A mapping from RFC822/MIME to XML/RDF

Introduction

XMTP is a mapping of RFC 822/MIME to XML. XMTP 2.0 is implemented in RDF 1.0 syntax.

This is a RDDL document describing the XMTP namespace

The download contains a java implementation.

The JAR contains an implementation of a SAX XMLReader which parses a MIME document and outputs SAX events that describe the document in XMTP. This implementation also accepts a com.megginson.sax.RDFHandler property handling RDF statements corresponding to the parsed MIME document.

Background

The XMTP XML representation

Message element

The Message element is the root of a MIME/RFC 822 message. The Message element contains header child elements and a Body child element. The name of each Header child element is the name of the Header.

The mime prefix is bound to the namespace http://www.openhealth.org/xmtp#. This is also the default namespace.

web:about attribute

The web:about attribute references the message identifier URI.

The web prefix is bound to the http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns# namespace URI.

Header elements

Each MIME header is represented by an element whose local name is the header name. Parameters are represented by child elements.

web:parseType attribute

When the header has parameters, the web:parseType="Resource" attribute is required. The header content is usually the content of the header element. When parameters are present, the content is the content of a child web:value element.

When a Body contains XML i.e. content-type text/xml,application/xml, text/*+xml or application/*+xml, web:parseType="Literal".

Parameter elements

Each parameter is represented by an element whose local name is the parameter name.

web:value element

When the header has parameters, its value is contained in a web:value element.

MIME XML Grove

A Grove or Graph Representation of Property Values is the logical structure of a document that can be obtained by parsing the character stream that represents the document.

XMTP implements an XML Grove for MIME, where the result of parsing a MIME document is a logical XML structure (otherwise known as an Infoset). The java project referenced above implements an XML Grove for MIME by parsing a MIME character stream into a SAX event stream, which is one of the incarnations of an XML Grove.

A wealth of information on Groves can be obtained at Robin Cover's XML CoverPages.

MIME RDF Grove

Similarly to the XML Grove obtained via parsing a MIME document into a series of SAX events, an RDF Grove is obtained by parsing a MIME document into an RDF Model. The implementation accepts an com.megginson.sax.RDFHandler interface property through which the parser can fire events signalling RDF statements.

Examples

A simple example

The MIME:

Message-ID: xxxyyy@openhealth.org
From: jonathan@openhealth.org
To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Subject: An example
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain

This is a simple message in MIME format

is transformed into:

<Message xmlns="http://www.openhealth.org/xmtp#"
	xmlns:mime="http//www.openhealth.org/xmtp#"
	xmlns:web="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
	web:about="mid:xxxyyy@openhealth.org">
  <Message-ID>xxxyyy@openhealth.org</Message-ID>
  <From>jonathan@openhealth.org</From>
  <To>xml-dev@lists.xml.org</To>
  <Subject> An example</Subject>
  <MIME-Version>1.0</MIME-Version>
  <Content-Type>text/plain</Content-Type>
  <mime:Body xmlns="">This is a simple message in MIME format</mime:Body>
</Message>

A multipart example

Received: from 157.54.9.104 by mail2.microsoft.com (InterScan E-Mail VirusWall NT); Fri, 25 Aug 2000 13:39:20 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Received: by INET-IMC-02 with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2651.58)
	id ; Fri, 25 Aug 2000 13:39:19 -0700
Message-ID: <12C50B343E32FC4EA257902D287AD57605843172@clt-msg-01.northamerica.corp.microsoft.com>
From: John Doe <johndo@microsoft.com>
To: test-xmtp@openhealth.org
Subject: A test 
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 13:39:17-0700 
MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2651.58)
Content-Type:multipart/alternative; boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C00ED4.89FE2B99"

This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.

------_=_NextPart_001_01C00ED4.89FE2B99
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="ISO-8859-1" 
	
Sincerely,
John Doe
Microsoft DSX Messaging
Email: < <mailto:johndo@microsoft.com> >
 

------_=_NextPart_001_01C00ED4.89FE2B99
Content-Type: text/html;
	charset=

"ISO-8859-1" <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0
Transitional//EN"><HTML><HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">

is transformed into:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<Message 
 web:about="mid:12C50B343E32FC4EA257902D287AD57605843172@clt-msg-01.northamerica.corp.microsoft.com" 
 xmlns="http://www.openhealth.org/xmtp#" 

 xmlns:web="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
  <Message-ID>&lt;12C50B343E32FC4EA257902D287AD57605843172@clt-msg-01.northamerica.corp.microsoft.com&gt;</Message-ID>
  <From>John Doe &lt;johndo@microsoft.com&gt;</From>
  <To>&lt;test-xmtp@openhealth.org&gt;</To>
  <Subject>A test</Subject>
  <Date>Fri, 25 Aug 2000 13:39:17 -0700</Date>
  <MIME-Version>1.0</MIME-Version>
  <Content-Type web:parseType="Resource">
 <boundary>----_=_NextPart_001_01C00ED4.89FE2B99</boundary>
 <web:value>multipart/alternative</web:value>
  </Content-Type>
  <Body>
 <Message>
  <Content-Type web:parseType="Resource">
   <charset>ISO-8859-1</charset>
   <web:value>text/plain</web:value>
  </Content-Type>
  <Body>

Sincerely,
John Doe
Microsoft DSX Messaging
Email: &lt; mailto:johndo@microsoft.com 
&lt;mailto:johndo@microsoft.com&gt; &gt;
 

</Body>
</Message>
<Message>
<Content-Type 
web:parseType="Resource">
 <charset>ISO-8859-1</charset>
 <web:value>text/html</web:value>
</Content-Type>
<Body>&lt;!DOCTYPE 
HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 
Transitional//EN"&gt;
&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;
&lt;META 
HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"&gt;

...

XML MIME Transformation Protocol (XMTP)

An RDF XML mapping of RFC 822/MIME