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.

action: A discrete operation that is executed on an incoming Message object when all conditions in the same rule are TRUE. A rule contains one or more actions.

address book: A collection of Address Book objects, each of which are contained in any number of address lists.

Address Book object: An entity in an address book that contains a set of attributes, each attribute with a set of associated values.

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.

attachments table: A Table object whose rows represent the Attachment objects that are attached to a Message object.

Augmented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF): A modified version of Backus-Naur Form (BNF), commonly used by Internet specifications. ABNF notation balances compactness and simplicity with reasonable representational power. ABNF differs from standard BNF in its definitions and uses of naming rules, repetition, alternatives, order-independence, and value ranges. For more information, see [RFC5234].

base64 encoding: A binary-to-text encoding scheme whereby an arbitrary sequence of bytes is converted to a sequence of printable ASCII characters, as described in [RFC4648].

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

binary large object (BLOB): A discrete packet of data that is stored in a database and is treated as a sequence of uninterpreted bytes.

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.

Component Object Model (COM): An object-oriented programming model that defines how objects interact within a single process or between processes. In COM, clients have access to an object through interfaces implemented on the object. For more information, see [MS-DCOM].

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.

database: For the purposes of the Netlogon RPC, a database is a collection of user accounts, machine accounts, aliases, groups, and policies, managed by a component. The database, or the component managing the database, has to expose a mechanism to enable Netlogon to gather changes from and apply changes to the database. Additionally, it has to export a database serial number in order to track changes for efficient replication.

database object: An object such as a table, query, form, report, macro, or module that can be referenced by name in a database, database application, or database project.

Deleted Items folder: A special folder that is the default location for objects that have been deleted.

distribution list: A collection of users, computers, contacts, or other groups that is used only for email distribution, and addressed as a single recipient.

Distribution List object: A Message object that contains properties that describe a distribution list.

Drafts folder: A special folder that is the default location for Message objects that have been saved but not sent.

email address: A string that identifies a user and enables the user to receive Internet messages.

EntryID: A sequence of bytes that is used to identify and access an object.

extended rule: A rule that is added to, modified, and deleted from a server by using a mechanism other than standard rules, but is otherwise functionally identical to a standard rule.

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.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] have to be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

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

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): An application of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) that uses tags to mark elements in a document, as described in [HTML].

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): An application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web.

Junk Email folder: A special folder that is the default location for Message objects that are determined to be junk email by a Junk Email rule.

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

long ID (LID): A 32-bit quantity that, in combination with a GUID, defines a named property.

mail user: An Address Book object that represents a person or entity that can receive deliverable messages.

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

message body: The content within an HTTP message, as described in [RFC2616] section 4.3.

message class: A property that loosely defines the type of a message, contact, or other Personal Information Manager (PIM) object in a mailbox.

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.

meta-property: An entity that is identified with a property tag containing information (a value) that describes how to process other data in a FastTransfer stream.

multibyte character set (MBCS): An alternative to Unicode for supporting character sets, like Japanese and Chinese, that cannot be represented in a single byte. Under MBCS, characters are encoded in either one or two bytes. In two-byte characters, the first byte, or "lead" byte, signals that both it and the following byte are to be interpreted as one character. The first byte comes from a range of codes reserved for use as lead bytes. Which ranges of bytes can be lead bytes depends on the code page in use. For example, Japanese code page 932 uses the range 0x81 through 0x9F as lead bytes, but Korean code page 949 uses a different range.

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME): A set of extensions that redefines and expands support for various types of content in email messages, as described in [RFC2045], [RFC2046], and [RFC2047].

multivalue property: A property that can contain multiple values of the same type.

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

NT file system (NTFS): A proprietary Microsoft file system. For more information, see [MSFT-NTFS].

Outbox folder: A special folder that contains Message objects that are submitted to be sent.

Personal Distribution List object: A Message object that contains properties pertaining specifically to user-created distribution lists.

Personal Information Manager (PIM): A category of software packages for managing commonly used types of personal information, including contacts, email messages, calendar appointments, and meetings.

plain text: Text that does not have markup. See also plain text message body.

plain text message body: A message body for which the Content-Type value of the Email Text Body header field is "text/plain". A plain text message body can be identified explicitly in the content, or implicitly if it is in a message that is as described in [RFC822] or a message that does not contain a Content-Type header field.

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

property set: A set of attributes, identified by a GUID. Granting access to a property set grants access to all the attributes in the set.

property tag: A 32-bit value that contains a property type and a property ID. The low-order 16 bits represent the property type. The high-order 16 bits represent the property ID.

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.

Receive folder: A Folder object that is configured to be the destination for email messages that are delivered.

recipient: (1) An entity that can receive email messages. 

(2) An entity that is in an address list, can receive email messages, and contains a set of attributes. Each attribute has a set of associated values.

recipient table: The part of a Message object that represents users to whom a message is addressed. Each row of the table is a set of properties that represents one recipient (2).

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.

remote procedure call (RPC): A communication protocol used primarily between client and server. The term has three definitions that are often used interchangeably: a runtime environment providing for communication facilities between computers (the RPC runtime); a set of request-and-response message exchanges between computers (the RPC exchange); and the single message from an RPC exchange (the RPC message).  For more information, see [C706].

replica: A copy of the data that is in a user's mailbox at a specific point in time.

restriction: (1) A set of conditions that an item meets to be included in the search results that are returned by a query server in response to a search query.

(2) 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.

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 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 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 definition message: A folder associated information (FAI) message that persists all the information that defines a search folder. It is in the associated contents table of the Common Views folder in the message database.

search key: A binary-comparable key that identifies related objects for a search.

server ID: A unique identifier that is assigned by the server to each object that can be synchronized. A client stores the server ID for each object and is able to locate an object when given a server ID.

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-side rule: A rule for which all actions are executed by a server.

session: A representation of application data in system memory. It is used to maintain state for application data that is being manipulated or monitored on a protocol server by a user.

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

Store object: An object that is used to store mailboxes and public folder content.

subobject: For a folder, the messages and subfolders that are contained in that folder. For a message, the recipients (2) and attachments to that message. For an attachment, the Embedded Message object for that attachment.

Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (TNEF): A binary type-length-value encoding that is used to encode properties for transport, as described in [MS-OXTNEF].

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).

Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): A string that identifies a resource. The URI is an addressing mechanism defined in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax [RFC3986].

universally unique identifier (UUID): A 128-bit value. UUIDs can be used for multiple purposes, from tagging objects with an extremely short lifetime, to reliably identifying very persistent objects in cross-process communication such as client and server interfaces, manager entry-point vectors, and RPC objects. UUIDs are highly likely to be unique. UUIDs are also known as globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) and these terms are used interchangeably in the Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the UUID. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] has to be used for generating the UUID.

UTF-16: A standard for encoding Unicode characters, defined in the Unicode standard, in which the most commonly used characters are defined as double-byte characters. Unless specified otherwise, this term refers to the UTF-16 encoding form specified in [UNICODE5.0.0/2007] section 3.9.

UTF-16LE: The Unicode Transformation Format - 16-bit, Little Endian encoding scheme. It is used to encode Unicode characters as a sequence of 16-bit codes, each encoded as two 8-bit bytes with the least-significant byte first.

Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning Protocol (WebDAV): The Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning Protocol, as described in [RFC2518] or [RFC4918].

X500 DN: A distinguished name (DN), in Teletex form, of an object that is in an address book. An X500 DN can be more limited in the size and number of relative distinguished names (RDNs) than a full DN.

XML: The Extensible Markup Language, as described in [XML1.0].

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.