NEW KEP: Update 'contact' object

Gunnar Wrobel wrobel at horde.org
Tue Oct 11 11:54:12 CEST 2011


Quoting "Georg C. F. Greve" <greve at kolabsys.com>:

> Dear all,
>
> A new KEP has just been released into public brainstorming:
>
> 	KEP #13: Update 'contact' object
> 	http://wiki.kolab.org/User:Greve/Drafts/KEP:13
>
> This KEP is about updating the 'contact' object which has some well known
> issues that we should resolve, and as these are going to be breaking changes,
> of which we've had a couple lined up already, I figured it would  
> make sense to
> put them all into one changeset so we avoid having too many breaking
> transitions.
>
> The state of the KEP is thus that it outlines several of the issues, and
> provides some input on how this could be better modeled on the storage level,
> but it is still far from complete - in particular as it changes the  
> underlying
> way of modeling some of the aspects.
>
> Input and drafting help is very much welcome!

In general a good direction. I wondered a bit if the upgrade could  
break the old format a bit less.

I'm not at all a fan of the old notation:

  <email>
   <display-name>Test Tester</display-name>
   <smtp-address>5 at email.test</smtp-address>
  </email>

Your suggestion is definitely cleaner:

  <email label="(string, default empty)" displayname="(string, default  
empty)">(string, default empty)</email>

But I wonder if there is really a compelling reason to switch to the  
newer format or if the same could be achieved by keeping the old style  
intact. Maybe a "label" attribute to the "email" node would be  
sufficient? This would allow older clients to still read and display  
the data.

Having old clients being able to read the data might be a problem as  
well in case somebody would use the client to edit the data. If that  
is not desired then I would suggest to completely change the XML  
layout so that older clients will not be able to parse the data at all.

But at the moment it is a mixture and central fields like "email" and  
"phone" change the format while some of the other elements remain  
readable.

Cheers,

Gunnar



>
> All of that should go to kolab-format at kolab.org, please.
>
> Best regards,
> Georg
>
>
> --
> Georg C. F. Greve
> Chief Executive Officer
>
> Kolab Systems AG
> Zürich, Switzerland
>
> e: greve at kolabsys.com
> t: +41 78 904 43 33
> w: http://kolabsys.com
>
> pgp: 86574ACA Georg C. F. Greve

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