[dev] Re: Adding contact to nag task [Patch]

[Jeroen Huinink]

Hello,

hans at appliedsec.com wrote:

> >It seems to me that we almost need a generalized Horde metadata framework
> >for handling things like this. Instead of modifying every application's
data
> >storage to do this - and contacts aren't the only link I can think of -
we
> >could have one Horde storage for links like this, and applications would
> >know how to look up and display/follow links.

> This is a really interesting idea.  Most of the Horde apps that I've
> looked at generally handle a single business logic entity -- e.g. a task
> or a calendar event.

Exactly this is what I feel is missing. Horde is a very good framework for
writing web applications, but the applications themselves are basically
standalone. If you write something in Horde it is hard to make use of the
other applications that are already available.

>                      It would make sense to me if Horde could provide
> the framework for inter-relating these various entities.  An application
> could "register" entities for exposure via some sort of convention
> (maybe as part of registry api?) and other apps could allow their
> entities to be related to any of the entities exposed by installed
> applications.

This is at least what I had in mind and what I planned to start working on.

>               ... Ideally an application could even provide a means for
> building UI components that could be pulled into the UI of other apps --
> e.g. the Nag app would request the [customized] UI for adding a contact
> from Turba. (my impressions is that using Horde_Form consistently will
> make this a possibility).

This is where I have problems I think it will be very hard to come up with
a generalized UI concept that allows inclusion in forms of other
applications. I was thinking of only providing an API that would result
in a "description" of the link provided by the target application. I
haven't looked into Horde_Form yet. Does anybody know a good example of
Horde_Form usage?

> Maybe this is largely the same concept as storing links?

I think not. If you only store links this is easily broken if the targeted
application changes. If you define a good set of APIs it is the
responsibility of the targeted application to make sure the API doesn't
break.

Regards,
Jeroen