[sugar] Importing objects from journal

[Bert Freudenberg]

On Sep 25, 2007, at 15:37 , Tomeu Vizoso wrote:
> There will be a D-Bus service (perhaps a new one, perhaps will be the
> service corresponding to the Journal activity) that will offer a
> retrieveObjectFromJournal method. This method will allow some preset
> filters for filtering by Kind, Date, etc.
>
> This method will open a modal dialog similar to the overlay in [1] and
> will let the user choose one or several objects from a simplified
> journal list view.
>
> [1] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/ 
> Image:Activity_browse_handheld_navigation.jpg
>
> Now would be a good moment to discuss if we should implement this for
> FRS or later.

The earlier the better if I had a say.

> We have chosen to not support links to other objects in the journal.

That's what I feared.

> This will waste space, but simplifies greatly things and we hope will
> give a better experience.

How would the inability to automatically track changes of an imported  
object "give a better experience"?

It does simplify things, even more so, it over-simplifies them.

> This was decided expecting that differential storage and transparent
> backup to the server will reduce the impact of storage waste and that
> self contained objects will allow for easier sharing and management of
> journal objects.

Well, this wouldn't necessarily preclude optionally tracking objects,  
an activity would have to be prepared that the object may not be  
available, and in this case just continue to use its own copy.

In summary, this means that the majority of the datastore API will  
not be available to activities. When can we expect a finalized API,  
with documentation what operations will be allowed?

- Bert -