1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

active reminder: A reminder that is enabled on an object and is either pending or overdue, depending on whether the signal time has passed.

Calendar object: A Message object that represents an event, which can be a one-time event or a recurring event. The Calendar object includes properties that specify event details such as description, organizer, date and time, and status.

calendar options dictionary: A dictionary that contains calendar configuration data. It is stored in a folder associated information (FAI) message that is in a Calendar special folder.

contact: A person, company, or other entity that is stored in a directory and is associated with one or more unique identifiers and attributes, such as an Internet message address or login name.

Contact object: A Message object that contains properties pertaining to a contact.

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC): A high-precision atomic time standard that approximately tracks Universal Time (UT). It is the basis for legal, civil time all over the Earth. Time zones around the world are expressed as positive and negative offsets from UTC. In this role, it is also referred to as Zulu time (Z) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). In these specifications, all references to UTC refer to the time at UTC-0 (or GMT).

dismiss: A process that disables an overdue reminder. After a reminder is dismissed, it is not considered overdue anymore and is not signaled or displayed to a user or any agents who are acting on behalf of that user.

Draft Message object: A Message object that has not been sent.

due time: The time after which a user is considered late, such as the start time of an appointment or the time at which a work item is expected to be complete.

Exception Attachment object: An Attachment object on a Recurring Calendar object that contains the data for an exception, including an Exception Embedded Message object.

Exception Embedded Message object: An Embedded Message object that contains the changes for an Exception object.

flags: A set of values used to configure or report options or settings.

Folder object: A messaging construct that is typically used to organize data into a hierarchy of objects containing Message objects and folder associated information (FAI) Message objects.

full reminder domain: The maximum scope that a client is allowed to use when searching for objects that have reminders enabled. The full reminder domain includes all folders except the following: Deleted Items, Junk Email, Drafts, Outbox, Conflicts, Local Failures, Server Failures, and Sync Issues.

handle: Any token that can be used to identify and access an object such as a device, file, or a window.

instance: A unique publication of data for a category. It enables a publisher to publish data for the same category multiple times. An example is a publisher who uses two different endpoints to publish data. These endpoints can publish the same category. However, each endpoint requires a different instance number to be considered a distinct publication by the server. An instance number is provided by the publishing client.

mailbox: A message store that contains email, calendar items, and other Message objects for a single recipient.

meeting-related object: A Message object that represents a relay of information between a meeting organizer and an attendee. It can be any of the following: Meeting Request object, Meeting Update object, Meeting Cancellation object, or Meeting Response object.

Message object: A set of properties that represents an email message, appointment, contact, or other type of personal-information-management object. In addition to its own properties, a Message object contains recipient properties that represent the addressees to which it is addressed, and an attachments table that represents any files and other Message objects that are attached to it.

minimal reminder domain: The smallest scope that a client is allowed to use when searching for objects that have an active reminder. The minimal reminder domain includes the following folders: Inbox, primary Contacts, primary Calendar, and primary Tasks. It does not include sub-folders.

named property: A property that is identified by both a GUID and either a string name or a 32-bit identifier.

object: A set of attributes, each with its associated values. Two attributes of an object have special significance: an identifying attribute and a parent-identifying attribute. An identifying attribute is a designated single-valued attribute that appears on every object; the value of this attribute identifies the object. For the set of objects in a replica, the values of the identifying attribute are distinct. A parent-identifying attribute is a designated single-valued attribute that appears on every object; the value of this attribute identifies the object's parent. That is, this attribute contains the value of the parent's identifying attribute, or a reserved value identifying no object. For the set of objects in a replica, the values of this parent-identifying attribute define a tree with objects as vertices and child-parent references as directed edges with the child as an edge's tail and the parent as an edge's head. Note that an object is a value, not a variable; a replica is a variable. The process of adding, modifying, or deleting an object in a replica replaces the entire value of the replica with a new value. As the word replica suggests, it is often the case that two replicas contain "the same objects". In this usage, objects in two replicas are considered the same if they have the same value of the identifying attribute and if there is a process in place (replication) to converge the values of the remaining attributes. When the members of a set of replicas are considered to be the same, it is common to say "an object" as shorthand referring to the set of corresponding objects in the replicas.

overdue reminder: An active reminder whose signal time has passed.

property ID: A 16-bit numeric identifier of a specific attribute. A property ID does not include any property type information.

recipient: An entity that can receive email messages. 

recurrence BLOB: The binary large object (BLOB) encoding of a recurrence pattern, a recurrence range, and recurrence exceptions.

recurrence pattern: Information for a repeating event, such as the start and end time, the number of occurrences, and how occurrences are spaced, such as daily, weekly, or monthly.

Recurring Calendar object: A Calendar object that describes an event that repeats according to a recurrence pattern.

recurring series: An event that repeats at specific intervals of time according to a recurrence pattern.

recurring task: A series of Task objects that are described by a recurrence pattern.

Recurring Task object: A Task object that represents a recurring task.

reminder: A generally user-visible notification that a specified time has been reached. A reminder is most commonly related to the beginning of a meeting or the due time of a task but it can be applied to any object type.

reminder domain: A set of folders that are searched for objects that have an active reminder.

reminder properties: A set of properties that specify the attributes of a reminder. These attributes include the time at which and the method by which a reminder is signaled or displayed.

reminder queue: A sorted list of objects that are in a reminder domain and have been stamped with properties implying that they could have an active reminder.

ROP request: See ROP request buffer.

search folder: (1) A collection of related items to be crawled by a search service.

(2) A Folder object that provides a means of querying for items that match certain criteria. The search folder includes the search folder definition message and the search folder container.

Sent Items folder: A special folder that is the default location for storing copies of Message objects after they are submitted or sent.

signal time: The time at which a reminder has been specified to notify the user or an agent acting on behalf of the user. For example, the signal time for a meeting that starts at 11:00 A.M. can be 10:45 A.M., thus allowing the user 15 minutes to prepare for or travel to the meeting upon receiving the notification.

snooze: A process that delays an overdue reminder by a specified time interval. At the end of the time interval, the reminder becomes overdue again.

special folder: One of a default set of Folder objects that can be used by an implementation to store and retrieve user data objects.

Task object: A Message object that represents an assignment to be completed.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.