[Social] Mozilla Weave and XMPP

[Dan Brickley]

Very intriguing,
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080702-first-look-mozilla-weave-0-2-puts-firefox-in-the-cloud.html
Excerpted below. --danbri


[[
Mozilla Labs has announced the availability of Weave 0.2, the third
major release of its experimental Firefox synchronization add-on. This
version brings a broader feature set, improved reliability, and
streamlined notification support. Although it is still in the early
testing stage, Weave is already effective and easy to use.
Related Stories

* Personas from Mozilla Labs give Firefox a sleek coat
* Mozilla wants to put Firefox in the cloud and your pocket
* Firefox 3 beta 5 released

When Mozilla launched Weave in December, the add-on offered basic
support for storing the user's Firefox bookmarks and history in the
cloud, allowing the synchronization of the data between computers. The
latest version extends this functionality to also cover cookies,
passwords, tabs, and form contents. Future versions will go further and
also support synchronizing the user's extensions, themes, and search
plugins. Mozilla intends to eventually implement an API that will enable
third-party Firefox extensions to leverage Weave's synchronization
capabilities for other kinds of user data.

.... ...

This version also uses a more elaborate key system that will make it
possible for users to securely share their bookmarks with other users.
The UI for configuring sharing isn't operational yet, and the current
security model only facilitates an all-or-nothing approach to sharing,
but future versions will provide a higher level of granularity. The
developers also intend to implement a notification system for sharing on
top of the XMPP protocol.
]]

[Daniel Mills]

Hi Dan,

I'm the lead developer for Weave. We've had our eyes on XMPP for some
time now, but don't currently use it for much. We did write a basic
XMPP stack which allows us to pass around basic notifications for
sharing ('so-and-so has shared bookmarks with you, click here to
accept', that kind of thing), but will likely switch a more mature one
soon (JSJaC looks promising).

Down the line, we want to explore with using XMPP to move around the
actual data. Currently we use WebDAV (mostly just GET, PUT, LOCK) to
do that.

We're not yet to the point where we can spend a lot of time on XMPP
integration, but we'd welcome any help / insight anyone might have.

Dan

On Jul 10, 2008, at 5:38 PM, Dan Brickley wrote:

>
> Very intriguing,
> http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080702-first-look-mozilla-weave-0-2-puts-firefox-in-the-cloud.html
> Excerpted below. --danbri
>
>
> [[
> Mozilla Labs has announced the availability of Weave 0.2, the third
> major release of its experimental Firefox synchronization add-on.
> This version brings a broader feature set, improved reliability, and
> streamlined notification support. Although it is still in the early
> testing stage, Weave is already effective and easy to use.
> Related Stories
>
> * Personas from Mozilla Labs give Firefox a sleek coat
> * Mozilla wants to put Firefox in the cloud and your pocket
> * Firefox 3 beta 5 released
>
> When Mozilla launched Weave in December, the add-on offered basic
> support for storing the user's Firefox bookmarks and history in the
> cloud, allowing the synchronization of the data between computers.
> The latest version extends this functionality to also cover cookies,
> passwords, tabs, and form contents. Future versions will go further
> and also support synchronizing the user's extensions, themes, and
> search plugins. Mozilla intends to eventually implement an API that
> will enable third-party Firefox extensions to leverage Weave's
> synchronization capabilities for other kinds of user data.
>
> ... ...
>
> This version also uses a more elaborate key system that will make it
> possible for users to securely share their bookmarks with other
> users. The UI for configuring sharing isn't operational yet, and the
> current security model only facilitates an all-or-nothing approach
> to sharing, but future versions will provide a higher level of
> granularity. The developers also intend to implement a notification
> system for sharing on top of the XMPP protocol.
> ]]
>

[Jeff McAdams]

Daniel Mills wrote:
> I'm the lead developer for Weave. We've had our eyes on XMPP for some
> time now, but don't currently use it for much. We did write a basic
> XMPP stack which allows us to pass around basic notifications for
> sharing ('so-and-so has shared bookmarks with you, click here to
> accept', that kind of thing), but will likely switch a more mature one
> soon (JSJaC looks promising).

> Down the line, we want to explore with using XMPP to move around the
> actual data. Currently we use WebDAV (mostly just GET, PUT, LOCK) to do
> that.

> We're not yet to the point where we can spend a lot of time on XMPP
> integration, but we'd welcome any help / insight anyone might have.

XEP-0049 please. :)

So...that's historical...is there something newer that is supposed to be
the new hotness? It seems like its almost ideal for Weave...at least in
concept.
--
Jeff McAdams
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin


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[Daniel Mills]

On Jul 10, 2008, at 7:49 PM, Jeff McAdams wrote:

> Daniel Mills wrote:
>
>> Down the line, we want to explore with using XMPP to move around the
>> actual data. Currently we use WebDAV (mostly just GET, PUT, LOCK)
>> to do
>> that.
>
> XEP-0049 please. :)

I just took a look. Interesting, though probably not quite what we're
looking for... I think we'll want to explore some way of integrating
XMPP that augments the current Weave backend (that is, keeping the
current WebDAV-based storage, instead of replacing it).

Currently Weave stores encrypted JSON files on a server to represent a
snapshot state, and changesets (as separate files). I think a
possible first step for XMPP integration, other than using it for
notifications as we have now, would be to move around the changesets
via XMPP. However, the data payload would most likely remain
encrypted (and probably compressed) JSON.

Dan

[Peter Saint-Andre]

Daniel Mills wrote:
> On Jul 10, 2008, at 7:49 PM, Jeff McAdams wrote:
>
>> Daniel Mills wrote:
>>
>>> Down the line, we want to explore with using XMPP to move around the
>>> actual data. Currently we use WebDAV (mostly just GET, PUT, LOCK) to do
>>> that.
>>
>> XEP-0049 please. :)
>
> I just took a look. Interesting, though probably not quite what we're
> looking for... I think we'll want to explore some way of integrating
> XMPP that augments the current Weave backend (that is, keeping the
> current WebDAV-based storage, instead of replacing it).
>
> Currently Weave stores encrypted JSON files on a server to represent a
> snapshot state, and changesets (as separate files). I think a possible
> first step for XMPP integration, other than using it for notifications
> as we have now, would be to move around the changesets via XMPP.
> However, the data payload would most likely remain encrypted (and
> probably compressed) JSON.

Ages and ages ago, Joe Hildebrand and I worked on this:

http://www.xmpp.org/internet-drafts/attic/draft-hildebrand-webdav-notify-00.html

I'd be happy to update that I-D if you're interested in WebDAV change
notifications over XMPP.

/psa