From: dell@wiretap.spies.com (Thomas Dell) Subject: [info.pem-dev] CCITT TELEDOC Document Service Message-ID: Organization: The Internet Wiretap Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 21:40:25 GMT Newsgroups: info.pem-dev From: Richard.Ankney@emc2-tao.fisc.com Subject: CCITT Document Service Message-ID: Date: 19 Mar 93 15:55:46 GMT Lines: 785 Found it! I haven't tried it yet, so I have no idea what standards (vs. other less interesting stuff) has been posted. Go to it... / Rich ------------------------------ >From: Jock Embry <0004319821@mcimail.com> Sat, 20 Feb 93 13:32 GMT To: nmsig Subject: CCITT document service! At last, CCITT (actually ITU) has come through, and opened an electronic document service for distributing standards! Try it, it you'll like it. Jock Embry +1 703 759 4647 TELEDOC AUTO-ANSWERING MAILBOX (TAM) ITU DOCUMENT RETRIEVAL USER'S GUIDE International Telecommunication Union Place des Nations 1211 Geneva 20 Switzerland TEL: +41 22 730 5554/5338 FAX: +41 22 730 5337 INTRODUCTION Teledoc is an electronic document distribution service of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The ITU is a United Nations agency based in Geneva, Switzerland. The ITU consists organizationally of five permanent organs: the General Secretariat, the International Frequency Registration Board (IFRB), the International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR), the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT) and the Telecommunications Development Bureau (BDT). Each permanent organ of the ITU makes selected documents publicly available for remote electronic retrieval with Teledoc. WHICH ITU DOCUMENTS CAN I RETRIEVE? There are many different kinds of ITU documents that can be retrieved. Here are some examples: -General ITU information such as the list of ITU paper publications with prices and ordering information; -CCITT information such as Study Group structure, activities, contact persons and questions under study, Circular Letters, lists of Normal and Delayed Contributions to CCITT meetings, lists of CCITT Reports and Recommendations, summaries of Recommendations, and the full texts of CCITT Recommendations (starting early 1993); -CCIR information such as Administrative Circulars and Circulars, CCIR questions per Study Group, Study Group Circulars, lists of contributions to CCIR meetings, CCIR Study Group Meeting Reports, lists of CCIR Recommendations, and the full texts of CCIR Recommendations (starting 1993); -IFRB information such as Circular Letters, seminar documents, list of geostationary and non-stationary satellite systems and earth stations notified in coordination or registered with the IFRB; information on available IFRB software for engineering and administrative purposes such as Plan maintenance; -BDT information such as training guides and test software; -Information in Special Interests Groups (SIGS); -Information about ITU's Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES). Teledoc gives external access to a database of public ITU documents. This database of documents is known as the ITU Document Store. THE ITU DOCUMENT STORE The ITU Document Store organizes public ITU documents into a tree structure of hierarchical groups. Each group contains more groups and/or documents. At the root level, the Document Store is divided into main groups that represent the organizational structure of the ITU and important topics. For example, the main groups CCITT and CCIR contain, respectively, CCITT and CCIR-related groups and documents. Under each main group, there are further divisions into additional groups. For example, the group CCITT contains the group CIRC (CCITT Circular Letters). The CIRC group contains the actual electronic document versions of CCITT Circular Letters. The following page shows a partial graphical view of the current hierarchy of the ITU Document Store. For the sake of illustration, the main group CCITT is partially expanded into subgroups. THE ITU DOCUMENT STORE (GRAPHICAL EXAMPLE) /+ |/BDT | |/CCIR | |/CCITT ---+ | |/CIRC (CIRCULAR LETTERS) |/IFRB | | |/COMI (STUDY GROUP I)-----+ |/SIGS | |/COLL | |/COMII (STUDY GROUP II) | |/TIES | |/CONTR |/COMIII (STUDY GROUP III) | | |/REPORTS |/COMIV (STUDY GROUP IV) : : |/COMXVIII (STUDY GROUP XVIII) | |/REC(RECOMMENDATIONS)-+ |/D (D SERIES) | |/E (E SERIES) : : | |/V (V SERIES) | |/X (X SERIES) You can refer to any group of the ITU Document Store by specifying the path to it from the root. Group names are separated with the "/" character. For example, CCITT is the path to the CCITT group (CCITT), CCITT/CIRC is the path to the CCITT Circular Letters (CIRC) group, CCITT/COMII/COLL is the path to the CCITT Study Group II (COMII) Collective Letters (COLL) group, CCITT/REC is the path to the CCITT Recommendations (REC) group and CCITT/REC/X is the path to the CCITT X Series Recommendations (X) group. The same conventions apply for any group of the ITU Document Store. You can find out the naming of groups and their hierarchical structure from the Teledoc service interface you use (discussed below). For example, with the electronic mail interface, index files are available in the root group of the ITU Document Store. These index files describe the hierarchical structure of each group and subgroups and list the documents available. TELEDOC SERVICE INTERFACES Several Teledoc service interfaces are planned, including: -Electronic mail -Internet FTP (planned for early 1993) -Interactive terminal interface under ITU's Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) (planned for 1993) This guide explains the electronic mail interface, the Teledoc Auto-Answering Mailbox (TAM). TELEDOC AUTO-ANSWERING MAILBOX (TAM) The Teledoc Auto-Answering Mailbox (TAM) is a "robot" electronic mailbox at ITU headquarters with access to the ITU Document Store. You can send electronic mail to the TAM as you would send electronic mail to a person outside your organization or company. However, your message should only contain simple commands (see TELEDOC AUTO-ANSWERING MAILBOX COMMANDS below). When the TAM receives a message, it scans it for commands which it interprets and processes. It then constructs and mails a reply back to you. TELEDOC AUTO-ANSWERING MAILBOX EMAIL ADDRESS The TAM is based on the CCITT X.400 electronic messaging standard. Therefore, X.400 addressing conventions should be used. The TAM X.400 address is: S=teledoc; P=itu; A=arcom; C=ch The TAM can also be addressed using Internet RFC-822 conventions. This address is: teledoc@itu.arcom.ch If you do not have direct access to either X.400 or Internet RFC-822 compliant mail, most major eMail service providers (e.g., MCI, Compuserve) provide gateway facilities and can access the TAM. See Annex A for further information. Also see Annex C for comments on access from UUCP sites. GETTING STARTED -Find out how the electronic mail system you use in your organization or company can access the TAM via either X.400 or Internet RFC-822 compliant mail. Alternatively, Annex A explains how to access the TAM via some major eMail service providers. -Send a test message (TEST or HELP) to the TAM. If you receive a reply then you have established that your message has reached the TAM and that it can also reach you. -In the same mail message, send the command to list the root group of the ITU Document Store (LIST). The TAM will send back a list of main groups and corresponding index files available for retrieval. -After you receive a list of available groups and documents, review it and send a mail message to list (LIST) other groups or get (GET) the document you want (for example, an index file explaining the hierarchy/contents of the group). The TAM will send to you the list or document requested. TELEDOC AUTO-ANSWERING MAILBOX COMMANDS The commands that you can send to the TAM consist of a command word followed, in some cases, by an argument. Commands and arguments can be specified in upper, lower or mixed case. Every line of your mail message to the TAM should contain a valid command. Only commands contained in the mail message are interpreted. All other lines and the mail subject field are ignored (you can use the subject field to document queries for your own use). Up to 50 lines per message are processed by the TAM. Each valid command generates a separate reply. START This optional command tells the TAM to begin processing commands after this line. If this command is present, any text in the mail message before this command is ignored. TEST This command is used to test that the TAM can receive mail from your electronic mail system and can also respond back to your mail system. The TAM will acknowledge your message and send a help file. Typically, if you have not received a reply within 48 hours, there is a connectivity problem between your electronic mail system and the TAM. HELP This command sends the latest help file listing and explaining the commands understood by the TAM (which may differ from this manual due to enhancements). LIST This command returns a list of groups and/or documents in the specified group. The path to a group is defined by its location relative from the top of the ITU Document Store. For example: LIST LIST CCITT LIST CCITT/CIRC LIST CCITT/REC LIST CCITT/REC/X LIST CCIR LIST IFRB The first example of the LIST command above returns a list of groups and/or documents at the root level of the ITU Document Store. Index files for the ITU Document Store are available at the root level and describe the hierarchy and contents of the main ITU groups. GET When the TAM sends a list of documents and/or groups, it provides a Unique Permanent Identifier (UPI) code for every document in each available format. The UPI is the code used to retrieve the document that you want. For example: GET 1449 GET 1453 You should only retrieve documents in formats that can be handled by your electronic mail system (see ENCODE below). ENCODE Most mail systems can handle ASCII documents attached to mail messages but may have difficulties with non-ASCII (i.e., "binary") formats such as word processing and graphics files. With the ENCODE command, you can request the TAM to encode non-ASCII files into the UUENCODE format which is ASCII. To decode the UUENCODED file back into its original binary format, you need a utility program called UUDECODE. This program is widely available in different computing envi ronments. Enter this command in your mail message before any GET commands retrieving binary formats if your mail system can only support ASCII formats. For example: ENCODE GET 2314 GET 2315 Internet mail does not typically support binary attachments to mail messages. Therefore, if the TAM is replying to Internet mail, the ENCODE command is automatically applied. HUMAN Since the TAM is a "robot", it may not understand exactly what you are trying to say to it. If you type the command HUMAN followed by any message, the TAM will STOP processing commands and automatically forward your mail message to an ITU help desk at the ITU. For example: HUMAN I am having a problem locating a document concerning XXXX. Could you please tell me where it is available? Thank you, Bill Pagoda 11181 ISP Street, Suite FOD26 Sacramento, California Tel: 916-555-8613 Fax: 916-555-8859 If your problem is related to a connectivity issue (e.g., you are not receiving responses from the TAM), please include other contact information such as your address, telephone and/or fax number. END This optional command tells the TAM to ignore the rest of the mail message. This command is required if your mail message contains text after your commands that you want the TAM to ignore (e.g., your signature). Here is an example message to the TAM using some of the commands listed above. -------------------------------------------------- TO: S=teledoc; P=itu; A=arcom; C=ch (X.400) or teledoc@itu.arcom.ch (Internet RFC-822) FROM: (NAME) SUBJECT: (IGNORED) -------------------------------------------------- START HELP LIST LIST CCITT/REC GET 1449 GET 1453 END -------------------------------------------------- This message above asks the TAM to: 1. send a help file listing and explaining TAM commands; 2. send a list of groups and/or documents in the root of the ITU Document Store; 3. send a list of groups and/or documents in the CCITT Recommendations group; 4. send two documents that have Unique Permanent Identifiers (UPIs) of 1449 and 1453. IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS There are problems sometimes with international mail connections just as there are problems sometimes with long distance telephone calls. The electronic mail circuits between the TAM and your mail system can fail or be temporarily out of order. In this case, eMail can be delayed or not delivered. So, the first advice if you have a problem is to try again. The TAM will only reply to valid commands. If the argument to a LIST command or GET command cannot be interpreted then you should receive an error message explaining why. If the TAM cannot process any commands in your mail message, it will return a message saying so and send back the help file. If you have no problem retrieving ASCII documents but difficulties with non-ASCII formats, your mail system or the mail gateways to your system may not support binary file attachments. In this case, try using the ENCODE command (see TELEDOC AUTO- ANSWERING MAILBOX COMMANDS). If you have problems retrieving large documents, your mail system or the mail gateways to your system may not support large file attachments. The large number of mail messages to the TAM does not permit monitoring the processing of each message. If you have problems that you can't resolve, use the HUMAN command and enter your written description of the problem in the mail message. Make sure to include your address, telephone and fax number (especially if your query is related to an electronic mail problem). The TAM forwards messages containing the HUMAN command to an ITU help desk. For other support or if you wish to make a suggestion on how the service can be improved, please contact: Mr. Robert Shaw TELEDOC Project Coordinator Information Services Department International Telecommunication Union Place des Nations 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland TEL: +41 22 730 5338/5554 FAX: +41 22 730 5337 X.400: G=robert;S=shaw;A=arcom;P=itu;C=ch Internet: shaw@itu.arcom.ch or (for CCITT-related questions), Miss Antoinette Bautista EDH - CCITT CCITT Secretariat International Telecommunication Union Place des Nations 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland TEL: +41 22 730 5857 FAX: +41 22 730 5853 X.400: G=antoinette;S=bautista;A=arcom;P=itu;C=ch Internet: bautista@itu.arcom.ch or (for CCIR-related questions), Ms. Grace Petin TELEDOC Support CCIR Secretariat International Telecommunication Union Place des Nations 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland TEL: +41 22 730 5810 FAX: +41 22 730 5806 X.400: G=grace;S=petrin;A=arcom;P=itu;C=ch Internet: petrin@itu.arcom.ch ******************************************* ANNEX A Access to TAM from Major eMail Service Providers The Teledoc Auto-Answering Mailbox (TAM) is accessible from several major eMail service providers. ACCESS FROM MCI MCI users can access the TAM through MCI's facilities for access to other mail systems (EMS). TAM can be accessed through either MCI's X.400 or Internet gateways. X.400 responses appear slightly faster and support binary file retrieval into MCI mailboxes. You can then download documents from your MCI mailbox using a file transfer program in your communications package (e.g. Kermit or Zmodem). If you have problems with one gateway, please try the other. ACCESS FROM MCI MAIL VIA X.400: 1. At COMMAND, type CREATE 2. At TO, type TELEDOC followed by EMS in parentheses. For example, TO: TELEDOC (EMS) 3. At the prompt EMS: type ARCOM. For example, EMS: ARCOM 4. At MBX: type PR=ITU. For example, MBX: PR=ITU 5. At the next MBX: type return to end addressing 6. Complete as usual ACCESS FROM MCI MAIL VIA INTERNET: 1. At COMMAND, type CREATE 2. At TO, type TELEDOC followed by EMS in parentheses. For example, TO: TELEDOC (EMS) 3. At the prompt EMS: type INTERNET. For example, EMS: INTERNET 4. At MBX: type TELEDOC@ITU.ARCOM.CH. For example, MBX: TELEDOC@ITU.ARCOM.CH 5. At the next MBX: type return to end addressing 6. Complete as usual HOW TO DOWNLOAD DOCUMENTS FROM MCI MAIL: File transfer protocols supported by MCI include - Zmodem - Kermit - Text (MCI account default for downloading ASCII data only) If the document you retrieve from your MCI mailbox is a binary format, you must use either Zmodem or Kermit transfer protocols. 1. Note the number of the message you want to download. 2. At COMMAND, type DOWNLOAD followed by the number of the message you want to DOWNLOAD and the name of the protocol you want to use. For example, COMMAND: DOWNLOAD 3 KERMIT 3. MCI will provide a message that explains how many files are contained in the transfer. You will receive an itemized list of the text and binary message segments contained in each download request. When prompted, enter a filename for each file you wish to download or press return if you wish to skip that segment. Specify a file extension that corresponds to the document type. The TAM always returns two message segments in reply to a GET command. The first message segment part is always in ASCII format and contains information (attributes) of the document (e.g., title, file size and type). The second message segment part is the actual document. You may choose only to download the second message segment which is the actual document. 4. When you have completed assignment of filenames for the messages you wish to download, press return to begin. You may then need to give the command for your communications software to begin the download process. For more complete information, use MCI's HELP DOWNLOAD command. ACCESS FROM COMPUSERVE Compuserve mail users can access the TAM through Compuserve's Internet mail gateway facility. ACCESS FROM COMPUSERVE MAIL VIA INTERNET: 1. Choose COMPOSE a new message, edit the message with TAM commands, then choose SEND 2. At SEND TO (NAME OR USER ID), type >internet:teledoc@itu.arcom.ch For example, Send to (Name or User ID): >internet:teledoc@itu.arcom.ch 3. At SUBJECT, type any text (TAM ignores subject fields) 4. Complete as usual ******************************************* ANNEX B Teledoc Document Retrieval Formats (omitted) --