JSON Uniform Messaging Protocol (JUMP)
draft-sayre-jump-00.txt

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Abstract

JUMP uses HTTP and a lightweight layout for JSON records to edit the Web.

1. Introduction

JSON [1] provides an interoperable object serialization format capable of representing numbers, strings, arrays, and a wide range of Unicode characters. This specification defines a loosely-coupled protocol based on a small set of conventions for JSON records and a profile of HTTP.

2. Requirements notation

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [2].

3. JUMP Records

An example JUMP record:

  {
    title: "Example",
     text: "Text and <a href='http://example.com/'>link</a>.",
     link: "http://example.com/my.html",
    media: "http://example.com/my.jpg",
       id: ["B1549145-55CB-4A6B-9526-70D370821BB5"],
     type: ["object"],
     sync: "88C3865F-05A6-4E5C-8867-0FAC9AE264FC",
     tags: ["foo","bar"],
     self: "http://example.com/42.jump",
     edit: "http://example.com/edit.cgi/42"
  }

Detailed field definitions can be found in Section 3.1.

It is sometimes necessary to annotate fields themselves, so JUMP defines an alternative to the literal syntax presented above.

An example JUMP record using extension fields to annotate complex field values:

  {
    title: {
        type: "text",
       value: "Example"
    },
    text:  {
        type: "html",
       value: "Text and <a href='http://example.com/'>link</a>."
    }, 
    link:  {
      quux-x: "baz", 
       value: "http://example.com/my.html"
    },
    media: "http://example.com/my.jpg",
       id: ["B1549145-55CB-4A6B-9526-70D370821BB5"],
     type: ["object"],
     sync: "88C3865F-05A6-4E5C-8867-0FAC9AE264FC",
     tags: ["foo","bar"],
     edit: "http://example.com/edit.cgi/42"
  }

No JUMP field is required for every record, but interoperability will increase as the number of standard fields increases. Thus, a record containing zero standard fields is very unlikely to interoperate with any given JUMP implementation. Records without 'title' or 'text' fields are also unlikely to interoperate with an independently-developed JUMP implementation. Guidelines for extension fields are detailed in Section 3.2.

3.1 Standard Fields

3.1.1 The 'type' Field

The 'type' field denotes the type its containing object. JUMP records have a default type of "object".

  type: "object"

Annotated JUMP arrays (Section 4.1) MUST contain the value "array".

  type: "array"

The 'type' field can have an array as its value, in which case the containing object is considered to be the union of its values. For example, the following example shows a type field that contains the "array" value required by JUMP arrays:

  type: ["array", "quux-extendo"]

JUMP records and fields SHOULD contain general type values whenever possible, so that independent implementations can interoperate to some degree.

3.1.2 Text Fields

Text fields are based on the Text Constructs found in RFC 4287, section 3.1 [3]. The type value has three permited values: 'text', 'html', and 'xhtml'. All other values MUST be interpreted as 'html'.

XHTML text fields are not required to have a root element, and a default namespace of 'http://www.w3.org/xhtml/1999' is implicit in the absence of an overriding XML Namespace declaration.

'title': A text field containing the title of the record. If its value is not annotated with a 'type' field, a type value of 'text' is implied.
'text': A text field containing the content or description of the record. If its value is not annotated with a 'type' field, a type value of 'html' is implied.

3.1.3 Other Fields

@tbd. No hard to predict. Borrow from email and Atom as needed.

3.2 Extension Fields

4. Arrays

Sequences of JUMP records are denoted using JSON array syntax.

[
  {
    title: "Example",
     text: "Text and <a href='http://example.com/'>link</a>.",
     link: "http://example.com/my.html",
    media: "http://example.com/my.jpg",
       id: ["B1549145-55CB-4A6B-9526-70D370821BB5"],
     type: ["object"],
     sync: "88C3865F-05A6-4E5C-8867-0FAC9AE264FC",
     tags: ["foo","bar"],
     self: "http://example.com/42.jump",
     edit: "http://example.com/edit.cgi/42"
  },
  {
    title: "Example 2",
     text: "Text and <a href='http://example.com/'>link</a>.",
     link: "http://example.com/my2.html",
    media: "http://example.com/my2.jpg",
       id: ["8B6373C7-DA75-4120-A9BE-30C4CDA3CB73"],
     type: ["object"],
     sync: "BC4DEFA3-BF50-428B-8606-B3230953642A",
     tags: ["foo","bar"],
     edit: "http://example.com/edit.cgi/43"
  }
]

4.1 Annotated Arrays

Much like JUMP records with complex values, JUMP arrays can be annotated by using an extra level of indirection.

{
 type: ["array", "quux-extendo"],
title: "Example Annotated Array",
 text: "This is <a href='./foo'>html</a> by default.",
quux-x: "some special extensions property",
value: [
  {
    title: "Example",
     text: "Text and <a href='http://example.com/'>link</a>.",
     link: "http://example.com/my.html",
    media: "http://example.com/my.jpg",
       id: ["B1549145-55CB-4A6B-9526-70D370821BB5"],
     type: ["object"],
     sync: "88C3865F-05A6-4E5C-8867-0FAC9AE264FC",
     tags: ["foo","bar"],
     edit: "http://example.com/edit.cgi/42"
  },
  {
    title: "Example 2",
     text: "Text and <a href='http://example.com/'>link</a>.",
     link: "http://example.com/my2.html",
    media: "http://example.com/my2.jpg",
       id: ["8B6373C7-DA75-4120-A9BE-30C4CDA3CB73"],
     type: ["object"],
     sync: "BC4DEFA3-BF50-428B-8606-B3230953642A",
     tags: ["foo","bar"],
     edit: "http://example.com/edit.cgi/43"
  }
 ]
}

4.2 Nesting

JUMP records and arrays can be nested. In the following example, an annotated array contains 3 elements, the second of which is an array itself.

{
 type: ["array", "quux-extendo"],
title: "Example Annotated Array",
 text: "This is <a href='./foo'>html</a> by default.",
quux-x: "some special extensions property",
value: [
  {
    title: "Example",
     text: "Text and <a href='http://example.com/'>link</a>.",
     link: "http://example.com/my.html",
    media: "http://example.com/my.jpg",
       id: ["B1549145-55CB-4A6B-9526-70D370821BB5"],
     type: ["object"],
     sync: "88C3865F-05A6-4E5C-8867-0FAC9AE264FC",
     tags: ["foo","bar"],
     edit: "http://example.com/edit.cgi/42"
  },
  {
    title: "Example 2",
     text: "Text and <a href='http://example.com/'>link</a>.",
     link: "http://example.com/my2.html",
    media: "http://example.com/my2.jpg",
       id: ["77FAFBB4-2BA4-4D8D-9920-CC6D610D71DA"],
     type: ["array"],
     sync: "66B38253-BF67-471F-85B8-3DA601986DB6",
     tags: ["foo","bar"],
     edit: "http://example.com/edit.cgi/43",
    value: [ 
      { 
        title: "Example 2a",
         text: "Example 2a text.", 
           id: "59F3938E-430E-4E72-88FC-432D4D248076",
         link: "http://example.com/my2.html#sectionA",
        media: "http://example.com/my2a.jpg",
      },
      { 
        title: "Example 2b",
         text: "Example 2b text.",
           id: "4065FDC9-05E8-42CD-A626-FC4CA27AF933",
         link: "http://example.com/my2.html#sectionB"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    title: "Example 3",
     text: "Text and <a href='http://example.com/'>link</a>.",
     link: "http://example.com/my3.html",
    media: "http://example.com/my3.jpg",
       id: ["8B6373C7-DA75-4120-A9BE-30C4CDA3CB73"],
     type: ["object"],
     sync: "BC4DEFA3-BF50-428B-8606-B3230953642A",
     tags: ["foo","bar"],
     edit: "http://example.com/edit.cgi/43"
  }
 ]
}

5. Editing

JUMP records are edited using HTTP methods, like all HTTP resources.

5.1 Editing Single Records

@tbd.

5.2 Editing Arrays

@tbd.

6. Security Considerations

None.

7. IANA Considerations

8. Normative References

[1]	Crockford, D., “The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)”, RFC 4627, July 2006.
[2]	Bradner, S., “Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels”, BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[3]	Nottingham, M., Ed. and R. Sayre, Ed., “The Atom Syndication Format”, RFC 4287, December 2005.

Author's Address

Robert SayreMozilla Corporation

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