[pmwiki-users] RFC -- POP3 to PmWiki

[Crisses]

On Oct 5, 2006, at 2:31 PM, Patrick R. Michaud wrote:

> Of course, this isn't the only approach -- we can emulate any
> of the authentication/authorization capabilities in PmWiki,
> including authentication (i.e., "id:gateway") or simple
> shared passwords ("set a group/page edit password to 'secret_key'").

I think this is what I'm saying.  We need the same API, regardless of  
whether the post is a post-from-self or a post-from-remote, so that  
individual sites with a variety of auth mechanisms can accept posts  
consistently, and regardless of the email processing end, the emails  
can be sent to other sites consistently.  It's not the means to the  
end that matters so much as the end (the API), so that developers can  
create different mechanisms for send &/or receive.

So essentially we know the information being passed is:
a target page (with possible GET vars)
a username
a secret_key
page contents

Somewhere in there needs to be the choice between insert contents vs  
replace contents?  Some sites may want to allow both.  This could be  
in the GET vars.  But we also need to figure out a common API for the  
email end.

How each email processing application handles receiving an email,  
processing it, and sending the HTTP request isn't of concern if we  
have only one way (or rather a set of guidelines) to send the email  
that is consistent, and an HTTP request/receipt that is consistent.   
Then it becomes a matter of picking and choosing between what works  
best for each site.  And a plug in can be made to handle "post only  
if GPG signature matches" etc.  And you can write your app in Perl :) :P

And the receiving end can possibly be used for other applications.  A  
web form on a plain ol' HTML website that adds something to a wiki  
page on a remote site?  Just have to be VERY careful about how things  
are programmed for security, otherwise it could be very helpful in a  
variety of environments.

Crisses