Interrelated documents, transactions and security

[Nikunj Mehta <NM...@Fasturn.com>]

Greetings!

I would appreciate if you could clarify the following issues on Slide as I
am thinking of using it in a project.

Is Slide capable of, or planned to be capable of dealing with links across
documents? For example, if a document has attachments, and the attachments
are never visible except through attachments, how do you access them? Is
this something to be built into the application, or is there a plan to
provide some API in Slide to deal with document relations?

Also, can Slide currently handle multiple version of documents? 

How is document security administered?

Does Slide depend on a J2EE container or JTS to provide transaction
contexts?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Nikunj.

Architect
Fasturn Inc.
Ph: 310 407 6929.
nmehta@fasturn.com

Re: Interrelated documents, transactions and security

[Remy Maucherat <re...@apache.org>]

> This is a question about WebDav.
> It is described as a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol which allows
> users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote web servers.
> Can this be used as an generic api to Content Management Systems ?

The basic spec is really too limited, since it's a functional equivalent of
FrontPage server extensions.

IMO WebDAV + DeltaV + WebDaV ACL + DASL should provide a decent "API".

> Is there any industry efforts in this regard ?

Yes. Lots of companies have released products which take advantage of the
basic WebDAV. MS has gone the extra mile, and has implemented Delta V and
DASL in some products (although I don't think interoperability could be
possible at the moment given that the specs are still drafts).

Remy

RE: Interrelated documents, transactions and security

[Sony Joseph <so...@eself.com>]

This is a question about WebDav.
It is described as a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol which allows
users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote web servers.
Can this be used as an generic api to Content Management Systems ? Is there
any industry efforts in this regard ?

- Sony

Re: Interrelated documents, transactions and security

[Remy Maucherat <re...@betaversion.org>]

Quoting Nikunj Mehta <NM...@Fasturn.com>:

> Greetings!
> 
> I would appreciate if you could clarify the following issues on Slide as
> I
> am thinking of using it in a project.
> 
> Is Slide capable of, or planned to be capable of dealing with links
> across
> documents? For example, if a document has attachments, and the
> attachments
> are never visible except through attachments, how do you access them?
> Is
> this something to be built into the application, or is there a plan to
> provide some API in Slide to deal with document relations?

There is no support for "nested" documents.
A document can have metadata associated to it, which could refer to other 
documents (the attachements).

> Also, can Slide currently handle multiple version of documents? 

Yes, but it's not accessible using the WebDAV layer.

> How is document security administered?

Still using the manager servlet (bad), and very soon using WebDAV ACL, which is 
now supported on the server side but not on the client side. Slide 1.0.10 
(which could probably be released as a beta) will include it.

> Does Slide depend on a J2EE container or JTS to provide transaction
> contexts?

No. It has a very simple (and quite limited) JTA implementation integrated. The 
plan is to eventually make that component pluggable (if possible).

Remy