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Custody Suite

Purpose

To implement a version control system in Frontier that allows users to be able to check out and check back in objects.

Fat Page

This page contains the Custody suite embedded in the page. The current version is 1.0b8.

The Custody Suite requires that the People Suite be previously installed.

Before using the Custody suite, you must run the script at custody.init.

Objects are...

Anything that can be named. This includes parts of the Frontier object database, URLs, projects, files, whatever.

Who can check out what

The custody suite is connected to a database of people.

This database lists users with their passwords, email addresses, access permissions, and other information.

This people database is extendable. It is the new, centralized method of storing and accessing user information in Frontier.

(See the People Suite page to learn about the People suite and get the software.)

Resources

Resources are things that can be checked in or out.

The types of resources are defined in a table of resource definitions, which may be added to and may include scripts.

Outbox

The outbox is the table listing checked-out items.

Each checked-out item has its own subtable, which contains a user's name and date and time of check-out.

This could be expanded to included additional information such as a message or expected check-in date. Methods attached to different resource types will manage any additional fields.

Every resource has its own outbox.

User Interface

Any script or suite can use the Custody API, thus any user interface is theoretically possible.

Checking out an object

When a request to check something out is received, several questions are asked:

Is this an authentic user?
Is this an available item?
Is this item not already checked out?
Does the user have permission to check out this item?

If any of the above questions are false, then an error message is returned.

Extendability

The custody suite is extendable.

New resource types and definitions may be created. These definitions may contain scripts that over-ride or extend the built-in behavior of the Custody suite.

Changes 7/14/97

New verbs:

DeleteFromResourceDefinition (resourceType, deleteList)
Delete specified items from a resource definition.
editResourceDefinition (resourceType, adrEditTable)
Change parts of a resource definition.
TimeCheckedOut (objName, resourceType)
Find out when an object with a certain resource type was checked out.

API

Other scripts and suites can use the Custody suite. That's the point behind this suite.

Here is the API:

(Note about terminology: an "available" object is an object that can be checked in or out; an "unlocked" object is an available object that is not currently checked out.)

Knowledge and use of all of these scripts is not required. Some are higher-level than others. More extensive documentation is forthcoming.

Checking items in and out

checkOut (objName, resourceType, userName, password)

checkIn (objName, resourceType, userName, password)

Managing Resource Definitions

registerResource (resourceName, adrDefinitionTable)

deleteResourceDefinition (resourceName)

areAllObjectsAvailable (resourceType)

setAllObjectsAvailable (resourceType, fl)

getResourceAddress (resourceType)

deleteFromResourceDefinition (resourceType, deleteList)

editResourceDefinition (resourceType, adrEditTable)

Managing Users

addUser (userName, resourceType, permissions, flAnyAvailableObject, extraInfo)

getUserPermissions (userName, resourceType)

setUserPermissions (userName, resourceType, permissions, flOverWrite)

deleteUser (userName)

deleteUserResource (userName, resourceType)

authenticateUser (userName, userPassword)

userHasAllPermission (userName, resourceType)

getUserCustodyAddress (userName)

getUserPermissions (userName, resourceType)

getUserResourceAddress (userName, resourceType)

userCanCheckout (userName, objName, resourceType)

Managing Objects

makeObjectAvailable (objName, resourceType)

makeObjectUnavailable (objName, resourceType)

isObjectAvailable (objName, resourceType)

lockObject (userName, objName, resourceType)

unlockObject (objName, resourceType)

isObjectLocked (nameOfObject, resourceType)

whoHasObject (objName, resourceType)

timeCheckedOut (objName, resourceType)

Miscellaneous

writeToLog (objName, resourceType, userName, message)

Database Structure

If you go through the Custody API the structure of the database shouldn't matter to you: you won't access it directly. The job of managing the custody and people databases falls to the Custody and People suites.

user.custody

resources

resourceOne

outbox

objectOne

date (date)

userName (string)

isObjectAvailable (script) (optional)

isObjectLocked (script) (optional)

lockObject (script) (optional)

makeObjectAvailable (script) (optional)

makeObjectUnavailable (script) (optional)

unlockObject (script) (optional)

userCanCheckOut (script) (optional)

user.people.users.userone.services

custody

flenabled

urls

flenabled (boolean)

flAnyAvailableObject (boolean)

permissions (outline)

odbObjects

flenabled (boolean)

flAnyAvailableObject (boolean)

permissions (outline)

This is a fat web page containing suites.custody. More info on fat pages here.