Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Contacts
« Rails | Main | Dana Blankenhorn is STILL trivial and doesn't know what he's talking about »You may have noticed that contacts have been removed in the M8 build series. I didn't really care for how the state of the present "Contacts" code worked. For one, it was only available via the web client and for two it was kind of klunky anyhow. Moreover, in Calendar it was intermixed with the concept of "account". So I've been learning LDAP (a feat unto itself) and integrating OpenDS. Initially, I was planning in integrating Apache Directory (mainly because I know Alex Karasulu, the founder), but a number of things about OpenDS recommended it. First off, their setup was a lot more refined than Apache Directory server. Second off, out of the box at least it is noticeably faster. Lastly, the documentation is clearer and the code really easy to work with. Not that ApacheDS didn't have its better points. OpenDS has a very quiet list of mostly sun employees, so its open source in license only really. They need to make more of an effort to make design decisions in the open. The IRC channel is completely dead. ApacheDS has a very active and helpful community, but the configuration and setup is relatively primitive. I love the ApacheDS tools for Eclipse, which I'm continuing to use with OpenDS.
The thing I love most about OpenDS is how they handle configuration. They have a bootstrap which is an LDIF file. The file is editable by humans. This is loaded at startup and becomes a set of LDAP entries, that can be modified (and are written by the server back out to the same file). I intend for this to be a future direction for Meldware. 1.0's administration DumDOM tool is a bit of a kludge and will be difficult for us to maintain in future releases and is entirely dependent on JBossAS. For a post 1.0 release, I'm thinking we can use OpenDS and store the configuration tree in LDAP, possibly using Mike's beloved Guice. Presumably we can also abstract this to allow other LDAP servers to be used as well. I've left us a lot of room so that at any point we can switch default LDAP servers or include both or whatever. Mainly I guess it will depend on how OpenDS and ApacheDS continue.
Ahh the future, always a favorite...but for the present, check out the fixes Hoshi has been making for the Web client. Also check out how it now supports both calendaring with the new Timepicker and Scheduling (aka freebusy). IMAP is faster than ever and with spam protection. The addressbook will be back in M9 only it will be replicated to both the web client and Thunderbird. I'm also working on making sure that WCAP works as well in Evolution and Outlook as it already does in TBird. Freedom is good and it starts here. Let's get it started!
Technorati Tags: WCAP LDAP OpenDS ApacheDS Directory Meldware MCS Buni Webmail Thunderbird Mozilla
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No, there is already a WCAP plugin for Outlook available from Sun for free on their site. Yes our solution is serverside.
Which CalDAV? CalDAV the spec that the inventors haven't even implemented in their product? CalDAV as it is in Evolution but not in TBird? Basically, as soon as CalDAV works as good as WCAP in TBird, Evolution and Outlook then we'll talk. Until then I see a bloated spec that is long on "we didn't actually try implementing this before putting it in the spec" and light on functionality.
> I'm also working on making sure that WCAP
> works as well in ... Outlook as it
> already does in TBird.
Do you want to develop an Outlook add-in like other groupware solutions (e.g.Opengroupware.org, Open-Xchange, Kolab)? Or do you want to develop a server side solution?
What is your current position towards using CalDAV in future buni releases?
Martin