Re: Online Desktop and GNOME 2.22

["Pedro de Medeiros" <pedrovmm+lists gmail com>]

On Nov 1, 2007 7:16 PM, John Stowers <john stowers lists gmail com> wrote:
> On 11/2/07, Colin Walters <walters redhat com> wrote:
> > John Stowers wrote:
> > > But at the moment this particular 'PDA' requires a different way for
> > > it to be connected. As I explained earlier, the other 'PDA's we
> > > support are either connected(), disconnected(), or we ask for the user
> > > to connect them (log in) while we wait. I am interested in providing a
> > > consistant way for users to connect their 'PDA's (log in) and I do
> > > this by either using programmatic login (gdata for example), or asking
> > > them to log in using our simple browser login. online.gnome.org doesnt
> > > seem to support either of these scenarios, requiring  a different
> > > connection procedure to everyone else.
> > >
> > > I am really interested in thinking about how to integrate sync into
> > > the desktop.
> > >
> > So I'm planning to spend some time next week taking a look at how we can
> > clean up some of the web service authentication in the desktop.  Here's
> > a wiki page with some initial thoughts:
> > http://live.gnome.org/OnlineDesktop/WebAccountSystem
>
> Cool, sounds good. As I said, the site-specific-browser thing works
> quite well. For WebAccountSystem, when the user logs into something,
> you might want to consider doing that login with a small ssb - I find
> doing so differentiates the process and makes it more obvious to the
> user that their action results in a ssb being shown. Launching the
> system web browser to log in may result in 1) a new firefox tab 2) new
> firefox window 3) new/restore firefox session.
>
> The ssb thing seems more deterministic. You could make the ssb clearly
> "Gnome Online Desktop Login" branded. Once all the other things you
> mention are sorted out then you should have no problem propagating the
> login info from the ssb out to the system browser and the desktop.
>
> [snip]
>
> >
> > As Owen said, basically the way we'd thought login to online.gnome.org
> > would work is that some part of your desktop (say the personalized
> > application launcher) tells you you need to log in, and you click there
> > to do so.
> > I'm not sure at the moment what conduit would be syncing to/from
> > online.gnome.org.
>
> Pretty much anything we currently sync through an intermediary and
> that is not a big binary file;
>  * Application prefs (we have had our own settings/gconf sync for a while)
>  * Tomboy notes
>  * Contacts
>  * Calendar info
>  * Small files (/me ducks)


That's all very interesting, but what about a better integration
of on-line applications in the desktop environment like regular
applications? Have you seen, for instance, prism?

http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/10/prism/

I think this is a very simple idea, and also a good match for a
on-line desktop project.


Pedro