[ghns] ghns status, api, etc.

[Frank Karlitschek]

On 02.07.2009, at 01:08, Jeremy Whiting wrote:

> On Sunday 28 June 2009 22:06:38 Jeremy Whiting wrote:
>>
>> Josef, Frank,
>> In a plasma meeting I attended yesterday, some interesting things  
>> came up.
>> They would like to be able to ask knewstuff2 occasionally if  
>> certain data
>> is updatable. e.g. KNewStuff2::IsEntryUpdateable(Entry*) or  
>> something like
>> that, and invoke the update either automatically or through some ui  
>> of
>> their own I guess.  I think we need to nail down the id algorithm/ 
>> hash
>> whatever before that will be feasible. (And before the installed  
>> items tab
>> in the existing ui will be feasible). So here is how I see each  
>> approach.
>>
>> Global id (independent of server, etc., as per hotstuff's  
>> implementation:
>> pros:
>> - different hosts can serve the same data
>> - registry is simpler on the client
>> cons:
>> - the algorithm is more complicated
>> - the client needs to know which provider to check for updates, the  
>> same
>> data can come from many different hosts
>>
>> server namespaced id
>> pros:
>> - each host can provide its own algorithm, as long as it uses the  
>> same id
>> consistently for the same entry, all is well
>> - only one host per downloaded item, so only one host to check for  
>> updates
>> - simpler algorithm
>> cons:
>> - different hosts serving the same data will not appear to be the  
>> same
>
> I've been thinking about this a lot the past couple days, and have  
> tried to
> get a few others to weigh in, but I think I've reached a decision  
> that will be
> good and easy to implement.  I'm thinking of namespacing the id's  
> given to the
> client.  The cons seem to be less for that method, and this also  
> requires very
> little change to either implementation.  I also think that will be  
> the most
> flexible method for other providers and convincing providers to get  
> ghns
> feeds/providers set up.  I'll check to see if I'm getting what I  
> need from the
> ODS and DXS providers (a unique id for each entry)  Josef, I may ask  
> you to
> help me re-add that correctly to HotStuff if it's not in there.   
> Frank, the id
> tags you provide uniquely identify each entry on the whole site? or  
> just in
> the category the entry is in?

Yes. The id is unique on the hole site.

Cheers
Frank

--
Frank Karlitschek
karlitschek at kde.org