[comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway] UA's and Forwarded BodyParts

jlowry@bbn.COM (John Lowry) (08/29/90)

The implementation of '84 X400 I have does not support Forwarded IPM's.
I would like to know if any implementations that support FIPM's and in
anticipation of positive responses, have some questions:

    1) Is there a limit (standard or practical) on the level of nesting
       that can appear within FIPM's ?

    2) Is there a common or accepted solution as to how a user indicates
       to the UA that "X" is to be forwarded, or that "Y" is to be a FIPM
       within "X" which is to be a FIPM in the message I am preparing for
       submission ?  Is there an assumption that "X" and "Y" are already
       encoded ?  How does one specify (or save) the delivery Time and
       the DeliveryInformation to the UA ?

    3) Upon delivery, is there a common or accepted solution for the UA to
       notify the reader that "Y" is a FIPM of "X" which is a FIPM of the
       message just received ?  How does the UA inform the reader of the
       delivery Time and DeliveryInformation of each FIPM ?

    Does anyone have an example of 2) or 3) which they would be so kind
    as to describe to me ?

John Lowry

khiem@hpinddm.cup.hp.COM (Khiem Ho) (08/29/90)

> The implementation of '84 X400 I have does not support Forwarded IPM's.
>     1) Is there a limit (standard or practical) on the level of nesting
>        that can appear within FIPM's ?

The recommended max level of nesting for Forwarded IPM is eight,
per NIST Stable Agreements 12/88. I have seldom seen more than two
(mostly because some systems will forward as text body part: guarenteed
to be accepted by all).

>     2) Is there a common or accepted solution as to how a user indicates
>        to the UA that "X" is to be forwarded, or that "Y" is to be a FIPM
>        within "X" which is to be a FIPM in the message I am preparing for
>        submission ?  Is there an assumption that "X" and "Y" are already
>        encoded ?  How does one specify (or save) the delivery Time and
>        the DeliveryInformation to the UA ?

Some systems have a "forward" command, and either include the forwarded
message as a text bodypart with available delivery info, or make a FIPM
out of it. The deliveryTime, etc, is normally presented to the user as
well (eg, SMTP header in mailx) so it's automatically included in the
FIPM.

>     3) Upon delivery, is there a common or accepted solution for the UA to
>        notify the reader that "Y" is a FIPM of "X" which is a FIPM of the
>        message just received ?  How does the UA inform the reader of the
>        delivery Time and DeliveryInformation of each FIPM ?
>
I normally only see a single forwarded message, so all it says is
"forwarded message".

Khiem Ho
Hewlett Packard