Technical Summary
JMAP-Core specifies a protocol for clients to access JSON-based
data objects efficiently, with support for push and out-of-band
binary data upload/download.
This document was produced in conjunction with
draft-ietf-jmap-mail, which is the first specific set of
objects and access methods built upon the described mechanisms.
Working Group Summary
The initial proposal included an authentication method which was
removed based on feedback from the HTTP and security groups that
it would be controversial, instead JMAP-core just allows for an
authentication layer to be present and restricts itself to the
object transport over that layer.
The object naming and other parts of core underwent significant
revision based on feedback from the group, and it's been in
roughly the same shape with consensus for the last 6 months as
small consistency fixes were made and feedback from real world
implementation was gathered.
Document Quality
The only known implementations of the latest protocol have been
done by FastMail staff, but there exist multiple implementations
of earlier drafts, and their authors have read the current
drafts - they're just waiting until publication to update to the
latest version. Both client and server implementations are
available as open-source.
The JMAP working group is small, but there have been multiple
people who have read the document carefully - Chris Newman who
is now listed as an author gave particularly detailed reviews.
The authors of the various parts of the FastMail stack that are
now implemented on this spec, and of the two test suites covering
the spec, have also found multiple issues in the last 6 months
which have fed back into the final document.
Multiple email server vendors have indicated their intention to
either add JMAP to their existing servers, or to build new
services on top of the JMAP data model.
Personnel
The Document Shepherd is Bron Gondwana and the Responsible
Area Director is Alexey Melnikov.