Encoding & Normalization

MSL message data structures are represented as JSON objects and defined using JSON Type Notation. JSON objects and therefore MSL messages are encoded as Unicode text strings. When constructing or parsing text strings Unicode Normalization Form C (NFC) of canonical decomposition followed by canonical composition must be used. This is the default form used by JavaScriptCore. The text will then be encoded into binary as UTF-8.

Application data is treated as binary data even if the data may in fact be text. Applications may choose their own binary encoding and normalization forms (if any) for application data that is text.