Revision of OSI-DS 17

[Chris Weider <[e-mail]>]

IETF OSI-DS Working Group				Chris Weider
Internet-Draft						ANS
							March 1992

	Schema for Information Resource Description in X.500

Status of this memo:

The author is interested in defining schema for containing Directory 
Information about Information Resources in the Directory. 

This draft document will be submitted to the RFC editor as a protocol
specification. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Please address 
comments to the authors.


Internet Draft		Information Resource Schema	         March 1992

1: Introduction

The X.500 Directory is expanding beyond its initial program of providing
White Pages services, and is being increasingly used for resource location.
Therefore, we would like to build the framework for providing information
to locate information resources.

2: Information to be incorporated into the Directory

2.1 Structure of this paper

There are many new attributes to be built into the Directory, and 3 new 
object classes. The attributes are listed in this section, with the object
classes and object model built in section 3.

2.2 Motivation for new attributes

These attributes were originally motivated by a project involving the 
incorporation of US-MARC attributes into the Directory. However, the
attributes will be listed here without their mappings onto US-MARC 
fields as this practice has engendered some confusion about earlier drafts
of this paper.

2.3 New attributes

New attributes proposed for these schema are:

	distributorOfResource ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		distinguishedNameSyntax
		which will contain the DN of the organization which
		distributes the resource.

	producerOfResource ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		distinguishedNameSyntax
		which contains the RDN of the organization which produces
		the resource.

 	typeOfResource ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreStringSyntax
		which contains information on what type of resource is
		listed (e.g. Database, monthly magazine, etc.)

	contactName ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		distinguishedNameSyntax
		which contains the DN of the person who is to be contacted
		for this resource. Note: In some cases, it may be necessary
		to create an additional 'contactNameString' attribute
		which will hold a name and a post address, for those contacts
		who are not listed in the Directory.

	sizeOfResource ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreStringSyntax
		which contains the size of the resource, in pages or bytes...


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	frequencyOfUpdate ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreStringSyntax
		which contains the frequency of update (weekly, monthly, etc.)

	languageOfResource ATTRIBUTE
                WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
                CaseIgnoreStringSyntax
		which contains in Latin characters the language in which the
		resource is written

	profileOfResource ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreListSyntax
		which contains a small free text profile of the resource.
		One would imagine that most searches would be conducted on
		this attribute.

	targetAudience ATTRIBUTE
                WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
                CaseIgnoreStringSyntax
		which contains a description of the target audience.

	costOfUseOrAcquisition ATTRIBUTE
                WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
                CaseIgnoreStringSyntax
		which contains information about the cost of the resource

	alternateProvider ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		distinguishedNameSyntax
		which contains the DN of another organization which provides
		this resource.

	lastUpdateOfResource ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		UTCTime
		which contains the time when the resource was last updated

	maintenanceAuthority ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		distinguishedNameSyntax
		which contains the DN of the organization responsible for 
		maintaining the resource.

	networkAccess ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreListSyntax
		which contains information about network accessibility for
		the online resource.

	networkAddress ATTRIBUTE
                WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
                CaseIgnoreStringSyntax
		which contains the network address at which this resource
		is located

	hoursOfService ATTRIBUTE
                WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
                CaseIgnoreStringSyntax
		which contains information about the hours of service available
		for this resource.


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	terminalEmulationSupported
                WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
                CaseIgnoreStringSyntax
		which details which terminal emulations are supported by the
		resource.

	logonInstructions ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreListSyntax
		which is free-form text detailing how to log on to the resource.

	logoffInstructions ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreListSyntax
		which is free-form text detailing how to log off of the
		resource.

	restrictionsOnAccess ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreListSyntax
		which details any restrictions on access to the resource.

	authorizationPolicy ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreListSyntax
		which details the authorization policy used by the resource
		distributor or provider to allow access.

	sourceMachine ATTRIBUTE
                WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
                CaseIgnoreStringSyntax
		which details what type of machine the resource is running on.

	extentOfCoverage ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreListSyntax
		which details the extent of coverage of the particular field
		which the resource provides.

	indexingTerms ATTRIBUTE
                WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
                CaseIgnoreStringSyntax
		which lists the indexing terms by which the resource is indexed.
		This would primarily by used for databases, etc.

	databaseAvailable ATTRIBUTE
                WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
                CaseIgnoreListSyntax
		which would list the database(s) available through this 
		resource.

	accessToDocumentation ATTRIBUTE
                WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
                CaseIgnoreListSyntax
		which details how to obtain documentation for this resource.

	localAccessInformation ATTRIBUTE
                WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
                CaseIgnoreListSyntax
		which contains information about local access and guidelines.


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	networkAccessInstructions ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreListSyntax
		which contains information about how to access the resource 
		over the network.

	parentOrganizationName ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		distinguishedNameSyntax
		which contains the DN of the parent organization of the
		service provider.

	serviceOffered ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreListSyntax
		which would contain a description of a service offered by a
		given service provider. This would be use for help desk
		information, for example.

	resourceOffered ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		distinguishedNameSyntax
		which would contain the DN of a resource listed elsewhere
		in the directory. There may need to be a temporary attribute
		name resourceOfferedString which would contain a textual 
		name and description of the resource, due to incomplete
		coverage in the Directory.

	publicationOffered ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		CaseIgnoreStringSyntax
		which would contain the name of a publication available through
		the service provider. One would hope that the syntax would
		eventually be that of a 'Universal Document Identifier', 
		instead.

	dateOfCreation ATTRIBUTE
		WITH ATTRIBUTE SYNTAX
		UTCTime
		which would contain the time at which the entry was created.

3: Object models and object classes

3.1 Object models

The object model for the new object classes is:

       top---organization--*providerOfService*
	   |
	   |_*informationResource*--*onlineInformationResource*

where a service provider is modeled as a special type of organization, and
an onlineInformationResource is a subclass of informationResource. Note that
in our object class definitions in 3.2, none of the new attributes for the
classes could be usefully abstracted off and made a separate object class,
to be 'anded' together with existing object classes to provide any 
recycling of object classes.


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3.2 New object classes

There are three new object classes introduced in this paper:

informationResource OBJECT-CLASS
        SUBCLASS OF top
        MUST CONTAIN {commonName, distributorOfResource}
        MAY CONTAIN {producerOfResource, contactName, typeOfResource,
                     sizeOfResources, frequencyOfUpdate, languageOfResource,
                     profileOfResource, targetAudience, costOfUseOrAcquisition,
                     alternateProviders, lastUpdateOfResource, 
                     maintenanceAuthority, dateOfCreation}

onlineInformationResource OBJECT-CLASS
        SUBCLASS OF informationResource
        MUST CONTAIN { }
        MAY CONTAIN {networkAccess, networkAddress, hoursOfService,
                     terminalEmulationsSupported, logonInstructions,
                     logoffInstructions, restrictionsOnAccess, 
                     authorizationPolicy, sourceMachine, extentOfCoverage,
                     indexingTerms, databasesAvailable, accessToDocumentation,
                     localAccessInformation, networkAccessInstructions}

providerOfService OBJECT-CLASS
        SUBCLASS OF organization
        MUST CONTAIN { }
        MAY CONTAIN {parentOrganizationName, hoursOfService, servicesOffered,
                     resourcesOffered, publicationsOffered}


4: DIT structure

The DIT structure is reasonably straight-forward. The resources provided by
a given company could be found by looking at the organization itself, as the
organization will have an additional object class as 'providerOfService'. 
Presumably the various services and resources themselves would be segregated
off into their own subtrees, one would then be able to search the 
'o=Internet,ou=resources' directory to locate a specific resource without 
knowing the organization which provides it. The 'distributorOfResource' 
attribute allows one to determine who provides a given resource.

5: Security Issues

Security Issues are not discussed in this paper.

6: Who I am

Chris Weider, [e-mail]
Advanced Network and Services
2901 Hubbard, Pod G
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
[phone]