[ghns] Re : about SoC proposal at Blender Foundation on GHNS + questions

Wed Apr 9 07:59:05 PDT 2008

Hi Jonathan,

sorry for the confusion.
We are talking about three different interfaces here.

1. GHNS v1.0
I´m generating static xml files and distribute them, together with the  
download files over the kde mirror network. This is done every hour.
The files are accessed from the KDE Application over the host  
download.kde.org which is doing roundrobin via DNS.

You find the feeds here:
http://www.kde-look.org/help/ghns.php

This is used by most of the KDE applications at the moment.
The benefit of this solution is that the load is distributed over lots  
of high capacity servers all over the globe. Access to the content is  
possible without authentication because a deny of service attack is  
very difficult.

This could be used for blender too. But I´m not sure if we are allowed  
to use the kde mirrors for blender content.

2. GHNS v2.0
The new Specification done my Josef. Also called DXS.
It is using SOAP. It is quite powerful but also heavyweight on the  
server.
The only serverside implementation I know is the one from Josef.
I also plan to support the interface in the future but it is not  
implemented yet.

3. openDesktop.org REST
The REST interface done by me. You find the details here:
http://api.opendesktop.org

The interface is more powerfull than the GHNS v1.0 It is possible to  
browse all the content from the sites and supports voting. I will also  
implement searching in the near future.

I can setup a new community website for blender in less than a week  
together with a REST api for you. I can also integrate this website  
into the openDesktop.org network so it is getting promotion and users  
fast.

The problem is that this REST interface is vulnerable for deny of  
service attacks or script kiddies. If someone sends 100 search  
requests a second my server is down.
Because of that access to this interface is only possible for  
authenticated users or from dedicated IPs.

Google, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay are doing the same because of the same  
reason.

So I´m not sure what to suggest.

Interface 1 has the best performance. But it only supports downloading  
and no searching. And you need server infrastructure.

Interface 2 hast the most features. But I´m not sure if Josefs  
Implementation is ready and if there is a community system. It also  
has the deny of service problem.

Interface 3 is only usable from authenticated users. I´m not sure if  
this makes sense to require for blender users.

What do you think?

Best Regards
Frank

On 09.04.2008, at 15:35, Jonathan-David SCHRODER wrote:
> Hi again,
> please forgive me for my last message that was missing words here  
> and there.
> Thank you for you answer Josef.
> Ok I'll try to show the Bf (blender foundation) that I'm already  
> tinkering with the scripts (this is what I've started doing, for  
> real )and that I'm getting advice on this list.
>
> I have studied some xml pages fetched thanks to the api.
> Things look good. On this I have question, how is that possible to  
> submit new files to the server through the api ? Submit doesn't  
> belong the 3 functions list from api.kde-look.org .
> Also, what's the difference between the data fetched thanks to the  
> api from : api.kde-look.org , and the data fetchable by browsing  
> through xml pages, starting from the ones mentionned here : http://www.kde-look.org/help/ghns.php 
>  ?
> I don't understand much how to find again the same categories listed  
> on http://api.opendesktop.org/V1/CATEGORIES, and on http://www.kde-look.org/help/ghns.php 
>  .
>
> I've had a look at : http://svn.ggzgamingzone.org/trac.cgi/browser/trunk/python/lib/sdlnewstuff.py?rev=head 
>  . It uses the http://www.kde-look.org/help/ghns.php interface with  
> the providers.xml files. To me, this interface could also be called  
> a REST interface somehow, because there's no SOAP, and it uses the  
> download xml -then- go to one of the hyperlinks steps which resemble  
> what I've read about REST.
> I haven't been able to run the python script because my pygame  
> install on linux is weird (doing apt-get install pygame does install  
> pygame but does not setup the pythonpath to add pygame's folfers...  
> looking on the web, this seems to be an old deb. package bug while  
> I'm using a much newer ubuntu distribution...). Changing my  
> pyhonpath the way I could guess does make importing pygame work  
> partly, but I still have problems finding some parts of the pygame  
> library... Maybe I'll purge the sdlnewstuff script from any pygame  
> related code and try to run it, though reading the code is enough to  
> understand what this script does with the ghns interface.
>
> I'd be ready to rewrite some python script using the REST interface,  
> maybe complementing what I could see with sdlnewstuff and making a  
> python only library to be used by any kind of software.
>
> Sincerely,
> Jonathan-david Schröder
>
> On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 11:38 AM, Josef Spillner <spillner at kde.org>  
> wrote:
> Am Dienstag 08 April 2008 03:14:57 schrieb Jonathan-David SCHRODER:
> > I've "met" on #blendercoders a blender developper interested in my  
> proposal
> > (he had access to the SoC admin side for the blender foundation)  
> because he
> > worked using mysql for blender files data blocks.
> > He wants to talk more about the proposal with me in a few days.
>
> You can tell him that you could easily get advice on GHNS-specifics  
> on this
> list even if someone from Blender becomes a mentor.
>
> > By then... I could have tried to use khotnewstuff, and maybe some  
> shell
> > scripts I've seen on the repos to know that I can make the GHNS  
> system work
> > somehow and start discovering more about it.
>
> It will give a positive view if you already tinker with the scripts  
> and
> servers prior to the application rating deadline.
>
> Josef
>
> P.S. You're always on CC during the whole mail thread. Are you  
> subscribed to
> it now? We could drop the CC then.
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> http://www.jaxtr.com/myselfhimself  
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--
Frank Karlitschek
karlitschek at kde.org