[sword-devel] Web Interface - Customization

Sat, 01 Mar 2003 08:22:40 +1000

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At 11:08 28-02-03 -0700, you wrote:
>On Fri, 28 Feb 2003, Don A. Elbourne Jr. wrote:
>
>> I'm guessing that the ability to save preferences across sessions will
>> require a user/login type of system where the preferences will be able
>> to be saved in a database. Is this doable?
>
>Logins and server-side storage of setting adds a lot of complexity to what 
>is required of service providers.  You may get people who come by once, 
>make some settings, and never or seldom return.  But their data may remain 
>on the server forever.

Not necessarily. You could preference settings that were unused for a year.

>What diatheke currently does (and what would be my recommendation) is just 
>set cookies on the client.  Nothing is required of the server maintainer.  
>If people disable cookies, the have to live without these features.  The 
>only real drawback is that it doesn't work if you switch computers or do 
>most of your work from different (e.g. public) computers.

If it is quick & easy to change preference settings, this isn't a major problem.

>A third possiblity, if we want to deal with it, might be to set up a 
>single central preferences database, hosted by CrossWire.  This relieves 
>3rd party server admins of the need to set up the database and provides 
>the added bonus that, regardless of which server or which client you use, 
>your server will always request and receive the same settings from 
>CrossWire's server.  We can set it up as a web service that the 3rd party 
>servers could query.

This is bad for scalability and fault tolerance. It would be better if all other sites using the same engine kept running with no degradation in service even if CrossWire's server were to go down for any reason.

Rev. Michael Paul Johnson
Servant of Jesus Christ
mpj@eBible.org
http://eBible.org/mpj/

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<html>
At 11:08 28-02-03 -0700, you wrote: 
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>On Fri, 28 Feb 2003, Don A.
Elbourne Jr. wrote: 
&gt; I'm guessing that the ability to save preferences across sessions
will 
&gt; require a user/login type of system where the preferences will be
able 
&gt; to be saved in a database. Is this doable? 
Logins and server-side storage of setting adds a lot of complexity to
what 
is required of service providers.&nbsp; You may get people who come by
once, 
make some settings, and never or seldom return.&nbsp; But their data may
remain 
on the server forever.</blockquote> 
Not necessarily. You could preference settings that were unused for a
year. 
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>What diatheke
currently does (and what would be my recommendation) is just 
set cookies on the client.&nbsp; Nothing is required of the server
maintainer.&nbsp; 
If people disable cookies, the have to live without these features.&nbsp;
The 
only real drawback is that it doesn't work if you switch computers or do
 
most of your work from different (e.g. public)
computers.</blockquote> 
If it is quick &amp; easy to change preference settings, this isn't a
major problem. 
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>A third possiblity, if
we want to deal with it, might be to set up a 
single central preferences database, hosted by CrossWire.&nbsp; This
relieves 
3rd party server admins of the need to set up the database and provides
 
the added bonus that, regardless of which server or which client you use,
 
your server will always request and receive the same settings from 
CrossWire's server.&nbsp; We can set it up as a web service that the 3rd
party 
servers could query.</blockquote> 
This is bad for scalability and fault tolerance. It would be better if
all other sites using the same engine kept running with no degradation in
service even if CrossWire's server were to go down for any
reason. 
 
<x-sigsep></x-sigsep>
Rev. Michael Paul Johnson 
Servant of Jesus Christ 
mpj@eBible.org 
<a href="http://ebible.org/mpj/" eudora="autourl">http://eBible.org/mpj/ 
</a></html>

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