[turba] WebDAV Directory Layout for Global Address Books

[Gunnar Wrobel]

Hi Ben,

Ben Klang <ben at alkaloid.net> writes:

> Greetings List,
>
> I am in the process of working Horde ticket #6594 which aims to  
> change the way addressbooks are laid out when viewed through WebDAV.   
> Due to other requirements we will be moving per-user addressbooks  
> into folders for each username.  Example:
>
> turba
>    |- user1
>    |     |- addressbook1
>    |     |     |- contact1
>    |     |     \- contact2
>    |     \- addressbook2
>    |           \- contact3
>     \- user2
>            \- addressbook2

the hierarchy reminds me a lot of the IMAP structure I'm very familiar
with as I'm working on integrating Horde with Kolab (IMAP based
groupware).

>
> There arises, however, a question about how to handle Global address  
> books.  There have been two proposals:
>
> 1) Put the Global address book folders in the same level as the  
> usernames.  This is probably the most obvious solution but it has two  
> problems:
> * First if there is ever a username that conflicts with any  
> configured Global addressbook there will be a problem.  The contrived  
> example of this would be the user Louis Ocalsql, with the username  
> 'localsql'.
> * Second it gives the Global addressbooks a slightly different URL  
> schema than users because there will be one fewer layers to traverse.
>
> 2) Put the Global addressbook folders in a special folder named  
> "global" or "system" or similar.  The advantage here are the opposite  
> of the drawbacks above. This could potentially have the same drawback  
> as above (Suzie Ystem) but with just one entry it is easier to  
> manage.   The main disadvantage is that it then begs the question of  
> whether to localize the chosen "global" folder name or not (as  
> localizing it could wreak havoc with programmatic access to the data).

The second solution seems more reasonable to me - probably because
that matches IMAP ;)

In IMAP these global folders are called "shared" folders and they
simply get a prefix. The prefix is "shared." by default. So a global
folder could be named "shared.test" for example. The prefix is
configurable.

I don't know if a similar solution makes sense for the horde WebDAV
directory layout. But making the prefix configurable should at least
help to prevent any name clashes.

Cheers,

Gunnar



>
>
> Does the community have any thoughts or strong feelings about which  
> option (1 or 2 above) makes the most sense?
>
> Thanks,
> /BAK/
> -- 
> Ben Klang
> Alkaloid Networks LLC
> ben at alkaloid.net
> 404.475.4850
> http://projects.alkaloid.net
>
>
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-- 
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p at rdus Kolab work is funded in part by KDAB and the Kolab Konsortium

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E-mail : p at rdus.de                                 Dr. Gunnar Wrobel
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