Re: [Cosmo] Reconciling various sharing URLs

bcm can correct me if I'm wrong, but the only reason a user ever sees
an /mc/ URL is that a /pim/ URL doesn't support basic
(username/password) authentication.  If it did, we wouldn't ever need
to expose /mc/ URLs.

~morgen

On 9/18/07, Mimi Yin <[email protected]> wrote:
> There's been some confusion around how Hub users should access / generate
> ticket-URLs for sharing.
>
> Currently there are 2 URLs end-users are exposed to. The first is
> well-known: the ticket-URL, which allows users to view collections in
> Chandler Hub and subscribe to collections with Chandler Desktop without an
> account.
>
> The second is less-known. It's the URL with /mc/ in the middle of it. It's
> intended for Chandler Hub users with accounts and provides them with a way
> to bookmark collections and/or subscribe to collections with Chandler
> Desktop that requires authentication. In other words, it's more secure *and*
> Chandler Hub can tell *who* is editing items when subscribers edit
> collections from Chandler Hub. By contrast, when Chandler Desktop
> subscribers who don't have Chandler Hub accounts subscribe to shares with
> ticket-URLs, the server can't identify them when they make edits.
>
> The distinction makes a lot of sense...once you understand how it all works.
> But I think it can be confusing to navigate the different URLs and the
> different ways to subscribe and share without that context.
>
> Why are there all these different ways to subscribe to the same collection?
>
> The 'ticket' versus 'mc' URL expose something to the user that the web and
> desktop clients should probably handle *for* the user.
>
> What if instead of presenting users with 2 different kinds of URLs, we're
> simply 'smarter' about the way we handle the ticket-URL.
>
> If you access a collection you've already added to your Chandler Hub account
> and you're logged in, we should directly re-route you to the 'from your
> account' view of the collection.
>
> This is already logged as:
> http://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10776
>
> We're currently 'sort of doing this' on the Desktop. If you've filled out a
> Chandler Hub account, even if you subscribe to a collection with a
> ticket-URL, the server is able to identify you (if not your specific Hub
> account) when you make edits because the client sends your account
> information along with your edits. This doesn't always work though because
> the client simply sends account information from the first email account in
> the accounts dialog and you may not have any email accounts. We could do a
> better job of matching up shared collections with their corresponding
> sharing accounts.
>
> (The ultimate solution for the Desktop is to automatically sync up Chandler
> Desktop and Chandler Hub as soon as users enter their Hub account info into
> Chandler Desktop. Forcing Chandler users to subscribe 2x, once in Chandler
> Hub and a second time in Chandler Desktop is really a hack from a workflow
> perspective. But I will reserve that for a different proposal/thread.)
>
> The gist of it is: Can we shift the burden of understanding the difference
> between the ticket and /mc/ URLs from the user to the web and desktop
> clients? If we can pull that off, then we can have a single interface for
> providing URLs. In other words, the URL the Hub account holder uses to
> subscribe with Chandler Desktop should be the same URL they pass to friends
> and colleagues to subscribe.
>
> Mimi
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