RFC 10050
Protocol-Specific Profiles for JSContact
RFC 10050 is a Proposed Standard published in September 2026 in the IETF stream by the calext working group.
Proposed Standard IETF stream calext WG Applications and Real-Time
- Citations
- Cites 10 RFCs
Abstract
This document defines the "JSContact Profiles" registry, an IANA registry for named subsets of JSContact elements. The document aims to facilitate using JSContact in the context of contact data exchange protocols or other use cases in which supporting all JSContact semantics might be inappropriate.
Plain text 32 KB · rfc-editor.org · Datatracker · doi:10.17487/RFC10050 · draft-ietf-calext-jscontact-profiles-15
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) R. Stepanek
Request for Comments: 10050 Fastmail
Category: Standards Track M. Loffredo
ISSN: 2070-1721 IIT-CNR
September 2026
Protocol-Specific Profiles for JSContact
Abstract
This document defines the "JSContact Profiles" registry, an IANA
registry for named subsets of JSContact elements. The document aims
to facilitate using JSContact in the context of contact data exchange
protocols or other use cases in which supporting all JSContact
semantics might be inappropriate.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc10050.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2026 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
(https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
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include Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the
Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described
in the Revised BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Notational Conventions
3. JSContact Profiles
3.1. Profile Name
3.2. Profile Version
3.3. Profile Properties
3.4. Supported Properties
4. IANA Considerations
5. Security Considerations
6. References
6.1. Normative References
6.2. Informative References
Appendix A. Example Profile
A.1. Profile Properties Example
A.2. Card Object Example
A.3. IANA Registry Example
A.4. Supported Properties Example
Authors' Addresses
1. Introduction
The JSContact [RFC9553] contact card data model and format are
designed for use in address book applications and directory services.
Intended as an alternative to the prevalent vCard [RFC6350] data
format, JSContact covers vCard core semantics and extensions, and it
provides a rich model for personal names, postal addresses, and
localization. All JSContact elements are relevant for some contact
card use cases, and similar to vCard, implementations are expected to
support these elements when exchanging contact card information using
protocols such as CardDAV [RFC6352] and the JSON Meta Application
Protocol (JMAP) for Contacts [RFC9610].
In contrast, other protocols and document specifications might
require exchanging _some_ contact card information, but not all of
what JSContact provides. Section 1.7.4 of [RFC9553] outlines how
JSContact implementations may ignore unknown JSContact elements, but
this only applies to future extensions of [RFC9553]; they are still
expected to implement all elements of the core specification. Also,
the extensibility of JSContact and the requirement to preserve
arbitrary contact elements might not be adequate for some protocols.
To make use of JSContact under these circumstances, this document
defines a new IANA registry for JSContact that allows registration of
named subsets of JSContact elements. These subsets are referred to
as "JSContact profiles" and are meant to bring the following
benefits:
* Protocol designers might be encouraged to use JSContact rather
than coming up with their own contacts format. This facilitates
cross-protocol data exchange and migration.
* Different protocols use the same IANA registry to express which
JSContact elements they support. This facilitates understanding
their commonalities and reusing existing profiles.
* A central registry provides implementors of JSContact libraries
with a consistent format documenting which profile supports what
elements rather than having to look up that information from
possibly distinctly organized Internet-Drafts.
This document is organized as follows. Section 3 defines JSContact
profiles; Section 4 discusses the new "JSContact Profiles" registry
created by IANA; and Appendix A illustrates JSContact profiles using
an example.
2. Notational Conventions
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
capitals, as shown here.
The ABNF definitions in this document use the notations of [RFC5234].
ABNF rules not defined in this document are defined in [RFC5234]
(such as the ABNF for DIGIT).
3. JSContact Profiles
A JSContact profile is a named and versioned set of JSContact
elements, such as properties, types, and values. The JSContact
elements MUST be registered in the IANA "JSContact" registry group
[IANA.jscontact]. A profile MAY define additional restrictions for
these elements as outlined in Section 3.3, but a profile MUST NOT
loosen restrictions. This document creates an IANA registry for
JSContact profiles (see Section 4).
A JSContact object complies with a profile if all its properties are
in the set of properties defined by that profile and the property
values comply with the profile restrictions for that property. A
JSContact object MAY comply with multiple profiles. Accordingly,
this document does not specify any means for JSContact data to
communicate which profiles it complies with, e.g., it does not define
a "profile" property for the Card object.
All properties and values of a JSContact object that complies with a
profile MUST also be valid (Section 1.7 of [RFC9553]). Handling
JSContact data that is valid but that does not comply with the
expected profile is protocol-specific. This document deliberately
does not define such non-compliant data as invalid. Profile
designers decide on their own strategies for handling non-compliant
data, one of which may be to reject it as invalid. JSContact data
that complies with a profile may still not be valid in the context of
that protocol; the protocol specification MAY define additional
restrictions that a profile cannot express.
Section 3.1 defines how to name a JSContact profile; Section 3.2
defines how to version it; Section 3.3 defines how to specify the
properties supported by that profile; and Section 3.4 describes how
to determine the supported properties.
3.1. Profile Name
A JSContact profile has a unique name. The name MUST only contain
ASCII lowercase alphabetic and numeric characters, optionally
separated by hyphens. It MUST start with an alphabetic character,
and it MUST be of at least 1 character and at most 255 characters in
size. Formally, it MUST be a valid "profile-name" defined in
Figure 1.
profile-name = lalpha *( ["-"] lalpha / DIGIT )
; at most 255 characters in size
lalpha = %x61-7A ; a-z
Figure 1: ABNF Rule for JSContact Profile Name
3.2. Profile Version
A JSContact profile has a current version, and each profile is
versioned independently. The version MUST be a positive integer, and
it MUST increase whenever the profile properties (see Section 3.3)
change. The initial version value is 1.
3.3. Profile Properties
A profile defines a list of property entries that together determine
the set of properties supported by that profile, as described in
Section 3.4. The list MUST NOT be empty.
Each property entry consists of the following elements:
Property Name: This is the name of the JSContact property that this
entry refers to. This MUST be a property name registered in the
"JSContact Properties" registry. A property name MAY occur
multiple times in the property entry list if the profile-specific
restrictions for that property cannot be expressed with a single
entry, but such multiple entries MUST NOT result in conflicting
restrictions for the same property. This field MUST NOT be empty.
Property Context: This is a comma-separated list of JSContact object
types that support this property in this profile. Each of these
types MUST also be listed in the Property Contexts for this
property in the "JSContact Properties" registry, but a profile MAY
only support the property in a subset of these contexts. This
field MUST NOT be empty.
Restricted Attributes: This restricts the attributes of the
property. This specification only defines how to restrict the
attributes such that a property becomes mandatory in the listed
Property Contexts, despite the property originally being defined
to be optional in the same contexts. The verbatim value
"mandatory" (without quotes) indicates that it is mandatory in
this profile; the absence of any value indicates that this profile
does not restrict the property attributes of the original
definition.
Restricted Property Type: This restricts the property value type in
the listed Property Contexts. It allows a profile to restrict the
allowed types to the original type definition such that future
changes to JSContact do not extend the allowed types of the
property for this profile, and it allows a profile to restrict the
allowed types to a subset of the original type definition. The
absence of any value indicates that this profile does not restrict
the property value type of the original definition or any future
extensions of the value type.
If set, the restricted value type MUST exactly match the original
definition at the time when the profile is defined, or the
original value type MUST contain some type signature in the form
"A|B" and the restricted value type MUST resemble the original
except that some of the original "A|B" forms now only allow a
subset of the original choices. Restricted property types MUST
NOT redefine the "defaultType" attribute (Section 1.3.3 of
[RFC9553]); the rules about when to set the "@type" property
(Section 1.3.4 of [RFC9553]) of the original type definition still
apply.
As an example of restricting the type definition to prevent future
type extensions in the profile, one might restrict the type
definition of the "addresses" property of the Card object to
"Id[Address]", which matches the original definition as of this
writing.
As an example of restricting the type to a subset of the original
value, one might want to restrict the "date" property of the
Anniversary object to only allow partial dates as values. To do
so, the original value type "PartialDate|Timestamp" can be
restricted to "PartialDate". Note that the original value type
need not be exactly in form "A|B". For example, the type
signature "Id[A|B|C]" could be restricted to any of "Id[A|B]",
"Id[A|C]", "Id[B|C]", "Id[A]", "Id[B]", "Id[C]", and the type
signature "(A|B)[]" could be restricted to one of "A[]" or "B[]".
Restricted Enum Values: This restricts the enumerated values defined
for this property to a subset of those values. The values MUST be
listed in the "JSContact Enum Values" registry for this property
and context. Allowed values are separated by a comma; the absence
of any value indicates that all enumerated values are allowed. A
profile MAY exclude the default enumerated value of a property, in
which case all instances of the object MUST have this property set
to one of the allowed values.
Restricted PatchObject: This restricts the PatchObject value of this
property such that each JSON Pointer key in the PatchObject MUST
consist of exactly one JSON Pointer reference token (Section 3 of
[RFC6901]). For example, with this restriction, the
"localizations" property of the Card object can only patch
properties of the Card object by replacing their values entirely.
The verbatim value "yes" (without quotes) indicates that this
profile restricts PatchObject keys to a single token; the absence
of any value indicates that it does not restrict them. This MUST
NOT be set to "yes" if the property value type is not a
PatchObject.
All profiles MUST support "@type" and "version"; therefore, profiles
MUST NOT include entries for these properties.
3.4. Supported Properties
The supported properties of a JSContact profile are determined by the
profile's property entries and the contents of the IANA "JSContact
Properties" registry, which are referred to here as "IANA-registered
properties" for short. The "version" property of the Card object and
the "@type" property of any object type are always supported.
A Card object complies with the profile if all its properties are
part of the supported properties and all property values are valid
according to the restrictions defined in the applicable property
entries. A PatchObject MUST NOT patch properties that are not
supported in that profile.
The following describes the steps to determine the supported
properties:
1. Initialize the set with all properties of the Card object for
which a property entry contains "Card" in the Property Context of
the profile. If no such entry exists, then initialize the set
with all IANA-registered properties of the Card object.
2. For every property in the set having either an object type as the
value type or a list, map, or union of object types, add all
properties for which a property entry contains those object types
in the Property Context of the profile. If no such property
entry exists, then add all IANA-registered properties for the
object types.
3. Repeat the previous step until all object types that are value
types of properties in the set have been considered.
Appendix A.4 describes how to determine the supported properties of
the example profile in Appendix A.
4. IANA Considerations
IANA has created the "JSContact Profiles" registry within the
"JSContact" registry group. The purpose of this new registry is to
register profiles for JSContact data. The registry policy to add an
entry to this registry is "Specification Required" [RFC8126]; this
applies to defining a new profile name or version. The registry
policy to update an existing profile is "Expert Review"; this applies
to updating the references of an entry. The change controller is the
IETF.
An entry in this registry consists of the following, all of which
MUST be set:
Name:
This is the name of the profile. This field is immutable after
creation. The name MUST be unique among all registered profiles
and MUST comply with the definitions in Section 3.1.
Version:
This is the version number of the profile. This field is
immutable after creation. It MUST comply with the definitions in
Section 3.2.
Reference:
This refers to the specification of the protocol or use case for
which this profile applies. The reference MUST include the
section number or section name that defines or updates the
property entries for this profile, as defined in Section 3.3.
Designated experts assert that all proposed assignments are valid
according to the definitions in this document. For example, they
check that:
* the profile name is unique,
* the entries in the profile entries are syntactically valid,
* only known property names are referred to,
* type restrictions do not incorrectly alter the type of a property,
and
* the version number increases.
On the other hand, designated experts do not decide the contents of
the profile as long as the assignments are valid.
The decision whether to register a new profile name or register a new
version for an existing profile depends on the scope of the proposed
profile. A new profile name is recommended if the profile is
introduced in the context of an application or protocol for which no
JSContact profile is already registered or if the proposed profile
properties or restrictions substantially differ from existing
profiles for that context. A new version is recommended if the
profile context does not change and multiple implementations of the
current profile will also support the new version. The profile
version of the new entry for an already-registered profile by that
name has to be higher than the last registered version for that
profile. Existing registry entries are preserved.
This document does not define any initial contents for the "JSContact
Profiles" registry.
5. Security Considerations
This document does not provide any new security considerations. The
security considerations in Section 4 of [RFC9553] apply.
6. References
6.1. Normative References
[IANA.jscontact]
IANA, "JSContact",
<https://www.iana.org/assignments/jscontact>.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC5234] Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5234, January 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5234>.
[RFC6901] Bryan, P., Ed., Zyp, K., and M. Nottingham, Ed.,
"JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Pointer", RFC 6901,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6901, April 2013,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6901>.
[RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
[RFC9553] Stepanek, R. and M. Loffredo, "JSContact: A JSON
Representation of Contact Data", RFC 9553,
DOI 10.17487/RFC9553, May 2024,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9553>.
6.2. Informative References
[RFC6350] Perreault, S., "vCard Format Specification", RFC 6350,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6350, August 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6350>.
[RFC6352] Daboo, C., "CardDAV: vCard Extensions to Web Distributed
Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)", RFC 6352,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6352, August 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6352>.
[RFC8126] Cotton, M., Leiba, B., and T. Narten, "Guidelines for
Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26,
RFC 8126, DOI 10.17487/RFC8126, June 2017,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8126>.
[RFC9610] Jenkins, N., Ed., "JSON Meta Application Protocol (JMAP)
for Contacts", RFC 9610, DOI 10.17487/RFC9610, December
2024, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9610>.
Appendix A. Example Profile
This section provides an example of a JSContact profile and
illustrates how a JSContact Card complies with that profile.
The properties of the example profile are defined in Appendix A.1.
The profile describes contact cards that can only contain:
* Contact cards for individuals and organizations, but no other
kinds such as groups or devices.
* Full postal address lines, but no address components or any other
property of the Address object type. The value type of the
"addresses" property is pinned to its original definition, so that
future JSContact extensions of that type do not become part of the
profile.
* Full names and name components, but no other properties of the
Name object type.
* Email addresses, where all properties of the EmailAddress object
are supported.
* Anniversaries for birthdays, and only having "date" property
values of type PartialDate, not Timestamp.
* Localizations, with the restriction that the PatchObject must only
patch properties of the Card object.
An example of JSContact data that complies with this profile is shown
in Appendix A.2. An example of its fictive IANA registration is
shown in Appendix A.3. This profile is just for illustration; it is
not registered with IANA. Appendix A.4 describes how to determine
the supported properties for that profile.
A.1. Profile Properties Example
The following entries define properties of that profile. Entry
elements with empty values are omitted:
Property Name: addresses
Property Context: Card
Restricted Property Type: Id[Address]
Property Name: anniversaries
Property Context: Card
Property Name: emails
Property Context: Card
Property Name: kind
Property Context: Card
Restricted Enum Values: individual,org
Property Name: localizations
Property Context: Card
Restricted PatchObject: yes
Property Name: name
Property Context: Card
Property Name: full
Property Context: Address
Restricted Attributes: mandatory
Property Name: date
Property Context: Anniversary
Restricted Property Type: PartialDate
Property Name: kind
Property Context: Anniversary
Restricted Enum Values: birth
Property Name: components
Property Context: Name
Property Name: full
Property Context: Name
Property Name: kind
Property Context: NameComponent
Property Name: value
Property Context: NameComponent
A.2. Card Object Example
The following Card object complies with the example profile:
{
"@type": "Card",
"version": "1.0",
"name": {
"components": [
{ "kind": "given", "value": "Hayao" },
{ "kind": "surname", "value": "Miyazaki" }
]
},
"addresses": {
"a1": {
"full": "71 Cherry Court, Somewhere, 123SO, UK"
}
},
"emails": {
"e1": {
"address": "hayao@example.com"
}
},
"anniversaries": {
"a1": {
"kind": "birth",
"date": {
"month": 3,
"day": 4
}
}
},
"localizations": {
"jp": {
"name": {
"components": [
{ "kind": "surname", "value": "宮崎" },
{ "kind": "given", "value": "駿" }
]
}
}
}
}
Note that:
* The Address, Card, Name, and NameComponent object values only
contain properties for which a property entry exists in the
profile.
* The EmailAddress object contains the "address" property. This is
allowed because the profile contains a property entry for the
"emails" property of the Card object, but it does not define
entries for the EmailAddress object properties. Consequently, all
properties of the EmailAddress object can be set.
* The "full" property of the Address object is set. It is the only
property allowed to be set in that profile for Address, and the
"full" property is mandatory for this profile.
* The "kind" property of the NameComponent object is set to
"surname" and "given". Since the profile does not restrict the
enumerated values of this property, all valid NameComponent "kind"
property values are supported.
* The "kind" property of the Card object is not set. The profile
restricts the enumerated values of this property to "individual"
and "org". Since "individual" is the default value for this
property, there is no need to set it.
* The "date" property of the Anniversary object is restricted to be
of type PartialDate in this profile. Because PartialDate is the
default type for this property, there is no need to the set the
"@type" property of the PartialDate object.
A.3. IANA Registry Example
The following would be registered at IANA if this were a real
profile:
Name: jscontact-simple-example
Version: 1
Reference: This document, Appendix A.1
See Section 4 for the definition of each registry item.
A.4. Supported Properties Example
The following illustrates how to determine the supported properties
of the example profile in this appendix, according to the steps
defined in Section 3.4:
1. We initialize the set of supported properties with all profile
properties for which the Property Context includes the Card
object. The set now includes the following properties:
* Card.addresses
* Card.anniversaries
* Card.emails
* Card.kind
* Card.localizations
* Card.name
2. Next, we determine which of the properties in the current set
have an object type as the value type. These are the
Card.addresses, Card.anniversaries, Card.emails, and Card.name
properties, so we need to inspect the object types Address,
Anniversary, EmailAddress, and Name. The "addresses" entry
restricts the value type of that property to "Id[Address]", which
matches its original definition, but any future type extension
would still require us only to inspect the Address type.
3. For the Address object type, the profile has an entry for the
"full" property, which contains the Address object in the
Property Context, so we add that and only that to the set of
supported properties. It now contains:
* Address.full
* Card.addresses
* Card.emails
* Card.kind
* Card.localizations
* Card.name
The value type of the Address.full property is not an object
type, so we need not consider a new object type to inspect. The
remaining object types to inspect are the Anniversary,
EmailAddress, and Name objects.
4. For the Anniversary object type, the profile explicitly lists the
"kind" and "date" properties, so we add them to the set of
supported properties. It now contains:
* Address.full
* Anniversary.date
* Anniversary.kind
* Card.addresses
* Card.emails
* Card.kind
* Card.localizations
* Card.name
The newly added Anniversary.date property has object value type
PartialDate, so we add that to the list of object types to
inspect. The entry restricts the type of that property to only
be of that type, so we do not add the object value type
Timestamp. The remaining object types to inspect are the
EmailAddress, Name, and PartialDate objects.
5. For the PartialDate object type, the profile does not contain any
entry where the Property Context contains the PartialDate object.
Instead, we add properties from the "JSContact Properties"
registry where the Property Context includes the PartialDate
object. The set of supported properties now contains:
* Address.full
* Anniversary.date
* Anniversary.kind
* Card.addresses
* Card.emails
* Card.kind
* Card.localizations
* Card.name
* PartialDate.calendarScale
* PartialDate.day
* PartialDate.month
* PartialDate.year
None of the newly added properties have object value types. The
remaining object types to inspect are the EmailAddress and Name
objects.
6. For the EmailAddress object type, the profile does not contain
any entry where the Property Context contains the EmailAddress
object. Instead, we add properties from the "JSContact
Properties" registry where the Property Context includes the
EmailAddress object. The set of supported properties now
contains:
* Address.full
* Anniversary.date
* Anniversary.kind
* Card.addresses
* Card.emails
* Card.kind
* Card.localizations
* Card.name
* EmailAddress.address
* EmailAddress.contexts
* EmailAddress.label
* EmailAddress.pref
* PartialDate.calendarScale
* PartialDate.day
* PartialDate.month
* PartialDate.year
None of the newly added properties have object value types. The
remaining object type to inspect is the Name object.
7. For the Name object type, the profile explicitly lists the
"components" and "full" properties, so we add them to the set of
supported properties. It now contains:
* Address.full
* Anniversary.date
* Anniversary.kind
* Card.addresses
* Card.emails
* Card.kind
* Card.localizations
* Card.name
* EmailAddress.address
* EmailAddress.contexts
* EmailAddress.label
* EmailAddress.pref
* Name.full
* Name.components
* PartialDate.calendarScale
* PartialDate.day
* PartialDate.month
* PartialDate.year
The newly added Name.components property has object value type
NameComponent, so we add that to the list of object types to
inspect.
8. For the NameComponent object type, the profile does not
explicitly list any property. Instead, we add properties of the
"JSContact Properties" registry where the Property Context
includes the NameComponent object. The set of supported
properties now contains:
* Address.full
* Anniversary.date
* Anniversary.kind
* Card.addresses
* Card.emails
* Card.kind
* Card.localizations
* Card.name
* EmailAddress.address
* EmailAddress.contexts
* EmailAddress.label
* EmailAddress.pref
* NameComponent.kind
* NameComponent.phonetic
* NameComponent.value
* PartialDate.calendarScale
* PartialDate.day
* PartialDate.month
* PartialDate.year
None of the newly added properties have object value types, and
there are no remaining object types to inspect. This determines
the set of supported properties by that profile, in addition to
the "Card.version" and "@type" property that are always
supported.
Authors' Addresses
Robert Stepanek
Fastmail
PO Box 234
Collins St. West
Melbourne VIC 8007
Australia
Email: rsto@fastmailteam.com
Mario Loffredo
IIT-CNR
Via Moruzzi, 1
56124 Pisa
Italy
Email: mario.loffredo@iit.cnr.it
Contents 22
- Abstract
- Status of This Memo
- Copyright Notice
- Table of Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Notational Conventions
- 3 JSContact Profiles
- 3.1 Profile Name
- 3.2 Profile Version
- 3.3 Profile Properties
- 3.4 Supported Properties
- 4 IANA Considerations
- 5 Security Considerations
- 6 References
- 6.1 Normative References
- 6.2 Informative References
- A Example Profile
- A.1 Profile Properties Example
- A.2 Card Object Example
- A.3 IANA Registry Example
- A.4 Supported Properties Example
- Authors' Addresses