[xwiki-devs] [Brainstorming] Changing the Mail configuration algorithm?

Hi devs, I’m working on http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-13546 ("Error in the log when sending a mail through the Mail API”). One way to fix it would to always look for the Mail.Config page in the main wiki instead of in the current wiki. Actually the current algorithm is the following when looking up a mail configuration property: * <ul> * <li>Look in Mail.MailConfig in the current wiki</li> * <li>[Backward compatibility] Look in (current space).XWikiPreferences in the current wiki</li> * <li>[Backward compatibility] Look in XWiki.XWikiPreferences in the current wiki</li> * <li>Look in the xwiki properties file</li> * </ul> We also need to implement http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-12435 (“Use the Main Wiki Mail Configuration if not overridden at the subwiki level”): “ Right now when sending a mail in a subwiki, the configuration is taken from that subwiki's Mail.MailConfig document. In a non-farm use case, it's a pain to have to configure SMTP settings for each subwiki. It would be better to look into the main wiki's mail configuration when there's no overridden config at the subwiki's level. " So I can see 2 options. Option 1: Drop support for looking for configuration in subwikis ======== * Rationale: there are few use cases that require overriding the mail config in a subwiki * Potential issue: if we stop looking for *.XWikiPreferences or for <current wiki>:Mail.Config then we won’t migrate configurations but always use the config from the main wiki. So backward compat is theoretically broken. * But it’s likely that the config in subwikis is the same as the config from the main wiki anyway. It’s also likely that if a subwikis smtp server is configured, then the main wiki is also configured. So it could be acceptable with a message in the Release Notes. Option 2: Continue supporting overriding in subwikis ======== * Stop bundling Mail.Config for subwikis and modify the config algorithm to be: * <ul> * <li>Look in Mail.MailConfig in the current wiki</li> * <li>[Backward compatibility] Look in (current space).XWikiPreferences in the current wiki</li> * <li>[Backward compatibility] Look in XWiki.XWikiPreferences in the current wiki</li> * <li>Look in Mail.MailConfig in the main wiki</li> * <li>Look in the xwiki properties file</li> * </ul> I’ve discussed it quickly with Denis who prefers option 1 since he even sees the ability to configure the smtp server at the wiki level a potential issue (bypassing the farm admin). Personally I’m hesitating and I’d hate to remove the local override and then find some use cases where we need it. WDYT? Thanks -Vincent