tdelibs/tderesources/README.design

tderesources
README.design

KDE RESOURCES
-------------
The KDE Resource framework can be used to manage resources of 
different types, organized in families. The Resource framework is 
currently used for addressbook resources in tdelibs/kabc and for 
calendar resources in libkcal.
A resource family represents stores of information of a certain kind
(appointments, contacts). A resource type class represents a way in 
which this information is stored, or a way to access the information.

                           resources
                               |
                    +----------+----------+----------------+---
                    |                     |                |
Families:        calendar              contacts           ...
                    |                     | 
                +---+--+            +-----+-----+-----+--
                |      |            |     |     |     |
Types:          local  Exchange   file   dir   ldap  ...
                file   server    


Resource families are usually implemented as (abstract) classes
in a library, e.g. the calendar resource in libkcal en the
addressbook resource family in libkabc. Resource type are like 
plugins: that can be loaded on-demand, they are implemented in
their own library, and a .desktop file tells KDE where to find 
them.

The user then configures one or more resources for a certain
family, making use of the resource types. For instance, a user
might define two Exchange-based resources, one with her own 
calendar data and one with the calendar data of her workgroup.
She might also have two ldap contacts resources, together with
a local file-based address book.

Both Exchange-based calendar resources are objects of the same 
type, but with different settings. These resources are persistent,
and they are managed by the ResourceManager for the calendar
resource family. The list of resources, and the settings for
each resource, are stored by the resource manager using TDEConfig,
in $HOME/.trinity/share/config/<family>.

The resource manager is a singleton object for every resource family. 
Use the resource manager to get the list of available resource types 
in this family, to create a new resource of a given type, to get a 
configuration widget for a resource, to get the list of defined 
resources in this family, and to get a specific resource object.

USE CASES
---------
Opening all resources of resource family "calendar". The associated 
(abstract) class is ResourceCalendar.

    KRES::ResourceManager<ResourceCalendar> mManager = new KRES::ResourceManager<ResourceCalendar>( "calendar" );
    QPtrList<ResourceCalendar> mResources = mManager->resources(); 
    // Open resources
    ResourceCalendar *resource;
    for ( resource = mResources.first(); resource; resource = mResources.next() ) {
      kdDebug() << "Opening resource " + resource->name() << endl;
      bool result = resource->open();
      if ( ! result )
        kdDebug() << "Error opening resource" << endl;
    }

Note that the resources are configured by the user in a kcontrol
applet. The singleton resourcemanager reads the configuration from
the config file that the kcm applet writes.

Getting the events for a certain date range from all resources. 
ResourceCalendar defines a function 
QPtrList<Event> rawEvents( QDate start, QDate end, bool inclusive )
that returns the events in the resource in the date range. We just
iterate over all available resources to harvest all events.

    QPtrList<Event> result;
    ResourceCalendar *resource;
    for ( resource = mResources.first(); resource; resource = mResources.next() ) {
      QPtrList<Event> list = resource->rawEvents( start, end, inclusive );
      Event* item;
      for ( item = list.first(); item; item = list.next() ) {
        result.append( item );
      }
    }

EXAMPLES
--------
For examples, check the following files in tdepim/libkcal:
- resourcecalendar.{h,cpp} 
  Defines the base class of the calendar resource family
- kcmcalendars.{h,cpp}
  Defines the KControl applet for calendar resources
- kcalendars.desktop
  This .desktop files tells KControl where to find the 
  applet for calendar resources.
- Makefile.am
  How to build and install the calendar resource family

The "local" resource is compiled and installed together
with libkcal:
- resourcelocal.{h,cpp}
  Defines the local resource type, in the calendar resource family
- resourcelocalconfig.{h,cpp}
  Defines the configuration widget for the local resource
- local.desktop
  Information on the local resource type, in order to know 
  which resource types are available

The "exchange" calendar resource is compiled in a separate 
library, dynamically loaded by the resource manager if 
resources of this type are used. This resource is in
tdepim/tderesources/exchange:
- resourceexchange.{h,cpp}
  Defines the exchange resource
- resourceexchangeconfig.{h,cpp}
  Defines the configuration widget for the exchange resource
- exchange.desktop
  This file is installed so that the resource manager can
  find the exchange resource type
- Makefile.am
  How to build and install the exchange resource type

IDEAS/ISSUES/PROBLEMS
---------------------
- What happens when there are resource manager in two separate
processes (like kcontrol and korganizer, or two kcontrols) both
accessing the same resource family?
  
  + If there are more than one resource managers running in the
  same KDE session, but in separate processes, they should keep 
  each other informed. I've implemented some DCOP stuff so that
  the various managers know when resources have been added, 
  deleted or modified. These messages are not yet handled 
  completely.

- The resource manager should send a signal when a resource
has changed, so that the applications can update their information.

  + Problem with this: ResourceManager is a template class. 
  Templates cannot have signals or slots. An app should
  implement the ManagerObserver interface and register with the
  resource manager.

- Maybe the flags that marks each resource as active or passive,
and the Standard resource, should be application-specific? E.g., 
I can imagine karm looking only in the business calendar, so it
should have only one active calendar, while KORganizer would also
have my wife's calendar active read-only.

- There should be a way to synchronize the concurrent use of a 
resource, be it in the same process, on different processes in
the same KDE session, or even when e.g. korganizer uses an
Exchange calendar while also Outlook is running on a Windows PC.

- have the item that resource object delivers (events, contacts) 
derived from ResourceItem. Then introduce locking and unlocking,
that every resource type should extend using its own locking 
mechanism, like SQL locks, or file locks, or whatever.

  + This means that Addressee, Event etc. should be
  derived from ResourceItem.
  + Communication via DCOP via the Resource, I think.
  + Drawback: flexibility is lost, because the Resource
  would have to be a factory for these objects.

- Maybe the resource class should have some generic support
for searching. In the calendar family, you could search by
date, by category or by key word, in the kabc family you 
could search by key word, name, country, etc.