Internet-Draft EDI-INT Features Header August 2008
Private K. Meadors
Internet-Draft Drummond Group Inc.
Expires: April 1, 2009 Created: October 1, 2008
Target Category: Informational
EDI-INT Features Header
draft-meadors-ediint-features-header-05.txt
Status of this Memo
By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any
applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware
have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes
aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79.
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.html
The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
Any questions, comments, and reports of defects or ambiguities in
this specification may be sent to the mailing list for the EDIINT
working group of the IETF Trust, using the address <ietf-
ediint@imc.org>. Requests to subscribe to the mailing list should be
addressed to <ietf-ediint-request@imc.org>.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2008).
Abstract
Meadors Expires - April 2008 [Page 1]
Draft EDI-INT Features Header October 2008
With the maturity of the EDI-INT standard of AS1, AS2 and AS3,
applications and additional features are being built upon the basic
secure transport functionality. These features are not necessarily
supported by all EDI-INT applications and could cause potential
problems with implementations.
Conventions used in this document
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.
Feedback Instructions
NOTE TO RFC EDITOR: This section should be removed by the RFC editor
prior to publication.
If you want to provide feedback on this draft, follow these
guidelines:
-Send feedback via e-mail to kyle@drummondgroup.com, with "EDIINT
Features Header" in the Subject field.
-Be specific as to what section you are referring to, preferably
quoting the portion that needs modification, after which you state
your comments.
-If you are recommending some text to be replaced with your suggested
text, again, quote the section to be replaced, and be clear on the
section in question.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction...................................................2
2. EDIINT Features Header Syntax..................................3
3. Implementation and Processing..................................3
4. EDI-INT Applications...........................................3
5. Security Considerations........................................4
6. References.....................................................4
6.1 Normative References.......................................4
6.2 Informative References.....................................4
Author's Address..................................................4
1.
Introduction
EDI-INT applications provide for a secure means of payload document
transport. The original intent was for transport of a single EDI or
Meadors Expires - April 2008 [Page 2]
Draft EDI-INT Features Header October 2008
XML document. However, as AS1 [AS1], AS2 [AS2] and AS3 [AS3] matured,
other features and application logic were implemented upon EDI-INT
standards. Since these features go beyond but do not violate the
basic premise of EDI-INT, a means is needed to communicate to trading
partners features which are supported by the originating user agent.
The EDIINT Features header indicates the capability of the user agent
to support the listed feature with its trading partner without out-
of-band communication and agreement.
2.
EDIINT Features Header Syntax
The EDIINT Features header can appear in the header section of an
AS1, AS2 and AS3 message. Its BNF syntax is listed below.
Feature = "EDIINT-Features: " Feature-Name *("," Feature-Name)
Feature-Name = Feature-Token
Feature-Token = %d48-57 / ; 0-9
%d65-90 / ; A-Z
%d97-122 / ; a-z
"-" ; blank space " " is not allowed
The Feature-Token allows for feature names to be specified and can
only contain alphanumeric characters along with the hyphen. Feature
names are case-insensitive.
3.
Implementation and Processing
The EDIINT Features header indicates the originating user agent is
capable of supporting the features listed. The feature header MUST be
present in all messages transmitted by the user agent and not just
messages which utilize the feature. Upon examination of the feature
header, the trading partner SHOULD assume the user agent is capable
of receiving messages utilizing any of the features listed.
The features listed MUST be supported by existing IETF RFC or RFC-
track Internet-draft standards. These standards MUST describe the
feature name which is listed in the header and the means which it
should be used.
4.
EDI-INT Applications
Since AS1 uses email and the EDIINT Features header is not a
registered header with IANA, the header MUST be preceded by a "X-" to
be used. If the receiving trading partner does not support EDIINT
Features, it can choose to ignore the header because of the "X-".
Because AS2 and AS3 utilize transports of HTTP and FTP, respectively,
which allow the application to ignore headers which it does not
Meadors Expires - April 2008 [Page 3]
Draft EDI-INT Features Header October 2008
recognize, the addition of the EDIINT Features header in AS2 and AS3
can be done without affecting trading partners who have not
implemented the header.
AS2 and AS3 applications currently use a version header, AS2-Version
and AS3-Version, respectively, to indicate functional support. The
EDIINT Features header tremendously improves the purpose and function
of the old version header. However, to provide a connection from the
old version header and the EDIINT Features header, AS2 and AS3
applications which implement the EDIINT Features header MUST use the
version value of "1.2" to indicate the support of the Feature header.
Also, since version "1.1" indicates the implementation supports
compression [COMPRESS] and "1.2" builds upon "1.1", AS2-Version or
AS3-Version of "1.2" MUST support compression regardless of whether
it is mentioned as a feature in the EDIINT Features header.
5.
Security Considerations
Because headers are often un-encrypted, it may be possible for the
feature header to be altered. Trading partners MAY consult out-of-
band to confirm feature support.
6.
References
6.1
Normative References
[AS1] RFC3335 "MIME-based Secure Peer-to-Peer Business Data
Interchange over the Internet using SMTP", T. Harding, R.
Drummond, C. Shih, 2002.
[AS2] RFC4130 "MIME-based Secure Peer-to-Peer Business Data
Interchange over the Internet using HTTP", D. Moberg, R.
Drummond, 2005.
[AS3] RFC 4823 "FTP Transport for Secure Peer-to-Peer", T. Harding,
R. Scott, 2007.
[COMPRESS] draft-ietf-ediint-compression-10.txt "Compressed Data for
EDIINT", T. Harding, 2008.
[RFC2119] RFC2119 "Key Words for Use in RFC's to Indicate Requirement
Levels", S.Bradner,August 1997.
6.2
Informative References
Author's Address
Kyle Meadors
Drummond Group Inc.
Meadors Expires - April 2008 [Page 4]
Draft EDI-INT Features Header October 2008
4700 Bryant Irvin Court, Suite 303
Fort Worth, TX 76107 USA
Email: kyle@drummondgroup.com
Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2008).
This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
retain all their rights.
"This document and the information contained herein are provided
on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE
REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY, THE
IETF TRUST AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL
WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY
WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE
ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE."
Intellectual Property
The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
Intellectual Property Rights 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; nor does it represent that it has
made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information
on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat 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 implementers or users of this
specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
http://www.ietf.org/ipr.
The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-
ipr@ietf.org.
Meadors Expires - April 2008 [Page 5]