Re: Re: AbiWord 2.6 Plans / new functions

Hi Alan,

> I see from your email headers you are running Lotus Notes, so I expect
it
> is unlikely you are using anything but the Windows version of abiword
> (although in the bug report OS was set to All).

at the present time I am using mainly Windows, but I also have a Linux
Installation (SUSE Linux 9.3) with AbiWord 2.2.4.

> The Gnome version of Abiword (for Linux and other Unix like platforms)
> includes support for gnome-vfs and at least in theory gnome-vfs supports
> WebDAV (it probably works but your mileage may vary).

I've tried it out and with some "mileage" I was able to read an AbiWord
file on the webdav server, change it and save the changes to the server.
Here is what I did:

- First I imported an AbiWord file to the eXist database (eXist 1.0
snapshot 20051203). The URL of the file was
  http://localhost:8080/exist/webdav/db/data/test.abw

- Since the AbiWord open-dialog does not have a text field to put an URL,
I put the URL (without the file name at the end) into the appropriate
field of konqueror. Konqueror opened the collection of the database (after
displaying a login dialog) and showed the URL.

- After klicking on the file, the "open-with dialog" appeared. I chose
AbiWord and the content of the file was displayed correctly in Abiword.
The filename had some numeral prefixes, I guess it was stored temporarily
in some kind of cache/temp-folder.

- I did some editing and saved the changes. When I closed AbiWord, I was
asked whether I wanted to upload the changes. I confirmed and after that
reopened the file. The changes really had been saved.

That's quite good, I didn't know it was possible.

The way to get there I found somewhat awkward, though, for the following
reason: It is not possible to put the URL directly into the open or save
dialog. This would be the most straightforward approach. A good example of
this is the open source editor "jedit" with a webdav plugin. There, it is
possible to give a local path or an http-address directly into the
open/save dialog.

With WebDAV it is possible, that several persons work on the same
document. Only the element that is currently being worked on is locked.
This, of course, only seems possible with real online access. If the
document is stored in a local temp-folder, edited, and later on it is
uploaded again, there might be problems because of concurrent changes.

> Detailed specifications are always a good idea.

I'll try to work on it.

Best regards

Marco

Alan Horkan <horkana@maths.tcd.ie>
03.12.2005 16:54

 
        An: marco.hoedtke@gmx.de
        Kopie: abiword-dev@abisource.com
        Thema: Re: AbiWord 2.6 Plans / new functions

I see from your email headers you are running Lotus Notes, so I expect it
is unlikely you are using anything but the Windows version of abiword
(although in the bug report OS was set to All).

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 marco.hoedtke@gmx.de wrote:

> Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 23:28:14 +0100
> From: marco.hoedtke@gmx.de
> To: abiword-dev@abisource.com
> Subject: AbiWord 2.6 Plans / new functions
>
> By reading "http://www.abisource.com/twiki/bin/view/Abiword/AbiWord26Plans" I got the impression, that the plans for the next stable release are
> still being worked on. So, I would like to suggest a new functionality
for
> AbiWord. Ok, I know the correct place is Bugzilla and I already have
> posted it there some time ago (# 9530). Since I did't receive any
feedback
> so far, let me give it another try.

http://bugzilla.abisource.com/show_bug.cgi?id=9530

> I have tried out Abiword with eXist open source xml-db
(www.exist-db.org,
> xmldb-compliant, runs on a variety of OS). AbiWord .abw files can be
> imported into the xml-db without problem. Since eXist can act as a
webdav
> server, it is possible to open .abw files directly on the server in
> read-only mode via the internet explorer. They cannot be stored directly
> to the server, though, because AbiWord lacks webdav client
functionality.

> How about implementing a webdav client into AbiWord?

The Gnome version of Abiword (for Linux and other Unix like platforms)
includes support for gnome-vfs and at least in theory gnome-vfs supports
WebDAV (it probably works but your mileage may vary).

In the long term gnome-vfs might become available for windows but helping
find a more portable library to do WebDAV might be a better bet in the
short term.

> Unfortunetally, I only have very basic experience as a C++ programmer.
But
> I could do some work on specification and documentation.

Detailed specifications are always a good idea.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

Inkscape http://inkscape.org
Abiword http://www.abisource.com
Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/
Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org

Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
Received on Sun Dec 4 23:02:48 2005