1 Entry Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5.2.1.1 Server Entries
2.2.2 Attribute Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5.2.1.2 Mailbox Entries . . . . . 6
2.3 Private versus Shared and Access Control . . . . . . . . . . 7
3. IMAP Protocol Changes . . . . . . 5
5.2.2 Attribute Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1 General Considerations . . . . . . 6
6 Private versus Shared and Access Control . . . . . . . . . . 7
7 IMAP Protocol Changes . . . 8
3.2 GETANNOTATION Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
7.1 General Considerations . 8
3.3 SETANNOTATION Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
7.2 GETANNOTATION Command . . . 10
3.4 ANNOTATION Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7.3 SETANNOTATION command . . . . . 12
3.4.1 ANNOTATION response with attributes and values . . . . . . . 13
3.4.2 Unsolicited ANNOTATION response without attributes and
values . . . . . 9
7.4 ANNOTATION Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7.4.1 ANNOTATION response with attributes and values . . . 12
7.4.2 Unsolicited ANNOTATION response without attributes an 12
8 14
4. Formal Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
9 15
5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
9.1 16
5.1 Entry and Attribute Registration Template . . . . . . . 15
10 . . 17
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
11 17
Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
12 17
Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
13 Acknowledgments 18
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
14 Author's Address 18
A. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
15 Full 18
Intellectual Property and Copyright Statement . . . . . Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1 Abstract

The ANNOTATEMORE extension to the Internet Message Access Protocol
[IMAP4] permits clients and servers to maintain "metadata" on IMAP4
servers. It is possible to store data on a per-mailbox basis or on
the server as a whole.

2 Conventions Used in This Document

The key words "REQUIRED", "MUST", "MUST NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD
NOT", and "MAY" in this document are to be interpreted as described
in "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels"
[KEYWORDS].

Formal syntax is defined using ABNF [ABNF] as modified by [IMAP4].

In examples, "C:" and "S:" indicate lines sent by the client and
server respectively.

3 Change History 19

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 2]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003

Changes from -03 to -04:
1. Allow retrieval of shared annotations for READ-ONLY mailbox.
2. Clarification of annotation loss on implicit removal of
\Noselect mailboxes.
3. Now requires roll-back of all changes to matching mailboxes
if there is a partial failure in SETANNOTATION.

Changes from -02 to -03:
1. Reworked entry naming scheme to split out mailbox name and use
empty string for server items.

Internet-Draft IMAP string type for entry
and attributes, with requirements on how the string is formatted.
6. Use of ACAP vendor subtree registry for vendor tokens.

Changes from -00 to -01: ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

1. Multiple entry-att responses are now simply delimited by
spaces in line with ANNOTATE spec. Adjusted examples to match.
2. Fixed entry-list formal syntax item to account for unsolicited
parenthesised list of entries.
3. Removed setentries formal syntax item for simplicity since
its only used once.
4. Removed reference to 'message annotation' in section 5.1.
5. Changed formal syntax to restrict top level entries to
/server and /mailbox/{...} only. Re-arranged entry names
section to account for this change.
6. Added comment and example for ANNOTATION response to allow
servers to return separate responses for each entry if desired.

4 Introduction and Overview

The ANNOTATEMORE extension is present in any IMAP4 [RFC3501]
implementation which returns "ANNOTATEMORE" as one of the supported
capabilities in the CAPABILITY command response.

The goal of ANNOTATEMORE is to provide a means for clients to store
and retrieve "metadata" on an IMAP4 server. The metadata can be
associated with specific mailboxes or the server as a whole.

The ANNOTATEMORE extension adds two new commands and one new untagged
response to the IMAP4 base protocol.

This extension makes the following changes to the IMAP4 protocol:

adds a new SETANNOTATION command
b
adds a new GETANNOTATION command

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 3]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003

c
adds a new ANNOTATION untagged response
d
adds a new ANNOTATEMORE response code

The data model used in ANNOTATEMORE is exactly the same as that used
in the ANNOTATE [ANNOTATE] extension to IMAP4. This is modeled after
that of the Application Configuration Access Protocol [ACAP] [RFC2244] with
the exception of inheritance which is not deemed necessary here.

The rest of this document describes the data model and protocol
changes more rigorously.

2. Data Model

5.1

2.1 Overview

The data model used in ANNOTATEMORE is one of a uniquely named entry
with a set of uniquely named attributes, each of which has a value.
Annotations can be added to mailboxes when a mailbox name is provided
as the first argument to the new commands, or to the server as a
whole when the empty string is provided as the first argument to the
new commands.

An annotation can contain multiple named entries. For example, a
general comment being added to a mailbox may have an entry name of
"/comment". "/
comment". This entry could include named attributes such as "value",
"modifiedsince", "acl" etc to represent properties and data
associated with the entry.

The protocol changes to IMAP described below allow a client to access
or change the values of any attributes in any entries in an
annotation, assuming it has sufficient access rights to do so.

5.2

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 4]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

2.2 Namespace of entries and attributes

Each annotation is made up of a set of entries. Each entry has a
hierarchical name in UTF-8, with each component of the name separated
by a slash ("/").

Each entry is made up of a set of attributes. Each attribute has a
hierarchical name in UTF-8, with each component of the name separated
by a period (".").

The value of an attribute is NIL (has no value), or a string of zero
or more octets.

Entry and attribute names are not permitted to contain asterisk ("*")
or percent ("%") characters and MUST be valid UTF-8 strings which do
not contain NUL. Invalid entry or attribute names result in a BAD
response in any IMAP commands where they are used.

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 4]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003

Use of non-visible UTF-8 characters in entry and attribute names is
discouraged.

This specification defines an initial set of entry and attribute
names available for use with mailbox and server annotations. In
addition an extension mechanism is described to allow additional
names to be added for extensibility.

5.2.1

2.2.1 Entry Names

Entry names MUST be specified in a standards track or IESG approved
experimental RFC, or fall under the vendor namespace. See Section
9.1 5.1
for the registration template. This specification only allows two
top-level entry types for servers and mailboxes.

5.2.1.1

2.2.1.1 Server Entries

These entries are used when the mailbox name argument to the new
commands is the empty string.

/comment
Defines a comment or note associated with the server.

/motd
Defines a "message of the day" for the server. This entry is
always read-only - clients cannot change it.

/admin
Indicates a method for contacting the server administrator. This
may be a URI (e.g. a mailto URL) or other contact information,

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 5]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

such as a telephone number. This entry is always read-only -
clients cannot change it.

/vendor/<vendor-token>
Defines the top-level of entries associated with the server as
created by a particular product of some vendor. This entry can be
used by vendors to provide server or client specific attributes.
The vendor-token MUST be registered with IANA, using the [ACAP] ACAP
[RFC2244] vendor subtree registry.

5.2.1.2

2.2.1.2 Mailbox Entries

These entries are used when the mailbox name argument to the new
commands is not the empty string.

/comment
Defines a comment or note associated with a mailbox.

/sort
Defines the default sort criteria [SORT] to use when first
displaying the mailbox contents to the user, or NIL if sorting is
not required.

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 5]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003

/thread
Defines the default thread criteria [SORT] to use when first
displaying the mailbox contents to the user, or NIL if threading
is not required. If both sort and thread are not NIL, then
threading should take precedence over sorting.

/check
Boolean value "true" or "false" that indicates whether this
mailbox should be checked at regular intervals by the client. The
interval in minutes is specified by the /checkperiod entry.

/checkperiod
Numeric value indicating a period of minutes to use for checking a
mailbox that has the /check entry set to "true".

/vendor/<vendor-token>
Defines the top-level of entries associated with a specific
mailbox as created by a particular product of some vendor. This
entry can be used by vendors to provide client specific
attributes. The vendor-token MUST be registered with IANA, using
the [ACAP] ACAP [RFC2244] vendor subtree registry.

5.2.2

2.2.2 Attribute Names

Attribute names MUST be specified in a standards track or IESG

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 6]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

approved experimental RFC, or fall under the vendor namespace. See
Section 9.1 5.1 for the registration template.

All attribute names implicitly have a ".priv" and a ".shared" suffix
which maps to private and shared versions of the entry. Searching or
fetching without using either suffix includes both. The client MUST
specify either a ".priv" or ".shared" suffix when storing an
annotation.

value
The data value of the attribute.

size
The size of the value, in octets. Set automatically by the server,
read-only to clients.

modifiedsince
An opaque value set by the server when this entry is modified. It
can be used by the client to request notification of which entries
have changed since a particular point in time and is useful for
disconnected/synchronisation operations.

content-type
A MIME [MIME] [RFC2046] content type and subtype that describes the
nature of the content of the "value" attribute.

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 6]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003

vendor.<vendor-token>
Defines an attribute associated with a particular product of some
vendor. This attribute can be used by vendors to provide client
specific attributes. The vendor-token MUST be registered with
IANA, using the [ACAP] ACAP [RFC2244] vendor subtree registry.

2.3 Private versus Shared and Access Control

As discussed in the ANNOTATE extension [ANNOTATE] extension there is a need to
support both private and shared annotations. This document adopts the
scheme used in [ANNOTATE] that adds two standard suffixes for all
attributes: ".shared" and ".priv". A GETANNOTATION command which
specifies neither uses both. SETANNOTATION commands MUST explicitly
use .priv or .shared suffixes.

A user can only store and retrieve private annotations on a mailbox
which is returned to them via a LIST or LSUB command. A user can only
store and retrieve shared annotations on a mailbox that they can
SELECT and which opens READ-WRITE. A user can only retrieve shared
annotations on a mailbox that they can SELECT and which opens
READ-ONLY. If a client attempts to store a shared annotation on a
READ-ONLY mailbox, the server MUST respond with a NO response.

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 7]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

3. IMAP Protocol Changes

7.1

3.1 General Considerations

The new commands and response each have a mailbox name argument,
indicating that the annotations being referred to are attached to the
specified mailbox. An empty string can be used for the mailbox name
to signify server annotations.

Both "*" and "%" list wildcard characters MAY be used in the mailbox
name argument to commands to match all possible occurrences of a
mailbox name pattern. However, "*" or "%" by themselves MUST NOT
match the empty string (server) entries. Server entries can only be
accessed by explicitly using the empty string as the mailbox name.

Servers SHOULD ensure that mailbox annotations are automatically
moved when the mailbox they refer to is renamed, i.e. the annotations
follow the mailbox. Servers SHOULD delete annotations for a mailbox
when the mailbox is deleted, so that a mailbox created with the same
name as a previously existing mailbox does not inherit the old
mailbox annotations. Servers SHOULD allow annotations on all 'types'
of mailbox, including ones reporting \Noselect for their LIST
response. Servers can implicitly remove \Noselect mailboxes when all
child mailboxes are removed, and as such any annotations associated
with the \Noselect mailbox SHOULD be removed.

The server is allowed to impose limitations on the size of any one
annotation or the total number of annotations for a single mailbox or
for the server as a whole. However, the server MUST accept a

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 7]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003 the server MUST accept a minimum
annotation data size of at least 1024 bytes, and a minimum annotation
count per server or mailbox of at least 10.

7.2

3.2 GETANNOTATION Command

This extension adds the GETANNOTATION command. This allows clients to
retrieve annotations.

This command is only available in authenticated or selected state [IMAP4].
[RFC3501].

Arguments: mailbox-name
entry-specifier
attribute-specifier

Responses: required ANNOTATION response

Result: OK - command completed
NO - command failure: can't access annotations on that mailbox

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 8]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

The mailbox-name argument MUST be a valid mailbox name or the empty
string. In the later case, the annotations being referred to are the
ones for the server as a whole.

Example:

C: a GETANNOTATION "" "/comment" "value.priv"
S: * ANNOTATION "" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My comment")
S: a OK GETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, the contents of the "value" attribute for
the "/comment" server entry is requested by the client and
returned by the server.

"*" and "%" wildcard characters can be used in either specifier to
match one or more characters at that position, with the exception
that "%" does not match the hierarchy delimiter for the specifier it
appears in (i.e. "/" for an entry specifier or "." for an attribute
specifier). Thus an entry specifier of "/%" would match entries such
as "/comment" and "/version", but not "/comment/note".

Examples:

Example:

C: a GETANNOTATION "" "/*" "value.priv"
S: * ANNOTATION "" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My comment")
"/version" ("value.priv" "1.1")
"/motd/today" ("value.priv" "Closed at 1 pm")
S: a OK GETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, the contents of the "value" attributes for
any server entries are requested by the client and returned by the
server.

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 8]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003

Example:

C: a GETANNOTATION "" "/%" "value"
S: * ANNOTATION "/comment" ("value.priv" "My comment")
("value.shared" "Your comment")
"/motd" ("value.priv" "Its sunny outside!"
("value.shared" "Today is a Holiday")
S: a OK GETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, the contents of the "value" attributes for
server entries at the top level of the entry hierarchy only, are
requested by the client and returned by the server. Both the .priv
and .shared values are returned, as neither were explicitly

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 9]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

requested.

Entry and attribute specifiers can be lists of atomic specifiers, so
that multiple items of each type may be returned in a single
GETANNOTATION command.

Examples:

Example:

C: a GETANNOTATION "" ("/comment" "/motd") "value.priv"
S: * ANNOTATION "" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My comment")
"/motd" ("value.priv" "Its sunny outside!")
S: a OK GETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, the contents of the "value" attributes for
the two server entries "/comment" and "/motd" are requested by the
client and returned by the server.

Example:

C: a GETANNOTATION "" "/comment" ("value.priv" "modifiedsince.priv")
S: * ANNOTATION "" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My comment"
"modifiedsince.priv" "19990203205432")
S: a OK GETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, the contents of the "value" and
"modifiedsince" attributes for the "/comment" server entry are
requested by the client and returned by the server.

7.3

3.3 SETANNOTATION command Command

This extension adds the SETANNOTATION command. This allows clients to
set annotations.

This command is only available in authenticated or selected state [IMAP4].
[RFC3501].

Arguments: mailbox-name
entry
attribute-value
list of entry, attribute-values

Responses: no specific responses for this command

Result: OK - command completed

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 9]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003
NO - command failure: can't set annotations,
or annotation too big or too many
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 10]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

Sets the specified list of entries by adding or replacing the
specified attributes with the values provided. Clients can use NIL
for values of attributes it wants to remove from entries. The server
MAY return an unsolicited ANNOTATION response containing the updated
annotation data. The server SHOULD send such responses for any
changes to the server annotations, and SHOULD send such responses for
mailbox annotations only for the currently selected mailbox. Clients
MUST NOT assume that an unsolicited ANNOTATION response will be sent,
and MUST assume that if the command succeeds then the annotation has
been changed.

If the server is unable to store an annotation because the size of
its value is too large, the server MUST return a tagged NO response
with a "[ANNOTATEMORE TOOBIG]" response code.

If the server is unable to store a new annotation because the maximum
number of allowed annotations has already been reached, the server
MUST return a tagged NO response with a "[ANNOTATEMORE TOOMANY]"
response code.

If the server is unable to store the annotations for one or more
mailboxes matching the mailbox-name pattern, then the SETANNOTATION
command MUST fail and there MUST NOT be any changes to any of the
matching mailboxes, even those for which annotations could have been
changed successfully.

Examples:

Example:

C: a SETANNOTATION "INBOX" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My new comment")
S: a OK SETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, the entry "/comment" for the mailbox "INBOX"
is created (if not already present) and the private attribute
"value" with data set to "My new comment" is created if not
already present, or replaced if it previously exists.

Example:

C: a SETANNOTATION "INBOX" "/comment" ("value.priv" NIL)
S: a OK SETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, the private "value" attribute of the entry
"/comment" is removed from the mailbox "INBOX".

Multiple entries can be set in a single SETANNOTATION command by
listing entry-attribute-value pairs in the list.

Example:

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 11]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

C: a SETANNOTATION "INBOX.%" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My new comment")

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 10]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003
S: a OK SETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, the entry "/comment" for all mailboxes at
the top-level of the "INBOX" hierarchy are created (if not already
present) and the private and shared attributes "value" are created
respectively for each entry if not already present, or replaced if
they previously existed.

Multiple attributes can be set in a single SETANNOTATION command by
listing multiple attribute-value pairs in the entry list.

Example:

C: a SETANNOTATION "INBOX" "/comment"
("value.priv" "My new comment"
"vendor.foobar.bloop.priv" "foo's bar")
S: a OK SETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, the entry "/comment" for the mailbox "INBOX"
is created (if not already present) and the private attributes
"value" and "vendor.foobar.bloop" are created if not already
present, or replaced if they previously existed.

Example:

C: a SETANNOTATION "INBOX" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My new comment")
S: a NO [ANNOTATEMORE TOOMANY] SETANNOTATION failed

In the above example, the server is unable to store the requested
(new) annotation as it has reached the limit on the number of
annotations it can support on the specified mailbox.

7.4

3.4 ANNOTATION Response

The ANNOTATION response displays results of a GETANNOTATION command,
or can be returned as a unsolicited response at anytime by the server
in response to a change in an annotation.

Servers SHOULD send unsolicited ANNOTATION responses if changed by a
third-party, allowing servers to keep clients updated with changes to
annotations by other clients. Unsolicited mailbox entries MUST only
be returned for the currently selected mailbox. In this case, only
the entries are returned in the ANNOTATION response, not the
attributes and values. If the client wants to update any cached
values it must explicitly retrieve those using a GETANNOTATION
command.

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 12]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

Separate ANNOTATION responses MUST be used when more than one mailbox
matches the mailbox name argument pattern to the command.

The ANNOTATION response can contain multiple entries in a single
response, but the server is free to return multiple responses for
each entry or group of entries if it desires.

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 11]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003

This response is only available in authenticated state [IMAP4].

7.4.1 [RFC3501].

3.4.1 ANNOTATION response with attributes and values

The response consists of a list of entries each of which has a list
of attribute-value pairs.

Examples:

Example:

C: a GETANNOTATION "" "/comment" "value.priv"
S: * ANNOTATION "" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My comment")
S: a OK GETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, a single entry with a single attribute-value
pair is returned by the server.

Example:

C: a GETANNOTATION "" ("/comment" "/motd") "value.priv"
S: * ANNOTATION "" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My comment")
"/motd" ("value.priv" "Its sunny outside!")
S: a OK GETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, two entries each with a single
attribute-value pair is returned by the server.

Example:

C: a GETANNOTATION "" ("/comment" "/motd") "value.priv"
S: * ANNOTATION "" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My comment")
S: * ANNOTATION "" "/motd" ("value.priv" "Its sunny outside!")
S: a OK GETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, the server returns two separate responses
for each of the two entries requested.

Example:

C: a GETANNOTATION "" "/comment" ("value.priv" "modifiedsince.priv")
S: * ANNOTATION "" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My comment"
"modifiedsince.priv" "19990203205432")

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 13]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

S: a OK GETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, a single entry with two attribute-value
pairs is returned by the server.

Example:

C: a GETANNOTATION "INBOX.%" "/comment" "value.priv"
S: * ANNOTATION "INBOX.1" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My comment for 1")
S: * ANNOTATION "INBOX.2" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My comment for 2")
S: * ANNOTATION "INBOX.3" "/comment" ("value.priv" "My comment for 3")
S: a OK GETANNOTATION complete

In the above example, separate responses are returned for each
matching mailbox, each containing a single entry with a single
attribute-value pair.

7.4.2

3.4.2 Unsolicited ANNOTATION response without attributes and values

The response consists of a parenthesised list of entries, each of
which have changed on the server.

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 12]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003

Examples:

Example:

C: a NOOP
S: * ANNOTATION "" ("/comment")
S: a OK NOOP complete

In the above example, the server indicates that the "/comment"
server entry has been changed.

Example:

C: a NOOP
S: * ANNOTATION "" ("/comment" "/motd")
S: a OK NOOP complete

In the above example, the server indicates a change to two server
entries.

Example:

C: a NOOP
S: * ANNOTATION "" ("/motd")
S: * ANNOTATION "INBOX" ("/comment")
S: a OK NOOP complete

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 14]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

In the above example, the server indicates a change to a server
entry, and to the an entry for the currently selected mailbox.

4. Formal Syntax

The following syntax specification uses the Augmented Backus-Naur
Form (ABNF) notation as specified in [ABNF]. [RFC2234].

Non-terminals referenced but not defined below are as defined by
[IMAP4].
[RFC3501].

Except as noted otherwise, all alphabetic characters are case-
insensitive. The use of upper or lower case characters to define
token strings is for editorial clarity only. Implementations MUST
accept these strings in a case-insensitive fashion.

annotate-data = "ANNOTATION" SP mailbox SP entry-list
; empty string for mailbox implies
; server annotation.

att-value = attrib SP value

attrib = string
; dot-separated attribute name
; MUST NOT contain "*" or "%"
attrib-match = string
; dot-separated attribute name
; MAY contain "*" or "%" for use as wildcards

attribs = attrib-match / "(" attrib-match *(SP attrib-match) ")"

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 13]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003
; attribute specifiers that can include wildcards

command-auth /= setannotation / getannotation
; adds to original IMAP4 command

entries = entry-match / "(" entry-match *(SP entry-match) ")"
; entry specifiers that can include wildcards

entry = string
; slash-separated path to entry
; MUST NOT contain "*" or "%"

entry-att = entry SP "(" att-value *(SP att-value) ")"

entry-list = entry-att *(SP entry-att) /
"(" entry *(SP entry) ")"
; entry attribute-value pairs list for
; GETANNOTATION response, or

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 15]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

; parenthesised entry list for unsolicited
; notification of annotation changes

entry-match = string
; slash-separated path to entry
; MAY contain "*" or "%" for use as wildcards

getannotation = "GETANNOTATION" SP list-mailbox SP entries SP attribs
; empty string for list-mailbox implies
; server annotation.

response-data /= "*" SP annotate-data CRLF
; adds to original IMAP4 data responses

resp-text-code =/ "ANNOTATEMORE" SP "TOOBIG" /
"ANNOTATEMORE" SP "TOOMANY"
; new response codes for SETANNOTATION failures

setannotation = "SETANNOTATION" SP list-mailbox SP setentryatt
; empty string for list-mailbox implies
; server annotation.

setentryatt = entry-att / "(" entry-att *(SP entry-att) ")"

value = nstring

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 14]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003

5. IANA Considerations

Both entry names and attribute names MUST be specified in a standards
track or IESG approved experimental RFC, or fall under the vendor
namespace.

9.1

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 16]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

5.1 Entry and Attribute Registration Template

To: iana@iana.org
Subject: IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Registration

Please register the following IMAP ANNOTATEMORE item:

[] Entry [] Attribute

[] Mailbox [] Server

Name: ______________________________

Description: _______________________

____________________________________

Contact person: ____________________

email: ____________________

6. Security Considerations

The ANNOTATEMORE extension does not raise any security considerations
that are not present in the base [IMAP4] [RFC3501] protocol, and these issues
are discussed in [IMAP4]. [RFC3501].

Care must be taken to ensure that annotations whose values are
intended to remain private are not stored in mailboxes which are
accessible to other users. This includes mailboxes owned by the user
by whose ACLs permit access by others as well as any shared
mailboxes.

Normative References

[ABNF]

[RFC2046] Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046,
November 1996.

[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

[RFC2234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.

[ACAP]

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 17]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

[RFC2244] Newman, C., C. and Myers, J. Myers, "ACAP -- Application
Configuration Access Protocol", RFC 2244, November 1997.

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 15]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003

[IMAP4]

[RFC3501] Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol "INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - Version VERSION
4rev1", RFC 3501, March 2003.

[IMAPURL] Newman, C., "IMAP URL Scheme", RFC 2192, September 1997.

[KEYWORDS] Bradner, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, March 1997.

[MIME] Freed, N., and Borenstein, N. "MIME (Multipurpose Internet
Mail Extensions) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046, November 1996.

[SORT] Crispin, M., M. and K. Murchison, K., "Internet Message Access
Protocol - Sort and Thread Extension", draft-ietf-imapext-sort-13.txt, May
2003.

12
draft-ietf-imapext-sort-15.txt, April 2004.

Informative References

[ANNOTATE]
Daboo, C., C. and R. Gellens, R., "IMAP ANNOTATE Extension",
draft-ietf-imapext-annotate-07.txt, May 2003.

13
draft-ietf-imapext-annotate-09.txt, April 2004.

Author's Address

Cyrus Daboo
Cyrusoft International, Inc.
5001 Baum Blvd.
Suite 650
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
US

EMail: daboo@cyrusoft.com

Appendix A. Acknowledgments

The ideas expressed in this document are based on the message
annotation document that was co-authored by Randall Gellens.

14 Author's Address

Cyrus

Daboo
Cyrusoft International, Inc.
Suite 780, 5001 Baum Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
U.S.A.

Email: daboo@cyrusoft.com

15 Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 18]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

Intellectual Property Statement

The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to
pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it
has made any effort to identify any such rights. Information on the
IETF's procedures with respect to rights in standards-track and
standards-related documentation can be found in BCP-11. Copies of
claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of
licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to
obtain a general license or permission for the use of such
proprietary rights by implementors or users of this specification can
be obtained from the IETF Secretariat.

The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
rights which may cover technology that may be required to practice
this standard. Please address the information to the IETF Executive
Director.

Full Copyright Statement

This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for

Daboo Expires April 2004 [Page 16]
Internet Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension October 2003
copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
English.

The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns. assignees.

This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION

Daboo Expires October 18, 2004 [Page 19]

Internet-Draft IMAP ANNOTATEMORE Extension April 2004

HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgment

Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
Internet Society.

Daboo Expires April October 18, 2004 [Page 17] 20]

----