1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

access control list (ACL): A list of access control entries (ACEs) that collectively describe the security rules for authorizing access to some resource; for example, an object or set of objects.

active replica: A name given to a server that hosts content and is expected to serve that content to clients.

ASCII: The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is an 8-bit character-encoding scheme based on the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that work with text. ASCII refers to a single 8-bit ASCII character or an array of 8-bit ASCII characters with the high bit of each character set to zero.

code page: An ordered set of characters of a specific script in which a numerical index (code-point value) is associated with each character. Code pages are a means of providing support for character sets and keyboard layouts used in different countries. Devices such as the display and keyboard can be configured to use a specific code page and to switch from one code page (such as the United States) to another (such as Portugal) at the user's request.

contents table: A Table object whose rows represent the Message objects that are contained in a Folder object.

conversation: A single representation of a send/response series of email messages. A conversation appears in the Inbox as one unit and allows the user to view and read the series of related email messages in a single effort.

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).

entry ID: See EntryID.

FAI contents table: A table of folder associated information (FAI) Message objects that are stored in a Folder object.

folder associated information (FAI): A collection of Message objects that are stored in a Folder object and are typically hidden from view by email applications. An FAI Message object is used to store a variety of settings and auxiliary data, including forms, views, calendar options, favorites, and category lists.

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-text index: A digitally stored list of search terms that is culled by examining all the content in the bodies of documents, messages, or other text objects, in order to increase the speed of search results.

full-text search: In text retrieval, a technique for searching a computer-stored document or database by examining all the words in every stored document, and attempting to match the search words supplied by the client.

ghosted folder: A folder whose contents are located on another server.

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

hard delete: A process that removes an item permanently from the system. If an item is hard deleted, a server does not retain a back-up copy of the item and a client cannot access or restore the item. See also soft delete.

hierarchy table: A Table object whose rows represent the Folder objects that are contained in another Folder object.

Inbox folder: A special folder that is the default location for Message objects received by a user or resource.

Inter-Personal Mail (IPM): Typical user messaging items, such as email and calendar items.

little-endian: Multiple-byte values that are byte-ordered with the least significant byte stored in the memory location with the lowest address.

Logon object: A Server object that provides access to a private mailbox or a public folder. A client obtains a Logon object by issuing a RopLogon remote operation (ROP) to a server.

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

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.

message store: A unit of containment for a single hierarchy of Folder objects, such as a mailbox or public folders.

messaging object: An object that exists in a mailbox. It can be only a Folder object or a Message object.

non-read receipt: A message that is generated when an email message is deleted at the expiration of a time limit or due to other client-specific criteria.

normal message: A message that is not a folder associated information (FAI) message.

permission: A rule that is associated with an object and that regulates which users can gain access to the object and in what manner. See also rights.

property type: A 16-bit quantity that specifies the data type of a property value.

public folder: A Folder object that is stored in a location that is publicly available.

read receipt: An email message that is sent to the sender of a message to indicate that a message recipient received the message.

remote operation (ROP): An operation that is invoked against a server. Each ROP represents an action, such as delete, send, or query. A ROP is contained in a ROP buffer for transmission over the wire.

replica: A server that hosts an instance of a message item in a folder. 

restriction: A filter used to map some domain into a subset of itself, by passing only those items from the domain that match the filter. Restrictions can be used to filter existing Table objects or to define new ones, such as search folder or rule criteria.

root folder: The special folder that is the top-level folder in a message store hierarchy. It contains all other Folder objects in that message store.

ROP buffer: A structure containing an array of bytes that encode a remote operation (ROP). The first byte in the buffer identifies the ROP. This byte is followed by ROP-specific fields. Multiple ROP buffers can be packed into a single remote procedure call (RPC) request or response.

ROP request: See ROP request buffer.

ROP request buffer: A ROP buffer that a client sends to a server to be processed.

ROP response: See ROP response buffer.

ROP response buffer: A ROP buffer that a server sends to a client to be processed.

rule: An item that defines a condition and an action. The condition is evaluated for each Message object as it is delivered, and the action is executed if the new Message object matches the condition.

search criteria: A criteria used to determine which messages are included in a folder with specific characteristics. It is composed of a restriction, which is the filter to be applied, and a search scope, which are the folders that contain the content to search.

search folder: 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.

search folder container: A Folder object that is created according to the specifications in the definition message. It is in the Finder folder of the message database.

server object: A class of object in the configuration naming context (config NC). A server object can have an nTDSDSA object as a child.

Server object handle: A 32-bit value that identifies a Server object.

Server object handle table: An array of 32-bit handles that are used to identify input and output Server objects for ROP requests and ROP responses.

sibling folder: A name that is given to two or more generic folders that have the same parent folder.

soft delete: A process that removes an item from the system, but not permanently. If an item is soft deleted, a server retains a back-up copy of the item and a client can access, restore, or permanently delete the item. See also hard delete.

stream: An element of a compound file, as described in [MS-CFB]. A stream contains a sequence of bytes that can be read from or written to by an application, and they can exist only in storages.

table object: A group of shapes that are arranged in rows and columns to form a table.

Unicode: A character encoding standard developed by the Unicode Consortium that represents almost all of the written languages of the world. The Unicode standard [UNICODE5.0.0/2007] provides three forms (UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32) and seven schemes (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-16 BE, UTF-16 LE, UTF-32, UTF-32 LE, and UTF-32 BE).

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.