Subject: (W-25) Re: Inconsistent description of "UID" in iCalendar core spec?

From: Doug Royer <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1999 14:25:06 -0700 (PDT)

> Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 12:04:27 -0700
> From: Ross Finlayson <[email-masked]>
> 
> In the iCalendar Core Object Specification (RFC 2445), there seems to be an
> inconsistency in the way the "UID" property is described.
> 
> In section 4.8.4.7, the "Conformance" paragraph states:
> "The property MUST be specified in the "VEVENT", "VTODO", "VJOURNAL" or
> "VFREEBUSY" calendar components."
> 
> However, in the descriptions of each of these components, "uid" is listed
> in the "optional, but must nor occur more than once" list.
> 
> So, which is correct.  Should I treat the "MUST" in section 4.8.4.7 as
> being the truth?

It looks as if the 1st paragraph is a left over from one of the early
draft versions of iCalendar.

The restriction tables were moved to iTIP in the final drafts.  So for
any iCalendar object that is transported via iTIP, they are a MUST as
described in iTIP (RFC 2446).

It is *possible* for an RFC 2445 object to exist that is not RFC 2446
compliant.  This could be used by the yet to be standard calendar
access protocol (CAP).  As a VEVENT might exist over the wire as a
result of a query, and if you did not ask for the UID, it would not
exist in that subset of the object.  Its just that particular view of
the object could not be transported via iTIP without all of its
information including UID.

Good bug catch.

So based on Ross's note, I propose that in RFC 2445 section 2.8.4.7:
	
	Conformance: The property MUST be specified in the "VEVENT",
	"VTODO", "VJOURNAL" or "VFREEBUSY" calendar components.

Be changed to:
	
	Conformance: The property can be specified in an iCalendar object.

Which I think is how the other 2445 optional properties are specified.

-Doug
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