In the
Jabber protocol, the facility used by
clients to request information from the
server and other
clients, or to store information with them. It is represented by the
<iq/> XML element.
When making an Info/Query request, the "type=" attribute of the <iq/> element should be set to "get" or "set". The "id=" attribute should be set to a unique identifier; when the result is returned, it will carry this same identifier. The <iq/> element must contain a <query/> element, which specifies the namespace of the query.
When the request is responded to, the response <iq/> element has a "type=" attribute of either "result" or "error". The <query/> subelement will contain the requested information.
Info/Query messages are used for user authentication, registration, searches for other users, roster management, and other standard purposes. All standard Jabber Info/Query namespaces begin with the prefix "jabber:iq:". Other namespaces may be supported in custom installations.