Network Working Group D. Eastlake Request for Comments: 3106 Motorola Obsoletes: 2706 T. Goldstein Category: Informational Brodia April 2001
ECML v1.1: Field Specifications for E-Commerce
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.
IESG Note:
This document specifies version 1.1 of ECML and obsoletes RFC 2706 which specifies version 1.0 of ECML. Both version 1.0 and 1.1 of ECML are products of the ECML alliance which is described in section 1.1 of this document. The reader should note that version 2.0 of ECML is under development (as of the publication of this RFC) in the IETF in the TRADE Working Group.
Abstract
Customers are frequently required to enter substantial amounts of information at an Internet merchant site in order to complete a purchase or other transaction, especially the first time they go there. A standard set of information fields is defined as the first version of an Electronic Commerce Modeling Language (ECML) so that this task can be more easily automated, for example by wallet software that could fill in fields. Even for the manual data entry case, customers will be less confused by varying merchant sites if a substantial number adopt these standard fields. In addition, some fields are defined for merchant to consumer communication.
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Acknowledgements
The following persons, in alphabetic order, contributed substantially to the material herein:
George Burne Joe Coco Jon Parsons James Salsman David Shepherd Kevin Weller
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.................................................. 2 1.1 The ECML Alliance............................................ 3 1.2 Relationship to Other Standards.............................. 4 1.3 Areas Deferred to Future Versions............................ 4 2. Field Definitions and DTD..................................... 4 2.1 Field List and Descriptions.................................. 4 2.1.1 Field List................................................. 5 2.1.2 Field Foot Notes........................................... 7 2.2 Use in HTML.................................................. 10 2.3 An ECML 1.1 XML DTD.......................................... 11 3. Using The Fields.............................................. 13 3.1 Presentation of the Fields................................... 13 3.2 Methods and Flow of Setting the Fields....................... 14 3.3 HTML Example................................................ 14 4. Security and Privacy Considerations........................... 16 References....................................................... 16 Appendix: Changes from ECML 1.0.................................. 18 Authors' Addresses............................................... 19 Full Copyright Statement......................................... 20
1. Introduction
Today, numerous merchants are successfully conducting business on the Internet using HTML-based forms. The data formats used in these forms vary considerably from one merchant to another. End-users find the diversity confusing and the process of manually filling in these forms to be tedious. The result is that many merchant forms, reportedly around two thirds, are abandoned during the fill in process.
Software tools called electronic wallets can help this situation. A digital wallet is an application or service that assists consumers in conducting online transactions by allowing them to store billing, shipping, payment, and preference information and to use this
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information to automatically complete merchant interactions. This greatly simplifies the check-out process and minimizes the need for a consumer to think about and complete a merchant's form every time. Digital wallets that fill forms have been successfully built into browsers, as proxy servers, as helper applications to browsers, as stand-alone applications, as browser plug-ins, and as server-based applications. But the proliferation of electronic wallets has been hampered by the lack of standards.
ECML (Electronic Commerce Modeling Language, ) provides a set of simple guidelines for web merchants that will enable electronic wallets from multiple vendors to fill in their web forms. The end-result is that more consumers will find shopping on the web to be easy and compelling.
Version 1.1 has been enhanced over Version 1.0 [RFC 2706] as described in the appendix to this document. These enhancements include support for communication from the merchant to the wallet. This information can be used by the wallet to present transaction information and possibly signed receipts. The format of the signatures for receipts is not specified in this document.
Multiple wallets and multiple merchants interoperably support ECML. This is an open standard. ECML is designed to be simple. Neither Version 1.0 nor Version 1.1 of the project add new technology to the web. A merchant can adopt ECML and gain the support of these multiple Wallets by making very simple changes to their site. Use of ECML requires no license.
1.1 The ECML Alliance
The set of fields documented herein was developed by the ECML Alliance (www.ecml.org) which now includes, in alphabetic order, the fifteen Steering Committee members listed below and numerous General Members some of whom are listed on the ECML web site.
13. Sun Microsystems (www.sun.com) 14. Trintech (www.trintech.com> 15. Visa International (www.visa.com)
1.2 Relationship to Other Standards
The ECML fields were initially derived from and are consistent with the W3C P3P base data schema at
.
ECML Version 1.1 is not a replacement or alternative to SSL/TLS [RFC 2246], SET [SET], XML [XML], or IOTP [RFC 2801]. These are important standards that provide functionality such as non-repudiatable transactions, automatable payment scheme selection, and smart card support.
ECML may be used with any payment mechanism. It simply allows a merchant to publish consistent simple web forms. Information on the use of the ECML fields with W3C P3P protocol is available at which also includes some proposed extension fields. These extension fields may be included in a future version of ECML.
1.3 Areas Deferred to Future Versions
Considerations for business purchasing cards, non-card payment mechanisms, wallet activation, privacy related mechanisms, additional payment mechanisms, currency exchange, and any sort of 'negotiation' were among the areas deferred to consideration in future versions. Hidden or other special fields were minimized.
2. Field Definitions and DTD
The ECML Standard is primarily the definition and naming of fields. These fields can be encoded in a variety of syntaxes and protocols.
Section 2.1 below lists and describes the fields, Section 2.2 gives additional notes on HTML usage of the fields, and Section 2.3 provides an XML DTD for use with the fields.
2.1 Field List and Descriptions
The fields are listed below along with the minimum data entry size to allow. Note that these fields are hierarchically organized as indicated by the embedded underscore ('_') characters. Appropriate data transmission mechanisms may use this to request and send aggregates, such as Ecom_Payment_Card_ExpDate to encompass all the
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date components or Ecom_ShipTo to encompass all the ship to components that the consumer is willing to provide. The labeling, marshalling, unmarshalling of the components of such aggregates depends on the data transfer protocol used.
2.1.1 Field List
IMPORTANT NOTE: 'MIN' in the table below is the MINIMUM DATA SIZE TO ALLOW FOR ON DATA ENTRY. It is NOT the minimum size for valid contents of the field and merchant software should, in most cases, be prepared to receive a longer or shorter value. Merchant dealing with areas where, for example, the state/province name or phone number is longer than the 'Min' given below must obviously permit longer data entry. In some cases, however, there is a maximum size that makes sense and where this is the case, it is documented in a Note for the field.
The following fields are used to communicate from the customer to the merchant:
FIELD NAME Min Notes
ship to title Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_Name_Prefix 4 ( 1) ship to first name Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_Name_First 15 ship to middle name Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_Name_Middle 15 ( 2) ship to last name Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_Name_Last 15 ship to name suffix Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_Name_Suffix 4 ( 3) ship to company name Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_Company 20 ship to street line1 Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_Street_Line1 20 ( 4) ship to street line2 Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_Street_Line2 20 ( 4) ship to street line3 Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_Street_Line3 20 ( 4) ship to city Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_City 22 ship to state/province Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_StateProv 2 ( 5) ship to zip/postal code Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_PostalCode 14 ( 6) ship to country Ecom_ShipTo_Postal_CountryCode 2 ( 7) ship to phone Ecom_ShipTo_Telecom_Phone_Number 10 ( 8) ship to email Ecom_ShipTo_Online_Email 40 ( 9)
bill to title Ecom_BillTo_Postal_Name_Prefix 4 ( 1) bill to first name Ecom_BillTo_Postal_Name_First 15 bill to middle name Ecom_BillTo_Postal_Name_Middle 15 ( 2) bill to last name Ecom_BillTo_Postal_Name_Last 15 bill to name suffix Ecom_BillTo_Postal_Name_Suffix 4 ( 3) bill to company name Ecom_BillTo_Postal_Company 20 bill to street line1 Ecom_BillTo_Postal_Street_Line1 20 ( 4) bill to street line2 Ecom_BillTo_Postal_Street_Line2 20 ( 4) bill to street line3 Ecom_BillTo_Postal_Street_Line3 20 ( 4)
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bill to city Ecom_BillTo_Postal_City 22 bill to state/province Ecom_BillTo_Postal_StateProv 2 ( 5) bill to zip/postal code Ecom_BillTo_Postal_PostalCode 14 ( 6) bill to country Ecom_BillTo_Postal_CountryCode 2 ( 7) bill to phone Ecom_BillTo_Telecom_Phone_Number 10 ( 8) bill to email Ecom_BillTo_Online_Email 40 ( 9)
receipt to (32) receipt to title Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_Name_Prefix 4 ( 1) receipt to first name Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_Name_First 15 receipt to middle name Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_Name_Middle 15 ( 2) receipt to last name Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_Name_Last 15 receipt to name suffix Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_Name_Suffix 4 ( 3) receipt to company name Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_Company 20 receipt to street line1 Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_Street_Line1 20 ( 4) receipt to street line2 Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_Street_Line2 20 ( 4) receipt to street line3 Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_Street_Line3 20 ( 4) receipt to city Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_City 22 receipt to state/province Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_StateProv 2 ( 5) receipt to postal code Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_PostalCode 14 ( 6) receipt to country Ecom_ReceiptTo_Postal_CountryCode 2 ( 7) receipt to phone Ecom_ReceiptTo_Telecom_Phone_Number 10 ( 8) receipt to email Ecom_ReceiptTo_Online_Email 40 ( 9)
name on card Ecom_Payment_Card_Name 30 (10)
card type Ecom_Payment_Card_Type 4 (11) card number Ecom_Payment_Card_Number 19 (12) card verification value Ecom_Payment_Card_Verification 4 (13) card expire date day Ecom_Payment_Card_ExpDate_Day 2 (14) card expire date month Ecom_Payment_Card_ExpDate_Month 2 (15) card expire date year Ecom_Payment_Card_ExpDate_Year 4 (16)
card protocols Ecom_Payment_Card_Protocol 20 (17)
consumer order ID Ecom_ConsumerOrderID 20 (18)
user ID Ecom_User_ID 40 (19) user password Ecom_User_Password 20 (19)
schema version Ecom_SchemaVersion 30 (20)
wallet id Ecom_WalletID 40 (21)
end transaction flag Ecom_TransactionComplete - (22)
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The following fields are used to communicate from the merchant to the consumer:
end transaction flag Ecom_TransactionComplete - (22)
FIELD NAME Min Notes
IMPORTANT NOTE: 'MIN' in the table above is the MINIMUM DATA SIZE TO ALLOW FOR ON DATA ENTRY. It is NOT the minimum size for valid contents of the field and merchant software should, in most cases, be prepared to receive a longer or shorter value. Merchant dealing with areas where, for example, the state/province name or phone number is longer than the 'Min' given below must obviously permit longer data entry. In some cases, however, there is a maximum size that makes sense and this is documented in a Note for the field.
2.1.2 Field Foot Notes
( 1) For example: Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. This field is commonly not used.
( 2) May also be used for middle initial.
( 3) For example: Ph.D., Jr. (Junior), 3rd, Esq. (Esquire). This field is commonly not used.
( 4) Address lines must be filled in the order line1, then line2, and last line3.
( 5) 2 characters are the minimum for the US and Canada, other countries may require longer fields. For the US use 2 character US Postal state abbreviation.
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( 6) Minimum field lengths for Postal Code will vary based on international market served. Use 5 character or 5+4 ZIP for the US and 6 character postal code for Canada. The size given, 14, is believed to be the maximum required anywhere in the world.
( 7) Use [ISO 3166] standard two letter codes. See for country names.
( 8) 10 digits are the minimum for numbers local to the North American Numbering Plan (: US, Canada and a number of smaller Caribbean and Pacific nations (but not Cuba)), other countries may require longer fields. Telephone numbers are complicated by differing international access codes, variant punctuation of area/city codes within countries, confusion caused by the fact that the international access code in the NANP region is usually the same as the 'country code' for that area (1), etc. It will probably be necessary to use heuristics or human examination based on the telephone number and addresses given to figure out how to actually call a customer. It is recommend that an 'x' be placed before extension numbers.
( 9) For example: jsmith@example.com
(10) The name of the cardholder.
(11) Use the first 4 letters of the association name:
AMER American Express BANK Bankcard (Australia) DC DC (Japan) DINE Diners Club DISC Discover JCB JCB MAST Mastercard NIKO Nikos (Japan) SAIS Saison (Japan) UC UC (Japan) UCAR UCard (Taiwan) VISA Visa
(12) Includes the check digit at end but no spaces or hyphens [ISO 7812]. The Min given, 19, is the longest number permitted under the ISO standard.
(13) An additional cardholder verification number printed on the card (but not embossed or recorded on the magnetic stripe) such as American Express' CIV, MasterCard's CVC2, and Visa's CVV2 values.
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(14) The day of the month. Values: 1-31. A leading zero is ignored so, for example, 07 is valid for the seventh day of the month.
(15) The month of the year. Jan - 1, Feb - 2, March - 3, etc.; Values: 1-12. A leading zero is ignored so, for example, 07 is valid for July.
(16) The value in the wallet cell is always four digits, e.g., 1999, 2000, 2001, ...
(17) A space separated list of protocols available in connection with the specified card. Initial list of case insensitive tokens:
none set setcert iotp echeck simcard phoneid
'Set' indicates usable with SET protocol (i.e., is in a SET wallet) but does not have a SET certificate. 'Setcert' indicates same but does have a set certificate. 'iotp' indicates the IOTP protocol [RFC 2801] is supported at the customer. 'echeck' indicates that the eCheck protocol [eCheck] is supported at the customer. 'simcard' indicates use the transaction instrument built into a Cellphone subscriber for identification. 'phoneid' indicates use the transaction instrument of a phone bill instrument. 'None' indicates that automatic field fill is operating but there is no SET wallet or the card is not entered in any SET wallet.
(18) A unique order ID generated by the consumer software.
(19) The user ID and password fields are used in cases where the user has a pre-established account with the merchant.
(20) URI indicating version of this set of fields. Usually a hidden field. Equal to 'http://www.ecml.org/version/1.1' for this version.
(21) A string to identify the source and version of the form fill software that is acting on behalf of the user. Should contain company and/or product name and version. Example 'Wallets Inc., SuperFill, v42.7'. Usually a hidden field.
(22) A flag to indicate that this web-page/aggregate is the final one for this transaction. Usually a hidden field.
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(23) Merchant domain name such as www.merchant.example. This is usually a hidden field.
(24) Gateway transaction processor who is actually accepting the payment on behalf of the merchant in home domain such as www.processor.example. This is usually a hidden field.
(25) A Transaction identification string whose format is specific to the processor. This is usually a hidden field.
(26) A URL that can be invoke to inquire about the transaction. This is usually a hidden field.
(27) The amount of the transaction in ISO currency format. This is two integer numbers with a period in between but no other currency marks (such as a $ dollar sign). This is usually a hidden field.
(28) This is the three letter ISO currency code. For example, for US dollars it is USD. This is usually a hidden field.
(29) ISO Transaction date. This is usually a hidden field.
(30) The type of the transaction (either debit or credit) if known. This is usually a hidden field.
(31) The signature of the encoded certificate. This is usually a hidden field.
(32) The Receipt To fields are used when the Bill To entity, location, or address and the Receipto entity, location, or address are different. For example, when using some forms of Corporate Purchasing Cards or Agent Purchasing Cards, the individual card holder would be in the Receipt To fields and the corporate or other owner would be in the Bill To fields.
2.2 Use in HTML
The normal use of ECML in HTML is as a form with input field names identical to those given in section 2.1 above. In general, tags with type text, hidden, and password must be supported as must
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