Re: [xwiki-devs] [Proposal] New Zip Explorer module

Just a note (not saying we should not do it) about dumping serialized attachment references straight to the URL is that the "@" character might be a bit problematic, since it already has a role in the HTTP authentication URL format.

Another (simplistic) idea would be to use some sort of separator to distinguish the attachment reference part from the zip path inside the URL's path. Possible separators might be - e.g. '~', suggested by Marius (/something.zip/~/path/inside/zip/file) - more complex keywords e.g. 'vfsContent' or whatever (/something.zip/vfsContent/path/inside/zip/file) - empty path element (/something.zip//path/inside/zip/file) -- this has the benefit that an empty entity can not exist, so no conflict -- the downside is that multiple slashes might be handled inconsistently by either browsers or web/application servers so it may not be a reliable option. Also, relative paths might behave unexpectedly when combined with empty path elements. The main issue with the separator is that you need to perform 1-2 additional DB queries to make sure it was not a reference to a page (space) having the same name as 'separator' inside an 'attachmentName.zip' space so this case would have to be handled properly. The only way to avoid this would be to blacklist the separator from being used as entity name, but I don`t think we want to do that and we currently don`t have blacklisted characters (or keywords) in entity names.

Thanks, Eduard On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 11:23 AM, vincent(a)massol.net wrote: > > > > > > On 16 Nov 2015 at 09:57:24, Marius Dumitru Florea ( > mariusdumitru.florea@xwiki.com(mailto:mariusdumitru.florea@xwiki.com)) > wrote: > > > On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 8:19 PM, vincent(a)massol.net > > wrote: > > > > > Hi Edy, > > > > > > On 13 Nov 2015 at 19:06:33, Eduard Moraru (enygma2002(a)gmail.com > (mailto: > > > enygma2002(a)gmail.com)) wrote: > > > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > > > About the URL format, why not implement it as a REST extension of the > > > > /attachment/ resource? > > > > > > > > Maybe .../attachments/{attachmentName}/zipExplorer/{zipPath} or > something > > > > like that. > > > > > > That’s a good generic remark: we need to decide what to do going > forward > > > between REST-module type of URLs and Action-module type of URLs. > > > > > > Ideally I think we would use the following strategy: > > > * For human-readable URLs: use the Action-module type > > > * For programmatic URLs (get, webjars, zip, etc): use the REST-module > type > > > > > > However, right now the Action-module type (Resource module to be > precise) > > > are much more powerful than the REST ones (see > > > http://design.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Design/ActionModule). For > example > > > you can execute action after others, or before or replacing them. You > vzn > > > register new actions dynamically in Extensions (which is not possible > as > > > REST components ATM). etc. > > > > > > So while I agree with you in general, I wouldn’t want to do this now > for > > > the zip module because of this. > > > > > > Now, we shouldn’t care too much about this since it’s only > implementation > > > details. What we should care about is the URL format. > > > > > > Right now the format I’m proposing is: > > > > > > > > > > > .../zip/space1.space2.page@attachment/path/inside/zi > > > > > > > Be careful with putting the serialized (attachment) reference in the URL. > > Special characters are escaped in the reference using \ (backslash) which > > may cause problems even when URL encoded (e.g. for Tomcat). See > > > http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-11528?focusedCommentId=84410&page=co… > > Thanks Marius for raising this: I’ve sent a mail on this topic: > http://markmail.org/message/ft3245cbq4ehedct > > However this issue is more global than for this use case and it should be > fixed globally. I don’t think it should affect too much this discussion. > > Thanks > -Vincent > > > Thanks, > > Marius > > > > > > > > > > Following your suggestion would lead to something like (of course if we > > > were using the REST module we wouldn’t have the “zip” action): > > > > > > > > > > …/zip/wikis/wiki/spaces/space1/spaces/space2/pages/page/attachments/attachment/zippath/some/file/in/zip > > > > > > I’m not sure which one is best. All I know is that I find this later > > > format to be very verbose. But this is the case for our REST format > ATM. > > > > > > We could imagine supporting an alternate RESTful format like: > > > > > > /rest/reference/space1.space2.page@attachment/zippath/some/file/in/zip > > > > > > So taking all this into account, at this point in time, I think I > prefer > > > my proposal so far. > > > > > > WDYT? > > > > > > I also agree that we should clarify our strategy and have some action > plan > > > to improve the REST module to make it really component-based and merge > it > > > with the Resource/URL modules. > > > > > > Thanks and have a great weekend! :) > > > -Vincent > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > Eduard > > > > > > > > On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 5:08 PM, vincent(a)massol.net > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > Hi devs, > > > > > > > > > > Following the need to support Nested Spaces in the Zip Explorer > plugin > > > > > (see http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-12448) I think it’s time > to > > > bite > > > > > the bullet and reimplement the feature using components ( > > > > > http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-12815). > > > > > > > > > > I’ve started a design page at > > > > > > http://design.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Proposal/ZipExplorerComponent > > > > > > > > > > I’m especially interested in ensuring that I have all use cases > taken > > > into > > > > > account. > > > > > > > > > > Could you have a quick look and see whether it looks fine or not? > > > > > > > > > > I’m also interested in any feedback on the URL format + API. > > > > > > > > > > Thanks a lot > > > > > -Vincent