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Re: ownCloud app.

 

Points from yesterday's email Daniel:

1. /Since the URL depends on the users own service, as well as language and stuff, I want to resolve that first. Like I assume that an English OC installation has the name "contacts" in the URL of the CardDAV, while my Swedish has "kontakter". Either we do this translation ourselves, or we need to ask the user for the current name of the addressbook and/or calendar. Need to take a look at the ownCloud documentation. //
/
On Android you basically point to app to your installation, and it does the rest - not entirely sure how that works. I.e. - https://yoururl/owncloud Once that's done, the user chooses their addressbooks and calendars - ideal solution really, though I'm unsure of the code to get there. On Thunderbird however, the user needs to enter the entire url to the calendar and addressbook - this would solve the problem above with different languages. Again, for simplicities sake, this might be the easier implementation for now.

2./I think that the account plugin takes care of the calendar and contacts sync first, and that the app first of all gives us the possibility to browse the currently stored files. Once we can ship the owncloudcmd binary with our package I think that the account plugin should contain the setting to start syncing files and directories as well. But the app still browses the cloud stored files. //

/Love this concept, but I wonder if we might start running into some trouble with an app that's not /baked-in/. I.e., if file sync is dependent on a third party click package, won't we run into the app restrictions inherent to third party apps? I know the ebook program Beru has had this issue - it can only browse files in it's own directory. There are work arounds, but they're fiddly. While I get the security viewpoint, I think there needs to be a way for apps to gain exception to this - currently this doesn't seem to exist. Can any devs out there point out a way around this? Syncing files only in the "~/.local/com.developer.appdirectory" isn't all that useful. What implementations exist/are planned, to get around this?

- Right, off to play with your code on launchpad.

MItchell

On 28/08/14 03:38, Daniel Holm wrote:
Hi,

Answering in-line


You could say that for every single package out there. *Some* app
might want to use this, some might want to use that. We can't afford
putting the whole archive on the image. At the model we're working
with, you need to bring your own binaries and libraries except for
those that are guaranteed to be there by means of the framework your
app will expect.
Point taken. I get that.

Daniel, sorry I haven't been able to do more with your launchpad code
- been flat out with life at the moment. Will try and have a play with
it later tonight. Have you gotten contact & calendar sync working with
syncevolution? Thanks for all your work, and pushing this project
ahead.

No worries, mate. There is no rush. We work while we can.
I have not made any progress myself either. Since the URL depends on the
users own service, as well as language and stuff, I want to resolve that
first. Like I assume that an English OC installation has the name
"contacts" in the URL of the CardDAV, while my Swedish has "kontakter".
Either we do this translation ourselves, or we need to ask the user for
the current name of the addressbook and/or calendar. Need to take a look
at the ownCloud documentation.
Also, thank you :)

IMO there shouldn't even be a frontend app. You should just set up the
account and it'll start syncing automagically. Pretty much how the
google sync works.

Except that Owncloud syncs files as well as calendar & contacts. There
would need to be some way to choose which folders were going to be
synced. I'm guessing this will require some kind of front end.
I think that the account plugin takes care of the calendar and contacts
sync first, and that the app first of all gives us the possibility to
browse the currently stored files. Once we can ship the owncloudcmd
binary with our package I think that the account plugin should contain
the setting to start syncing files and directories as well. But the app
still browses the cloud stored files.

There is also the problem of background syncing. Is any service
currently available for that? Because it would be really weird if the
user has to wait with the app open while up or downloading..
Good point! Anyone that can answer that? What about the policy groups
and stuff?

No, there would need to be an OwnCloud module that would send Push
Messages to a subscribed device so that its push helper could setup
downloads (with appropriate config to whether it should download on
cell service or wait for WiFi, etc.)
So you have to call the phone for it to start downloading a file? Would
that conclude that we need to write an app for the actual ownCloud
server service to create such push messages?




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