Difference between revisions of "Features/Sugar Bundles"

Latest revision as of 07:02, 23 August 2010

Summary

One file format to transfer various types of content in/out to/from sugar environment with keeping metadata.

Owner

Name: Aleksey Lim
Email: send an email

Current status

Targeted release: 0.88
Last updated: Wed Nov 25 18:10:45 UTC 2009
Percentage of completion: 0%

Detailed Description

In fact, this feature is an end users oriented(technically we not invent super format for various types of content, just unified sugar wrapper). Users all time know that there is only one type of sugar objects, they see it as a Journal item, one file with suffix .xo in non-sugar environments etc. So they need only upload this file to Journal and click to activate it.

At present, we have several file types that user can encounter out of sugar:

activity bundles(.xo)
content bundles(.xol)
journal bundles(.xoj)

All these files have different suffixes and after uploading to Journal have different behaviour.

Sugar Bundles are intended to unify object related workflow:

one type of objects out of sugar - files with .xo suffix
one type of behaviour after uploading such files to the Journal - you need to click on object in Journal to activate it

So, Sugar Bundles not only changes import/export part of sugar but also change lauch workflow, uploaded objects from .xo files could be:

activity_id less Journal entries, launch some activity to open this object
- just various files that were created out of sugar
- former Library bundles will be opened in Browse
Journal entries with activity_id, launch poper activity to open this object
activities, launch it with newly created object

Specification

Sugar bundle should have METADATA file in the top directory(or in <some_name>/ directory) of .xo bundle. This file is in INI format which describes how to setup bundle.

METADATA file can have one or several sections(depends on content) that describe metadata fields of final entry(ies) in Journal and other data that could be useful for sugar(depends on content).

Field	Flags	Notes
entry	optional (depends on content)	defines access point within the bundle(e.g. index.html for library bundles)
mime_type	mandatory	define MIME type for final Journal entry
uid	ignored
*	optional	any system, users predefined and arbitrary Datastore field
*	optional	any tag, depends on content(inherited from activity bundles etc.)

Any field in METADATA file can have _file suffix, in that case content of this field(substring w/o _file suffix) will be fetched from file inside of the bundle.

Benefit to Sugar

Out of sugar environment, users know that there is only one type of sugar objects and only thing they should do to activate them is uploading .xo file to Journal and click it.

So if one user uploaded Journal object(any type - activity, activity object, content library etc.) to the web, another user can download/transfer-through-many-non-sugar-environments it and open in his sugar environment with keeping all metadata(he will get the same Journal entry).

We can also collect users object on public server like ASLO to have server like sharing feature.

Scope

sugar
sugar-toolkit

UI Design

Nothing except related Features/Activity as a regular Journal Object feature.

How To Test

Features/Sugar Bundles/Testing

User Experience

Since we have only one type of sugar objects, user all time knows that if there is a file with suffix .xo he can download/open-in-journal it and need only click to activate it in sugar.

Dependencies

Nothing except existed sucrose dependencies.

Contingency Plan

None necessary, revert to previous release behaviour.

Documentation

Release Notes

The Sugar Release Notes inform end-users about what is new in the release. An Example is 0.84/Notes. The release notes also help users know how to deal with platform changes such as ABIs/APIs, configuration or data file formats, or upgrade concerns. If there are any such changes involved in this feature, indicate them here. You can also link to upstream documentation if it satisfies this need. This information forms the basis of the release notes edited by the release team and shipped with the release.

Comments and Discussion

See discussion tab for this feature

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 <noinclude>{{TOCright}}
-[[Category:Feature Page Incomplete]]
+[[Category:Feature|Sugar Bundles]]
-[[Category:Feature|<Feature Name>]]
 <!-- You can add categories to tie features back to real deployments/schools requesting them, for example
 [[Category:Features requested by School Xyz|<Feature Name>]] (the |Feature Name option sorts the entry on the category page under the first letter of <Feature Name>). -->
@@ Line 41: / Line 40: @@
 * Journal entries with ''activity_id'', launch poper activity to open this object
 * activities, launch it with newly created object
+=== Specification ===
+Sugar bundle should have METADATA file in the top directory(or in <some_name>/ directory) of .xo bundle. This file is in [http://docs.python.org/library/configparser.html INI] format which describes how to setup bundle.
+METADATA file can have one or several sections(depends on content) that describe metadata fields of final entry(ies) in Journal and other data that could be useful for sugar(depends on content).
+{| border=1 cellpadding=3 style="border: 1px solid white; border-collapse: collapse; background: #e3e4e5;"
+|-style="background:#787878; color: white;"
+! Field
+! Flags
+! Notes
+|-
+| ''entry''
+| optional<br>(depends on content)
+| defines access point within the bundle(e.g. index.html for library bundles)
+|-
+| ''mime_type''
+| mandatory
+| define MIME type for final Journal entry
+|-
+| ''uid''
+| ignored
+|-
+| ''*''
+| optional
+| any [[Features/Plain_Query_Format#System_terms|system]], [[Features/Plain_Query_Format#Users_predefined_terms|users predefined]] and arbitrary Datastore field
+|-
+| ''*''
+| optional
+| any tag, depends on content(inherited from activity bundles etc.)
+|-
+|}
+Any field in ''METADATA'' file can have ''_file'' suffix, in that case content of this field(substring w/o ''_file'' suffix) will be fetched from file inside of the bundle.
 == Benefit to Sugar ==
@@ Line 47: / Line 81: @@
 So if one user uploaded Journal object(any type - activity, activity object, content library etc.) to the web, another user can download/transfer-through-many-non-sugar-environments it and open in his sugar environment with keeping all metadata(he will get the same Journal entry).
+We can also collect users object on public server like ASLO to have server like sharing feature.
 == Scope ==
@@ Line 52: / Line 88: @@
 * sugar
 * sugar-toolkit
+== UI Design ==
+Nothing except related [[Features/Activity as a regular Journal Object]] feature.
 == How To Test ==
@@ Line 77: / Line 117: @@
 * [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Manifest_Specification#Contents_Manifests MANIFEST specification]
 * Email threads
+** [http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.laptop.olpc.sugar/19495/focus=19499 Sugar Bundles request for inclusion to 0.88]
+** [http://www.mail-archive.com/sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org/msg10708.html Activity as a regular Journal Object request for inclusion to 0.88]
 ** [http://www.mail-archive.com/sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org/msg06874.html Object Bundles review and inclusion to 0.86/Feature_List request Object Bundles]
 ** [http://www.mail-archive.com/sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org/msg07572.html multiple activity versions installed simultaneously]