[dev] module for horde?

[Michael Häusler]

Quoting Eric Rostetter <eric.rostetter@physics.utexas.edu>:

> 1) Does anyone think it would be good to add this kind of function to
> horde?

I think this would be very useful, but I am obviously lacking in 
imagination, how thight the integration with Horde could be.
A php-generated applet.conf could provide persistent preferences to the 
applet. So I am curious: What (further) modifications did you make to jta?

> 2) If so, are you interested in my version?  Or should we start with a
> newer version of the jta and go from there?

Version 2.5 also supports Java WebStart, which works well for me. I am not 
sure, but perhaps we would only have to generate a corresponding .jnlp 
file for integration with horde.

I would prefer just generating some wrapper for starting (either .jnlp or 
some applet-tag with autogenerated applet.conf). If we have to modify the 
jta sources, we cannot easily take advantage of bug-fixes and features in 
new versions of jta.
Of course, this is only based on my ignorance of the possible additional 
features, that source code modification of jta may provide.

> Third, the code as stated above will only allow you to connect back to
> the web server (due to Java security -- the client can't connect to
> anything except the server it downloaded the applet from).  So to allow
> connecting to a different machine, you need to use a "ssh relay" daemon.

Another possibility of lifting security limitations is the usage of a 
signed applet / WebStart application. The example installation on the jta 
homepage ( http://javassh.org/ ) uses a selfsigned certificate and 
requests full rights on the client machine in its .jnlp-file.
This is a question of individual preference (or degree of administration 
rights / possibilities on your server / isp): Do you want the client 
to "trust" you or do you want another daemon on your server?

Best regards
Michael Häusler