Re: [Evolution] authentication

[NotZed <notzed helixcode com>]

Sounds awful/impractical, but i cant think of anything
better unfortunately.

E.g. pop will normally require 2 strings.  -> Yucky yucky interface.


> The addressbook and calendar backends will provide good abstractions. But in
> practice, authentication is often involved (for an LDAP addressbook, for
> example), and we need a way for the backends (in the wombat) to ask for
> authentication information.
>
> Authentication requirements may vary a lot. In camel, this is solved by
> having a question (a string really) passed to the client; the user answers
> the question, and another string is passed back as an answer.
>
> So I'm proposing the following preliminary solution:
>
> 1. A client (the shell in our case) tells a control where it should be
> looking for information.
>
> 2. The bonobo control tries to create something to reflect that (like an
> addressbook or a calendar) in the wombat.
>
> 3. The PAS or PCS calls back to the client with a question.
>
> 4. The control pops up the question, which is answered by the user.
>
> 5. The answer is passed to the PCS or PAS.
>
> Here are some interfaces that might work:
>
> /* a client would expose this so the wombat can ask it questions */
> interface EvolutionAuth {
>
>       enum AuthType {
>               STRING,
>               PASSWORDSTRING, /* don't show the characters typed */
>               FILE,
>               BOOLEAN,
>               DONTANSWER /* for error messages */
>       };
>
>       void AskQuestion (in string question, in AuthType atype);
> }
>
> We don't want the wombat to hang while the question's being answered, so we
> give the answer in another interface:
>
> interface EvolutionAuthResponse {
>       void GiveAnswer (in string answer);
> }
>
>
>
> Something like that anyway.
>
> Note that one of the questions could be, "Do you want me to remember this
> password so I don't have to ask you again?"
>
> Remember, authentication is a hard problem; so if you don't like the
> solution, please post a suggestion for how things might work differently.
>
> -Matt