[Building Sakai] alternative to webdav in sakai

Wed Mar 9 13:07:42 PST 2011

Sure. When the original patch was merged, it came with a number of quality and completeness problems.

https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/SAK-16036 and https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/KNL-155 capture the work that was done in the closing moments of the 2.6 release to disable the feature. The problems were discovered late and the fix was an ugly combination of properties and commented code.

(I refer to this pretty broken code lying latent in trunk without a quality plan or much notice as being "parachuted in".)

Perhaps the work done for KNL-273 addresses most of the problems, but I am not comfortable without seeing a standalone, cohesive write-up of the feature and its behavior. Tracking this across a handful of SAK/KNL tickets, some emails, and fifty-some JIRA comments just doesn't draw a clear picture.

Specific technical questions are around the library used, performance, request-thread processing, mime-type settings, content scanning, and quota ramifications. We may or may not have a clear implementation plan that addresses these. I am especially concerned about the processing in the request thread and the impact on the database pool.

Maybe I'm paranoid or maybe these have all been sufficiently addressed. But I would strongly urge those interested to do a complete and accurate write-up outside of the smattering of JIRA tickets, so we can make a conscious community decision.

By the way, many thanks to Bryan and whomever else for working on a real user need.

Thanks,
-Noah

On Mar 9, 2011, at 3:16 PM, Sam Ottenhoff wrote:

> I know nothing about the previous issues or the mitigation that was 
> done.  SAK-800 comments don't seem to reflect any local catastrophes.  
> Can you give us some background?
> 
> --Sam
> 
> On 3/9/2011 3:11 PM, Noah Botimer wrote:
>> With all due respect to the work done and the spoken need, I think there are still significant concerns with this approach. It solves a class of problem and introduces another.
>> 
>> I am not familiar with the extent of the work done recently, but I am very leery of SAK-800. I will be disappointed if it gets parachuted in again. Even our mitigation was sloppy last time.
>> 
>> This absolutely requires review and discussion on list and the TCC should form an opinion of the best path. This is not simple bug fixing or minor feature enhancement, given the technical and policy issues arising.
>> 
>> None of this is to discourage movement forward, but it is a humble request that special care be taken in an area that has really stung us before.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> -Noah
>> 
>> On Mar 9, 2011, at 12:25 PM, Bryan Holladay wrote:
>> 
>>> Thanks David... Anyone who wants it can take it.  I re-assigned it to the KERNEL TEAM in mid November.
>>> 
>>> -Bryan
>>> 
>>> On Mar 9, 2011, at 12:17 PM, DAVID ROLDAN MARTINEZ wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Bryan,
>>>> 
>>>> I offer myself to do this (or provide you help if you prefer to manage this yourself) and leave hardcoded messages out of kernel so that they will be handled at resources tool. But, as I'm not a member of the Kernel-team, I would like to get their feedback before to start working.
>>>> 
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>   David
>>>> ________________________________________
>>>> De: sakai-dev-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org [sakai-dev-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] En nombre de Bryan Holladay [holladay at longsight.com]
>>>> Enviado el: miércoles, 09 de marzo de 2011 17:51
>>>> Para: Adam Marshall
>>>> CC: sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org
>>>> Asunto: Re: [Building Sakai] alternative to webdav in sakai
>>>> 
>>>> I've fixed this issue in https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/KNL-273, along with other issues with the unzip facility.
>>>> 
>>>> The only reason it hasn't been put into trunk is a best code practices issue I wasn't able to figure out.  It's noted in the comments and is waiting for someone with a better understanding of the kernel code to look at it.
>>>> 
>>>> Other than that, it's a good patch and works fine and would be safe to run.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Bryan
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Mar 9, 2011, at 11:41 AM, Adam Marshall wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> We use the unzip facility – it works OK for extraction but is not good for creating a zip file. You cannot zip from the root folder!
>>>> 
>>>> From: sakai-dev-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org<mailto:sakai-dev-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org>  [mailto:sakai-dev-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] On Behalf Of Sam Ottenhoff
>>>> Sent: 09 March 2011 16:35
>>>> To: sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org<mailto:sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org>
>>>> Subject: Re: [Building Sakai] alternative to webdav in sakai
>>>> 
>>>> https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/SAK-800
>>>> 
>>>> SAK-800 and KNL-273 would allow users to upload a compressed archive and have it unrolled in Resources.
>>>> 
>>>> --Sam
>>>> 
>>>> On 3/9/2011 11:19 AM, John Bush wrote:
>>>> Over the years we've had continued problems with webdav.  The varying behaviors of different clients, the special authentication that doesn't play nice with SSO, and numerous other types of issues.  I'm beginning to think about alternatives that would allow for big bulk uploads that are more reliable.  Thinking about some type of browser plugin, flash or otherwise.  Has anyone else done some research into this already?
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> John Bush
>>>> 602-490-0470
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> 
>>>> sakai-dev mailing list
>>>> 
>>>> sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org<mailto:sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org>
>>>> 
>>>> http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-dev
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email to sakai-dev-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org<mailto:sakai-dev-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org>  with a subject of "unsubscribe"
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> sakai-dev mailing list
>>>> sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org<mailto:sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org>
>>>> http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-dev
>>>> 
>>>> TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email to sakai-dev-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org<mailto:sakai-dev-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org>  with a subject of "unsubscribe"
>>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> sakai-dev mailing list
>>> sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org
>>> http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-dev
>>> 
>>> TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email to sakai-dev-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org with a subject of "unsubscribe"
>>> 
>>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> sakai-dev mailing list
>> sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org
>> http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-dev
>> 
>> TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email to sakai-dev-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org with a subject of "unsubscribe"
> _______________________________________________
> sakai-dev mailing list
> sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org
> http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-dev
> 
> TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email to sakai-dev-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org with a subject of "unsubscribe"
> 
> 