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166 lines
5.5 KiB
HTML
166 lines
5.5 KiB
HTML
<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
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<html>
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<head>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<meta name="Author" content="Doug Turner">
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<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.51 [en] (Win98; U) [Netscape]">
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<title>Software Notifier - The RDF file description</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<center><font size=+3>Software Notifier - The RDF file description</font>
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<br><a href="mailto:dougt@netscape.com">Doug Turner</a></center>
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<center>10 August 1999</center>
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<h3>Introduction</h3>
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<p>
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First and foremost, this is a work in progress. This document will describe
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what data is needed by Software Notifier to provide software update
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notification via the sidebar and "Flash".
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<p>
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This document is not meant to describe the behavior of Software Notify, but rather
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to describe what information is needed and how is should be formated so that Notify
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can read it.
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<br>
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<h3>What is needed?</h3>
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<p>
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First things first. You are going to have to call your service something. This is a name
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which will be displayed above any software packages you provide. For instance, if you are
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"Marcie's Website of Updates", you may want to call yourself just that. A large company,
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like Netscape, which may have many different services may want to distigush their service.
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For instance, maybe their Plug-In Finder website wants to offer a Software Notification
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service. The may name themselves "Netscape Plugins" (or whatever) This name is purely
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up to you.
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<p>
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The next piece of information is a bit more structured. We need to know what software packages
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your service offers. The following information is needed for <i>every</i> software package:
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<pre>
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A unique string.
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The version registry key.
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The version.
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</pre>
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<p>
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This information needs to be assembled into an RDF datasource. This is just a
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fancy way of saying that you need to put it into a special format. For more
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information about RDF, take a look at the rdf
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<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/rdf/doc/">documentation</a>.
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<p>
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Below is a simple RDF datasource that needs to be compiled. In red are the key
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pieces of information that need to be provided. Each will be discussed.
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<p>
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<br>
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<table BORDER COLS=1 WIDTH="100%" BGCOLOR="#CCFFFF" >
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<tr>
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<td>
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<pre><tt>
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<RDF:RDF xmlns:RDF="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
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xmlns:NC="http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#">
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<RDF:Bag about="NC:SoftwareUpdateRoot">
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<RDF:li>
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<RDF:Bag about="NC:SoftwarePackages" NC:title="<font color="#FF0000">Marcie's Updates</font>" NC:url="<font color="#FF0000">http://www.someurl.com</font>" >
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<RDF:li>
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<RDF:Description ID="<font color="#FF0000">AimUpdate344</font>">
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<NC:version><font color="#FF0000">3.4.1.12</font></NC:version>
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<NC:registryKey><font color="#FF0000">/AOL/AIM/</font></NC:registryKey>
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</RDF:Description>
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</RDF:li>
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<RDF:li>
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<RDF:Description ID="<font color="#FF0000">PGPPlugin345</font>">
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<NC:version><font color="#FF0000">1.1.2.0</font></NC:version>
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<NC:registryKey><font color="#FF0000">/PGP/ROCKS/</font></NC:registryKey>
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</RDF:Description>
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</RDF:li>
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</RDF:Bag>
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</RDF:li>
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</RDF:Bag>
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</RDF:RDF>
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</pre>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<p>
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<p>
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<b>Bag about="NC:SoftwarePackages" NC:title="Replace Me"></b>
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<blockquote>
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This is where you would put your service's name. Simply replace what is in between
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the quotes, with your service's name (ie. "Netscape Plugin Finder").
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</blockquote>
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<p>
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<p>
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<b>Bag about="NC:SoftwarePackages" NC:url="Replace Me"></b>
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<blockquote>
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This is where you would put your service's url. Simply replace what is in between
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the quotes, with your service's url (ie. "http://www.someurl.com").
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</blockquote>
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<p>
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<b><RDF:Description ID="IAmUnique"></b>
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<blockquote>
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This is a UNIQUE string which must be provided by you. It does not matter
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how you come up with it, but it must be unique with respect to all of your
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software updates.
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</blockquote>
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<p>
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<b><NC:version>Replace Me</version></b>
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<blockquote>
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This is the version which is stored in the Version Registry. For more information
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about the version registry, see: documentation that has not been written. ack!
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</blockquote>
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<p>
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<b><NC:registryKey>Replace Me</registryKey></b>
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<blockquote>
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This is the key stored in the Version Registry. For more information
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about the version registry, see: documentation that has not been written. ack!
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</blockquote>
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<p>
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As you can see in the above example that there are two entries. You can have as many
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as you would like. Just simply duplicate the structure and add your extra packages.
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Mostlikely this file will be generate from a PDMS system.
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<p>
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Once this file is created, it needs to be placed somewhere on the network. Periodically,
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it will be polled, and parsed.
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<br>
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<h3>What is next?</h3>
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<p>
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We may have to add additional entries in this RDF datasource. Some of which that I am thinking
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about are platform and language. However, these depend on how the website would like to organize
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there backends.
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<p>
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We also need to get documentation about how to add new RDF datasources from customers. For instance,
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now you have this great RDF file which describes your offering, how do you get it into the sidebar
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notification.
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<p>Feedback is welcome <a href="mailto:dougt@netscape.com">here</a>.
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</body>
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</html>
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