[opensuse-buildservice] RFC: Hermes for Notifications
Hi, I just saved a proposal about a "Personal Message Dispatching" system with codename Hermes that could be implemented in the buildservice. It helps to organize the upcoming information flood if notifications start in the BS. Please let me know what you think, read here: http://en.opensuse.org/Build_Service/Concepts/Notification Thanks, Klaas -- Klaas Freitag Architect OPS/IPD SUSE LINUX Products GmbH - Nuernberg --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-buildservice+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-buildservice+help@opensuse.org
On Tuesday 23 October 2007, Klaas Freitag wrote:
Please let me know what you think, read here: http://en.opensuse.org/Build_Service/Concepts/Notification
Some comments:
HTTP API:
- Storing a message requires a username as parameter which is somehow mixed
with the recipients which are part of the message itself. This could cause
inconsistencies. So wouldn't it be better to just use the recipients from the
message?
- Why is the message type part of the URL? An alternative could be to place it
as tag into the message. This would also allow to have multiple types or
subtypes for a message.
- Maybe it would be useful to provide an interface for posting raw messages,
without the need to format them as XML. This could be done by using URL
parameters to define the meta message and use the body of the post as message
body. This way you could send messages simply by using for example curl from
the command line.
- Would it be useful to put the sender in the URL you use to post messages to?
It would make it easier to set up access rights, because you could use
standard HTTP authentication for "subdirectories" without needing to look
into the message at all.
Message format:
- The message should have a unique id.
- The recipient fields use a simple user name as id. Wouldn't it be better to
use something unambiguous like an email address. Otherwise it will be hard to
mix messages which use different user names (e.g. external Novell Login and
internal Innerweb login).
- Maybe it would be nice to have a way to include links in a message. Either
inline in the body or as a special element. So you could for example
reference the origin of the message. Or you could reference other messages,
for example to create threads.
- The content of the body isn't very well defined. Is it allowed to include
HTML tags there? Is it possible to add binary attachments like a picture. Is
it possible to embed other XML formats in a seperate namespace? Maybe it
would help to define a MIME type or something like that for the body.
- Maybe it would be nice to have an attribute which indicates the language of
the message.
- There is a subject element missing.
- Is it possible to have more than one body? (e.g. a text and a HTML version)
- Somehow this leads to the question, if it wouldn't be better to use an
existing message format like the email specification or Jabber messages
instead of creating an own one. It might look simpler to roll an own one at
first sight, but a lot of problems will occur later, which are solved by
existing formats. If there are libraries and tools available to conveniently
handle an existing format, it might be easier to implement, even if the
format is more complex. It would also always be possible to use a subset of
an existing format. That could still be better than using a completely
home-grown one.
Architecture:
- It might be nice to have another set of agents on the receiving side, so
that it's possible to directly feed email or similar stuff into the system
without having to know about the REST interface or the XML formats.
--
Cornelius Schumacher
participants (2)
-
Cornelius Schumacher
-
Klaas Freitag