[Kolab-devel] Preparations for a PHP PEAR package implementing the Kolab Format

[Gunnar Wrobel]

Hi!

The Kolab specific code in Horde has seen a lot of development during
the last three years. While the newest Horde release (3.2.*) contains
decent Kolab support I still wanted to restructure the code slightly
in order to get it into a structure that will allow other developers
to use the Horde code as a basis for their own web applications. With
this change nearing completion I am very certain that there will be no
major structural changes necessary in the next few years. Of course
development will go on but will be more concerned with feature
enhancements rather than getting the basics right.

As a first result of this effort the Horde_Kolab_Format package will
be released as a Kolab specific library. It serves two purposes:
reading and writing the Kolab XML format as well as developing new
Kolab formats.

I described the use of the package on a wiki page:

https://wiki.kolab.org/index.php/Horde_Kolab_Format

As it is not yet released the installation described on that page
won't work (yet) but if you know PEAR a little bit it shouldn't be too
hard to grab the package from Horde CVS
(http://cvs.horde.org/framework/Kolab_Format/) and play around with
it.

I'm mentioning this to get some feedback before actually releasing the
package. Just in case I missed something vital that should be in the
first release. Comments are welcome.

During the next few months you can expect four additional releases to
follow Horde_Kolab_Format:

 - Horde_Kolab_Server: Implements access methods for the Kolab user
   database in LDAP

 - Horde_Kolab_Storage: Provides the means to access the user data
   stored in IMAP.

 - Horde_Kolab_FreeBusy: The Kolab specific implementation of
   Free/Busy.

 - Horde_Kolab_Filter: Postfix filters specific to the Kolab server.

I expect "Horde_Kolab_Storage" to be the most interesting one in the
series as it implements all the different IMAP methods required to
read/write the user data. It also comes with efficient data caching so
that you get good performance when running your scripts against the
Kolab server.

So there is more to come.

Cheers,

Gunnar

-- 
______ http://kdab.com _______________ http://kolab-konsortium.com _

p at rdus Kolab work is funded in part by KDAB and the Kolab Konsortium

____ http://www.pardus.de _________________ http://gunnarwrobel.de _
E-mail : p at rdus.de                                 Dr. Gunnar Wrobel
Tel.   : +49 700 6245 0000                          Bundesstrasse 29
Fax    : +49 721 1513 52322                          D-20146 Hamburg
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