To-Do List

This file contains pending tasks for the org.risource.pia package.

• Completed tasks
• Keywords
• Oldest Entry (at end.)

To-Do List

1. Bug Need a way to suppress site-hierarchy namespaces
   otherwise there's a potential security hole in imported code.
2. Check SiteDoc may no longer need prefix support.
   should do it via the root. (1999-12-14)
   
3. Check make sure CGI works
   Make sure one can specify processor, access all relevant environment variables (including PIA_HOME, etc.). (1999-11-01)
   
4. Bug Transaction should do all logging.
   Because acceptor and transaction do logging in different threads, the log is confused. (1999-10-21)
   
5. Impr May need a tag to do DNS lookup.
   (1999-10-21)
   
6. Hole Need permissions as well as authentication.
   Need to be able to authorize, e.g., selected users for writing, and let everyone read. (1999-10-05)
   
7. Bug Authorization must use Site for passwds.
   Currently Authenticator uses a raw File to get the passwords; this works for the moment but really ought to use the site stuff. (1999-10-05)
   
8. Impr Register agents in PiaSite
   It's no longer necessary or desirable for Resolver to do this. (1999-10-05)
   
9. Hole PUT still missing
   see old GenericAgent and FileAccess. Probably very easy now. (1999-10-04)
   
10. Bug eliminate Pia.piaPropTable.
    Just go through the existing properties to determine which ones to suck in from the file. (1999-10-04)
    
11. Impr flag to update site config from command line.
    The command line properties are usually transient, but in some cases it may be desirable to create an updated site configuration file which includes them. (1999-10-04)
    
12. Impr Get rid of Logger; rationalize reporting.
    Really need to standardize the multiple versions of report, message, etc.; create a small number of log streams (server, error, message). (1999-09-28)
    
13. Bug problems with AGENT: namespace
    You can't get at the actual agent and its content. May need a new kind of wrapper, or cleverness in Index to handle a binding that's an element rather than a namespace. (1999-09-24)
    
14. Bug need to use default=../Toolbar in remoteTools
    and of course fix the corresponding files. (1999-09-23)
    
15. Bug need global flag that suppresses agent initialization
    Need to separate the <AGENT> tag's action from the actual initialization -- at the very least the whole directory has to be configured first. Agent home pages need to check to see if their agent is actually running, and offer to activate it if not. The intended usage is to activate everything that's supposed to be active on start-up, then manage the rest. (1999-09-22)
    
16. Bug PUT not supported (again)
    There was stuff in FileAccess to support this. (1999-09-22)
    
17. Bug <submit-forms> untested.
    (1999-09-22)
    

18. Hole Makefiles should work from DOS
    That means that there should be recursive targets that don't use the shell. (1999-06-14)
    
19. Impr Servlet Interface
    Both the Resolver and Agent need to respond to the Servlet interface. There also needs to be a way to wrap an arbitrary Servlet as an Agent or (perhaps better) as a document inside an Agent. (1999-06-11)
    
20. Hole Criteria ought to be XML
    Among other things, there should be a way to perform arbitrary tests on a header. It may even be desirable to allow arbitrary XXML code; this would also simplify programming, though it would require a different TopContext for efficiency. (1999-06-11)
    
21. Bug No way for an act-on method to respond.
    There doesn't seem to be any way for an XML act-on method to specify that the agent is to handle (respond to) the transaction. (1999-05-25)
    
22. Impr use more namespaces instead of tables
    The PIA namespace, MIME types, etc. should all be namespaces and saved as XML, rather than property lists saved as name=value pairs. (1999-05-24)
    
23. Impr Use more buffered streams and writers.
    Content would be simplified (currently StreamContent does its own buffering; text content implementations are problematic). There are probably some other places where files, etc. are read or written. (1999-05-10)
    
24. Hole ProcessedContent should wait for first text.
    ProcessedContent should wait for the first non-blank text before sending anything to the client. This would allow the .xh file to modify the Transaction and headers, e.g. for error messages. (1999-04-30)
    
25. Hole AgentBuilder should re-init. if necessary.
    Needs to check and see if the agent ``under construction'' actually exists. In that case, it needs to re-initialize instead of blowing away the whole structure. (1999-05-03)
    
26. Hole Regexp and Jigsaw must go!
    (1999-02-09)
    -- Jigsaw has been pared down to only what we need; RegExp is still a problem.
27. Bug Header parsing exception handling
    In a response, parseInitializationString should set defaults instead of throwing an exception, so that the browser at least gets the page. Ideally it should insert a suitable error message at the top of the page. (1998-11-16)
    
28. Hole Interface Cleanup
    Make most attributes conform to get/set convention instead of the legacy perl convention. Remove most convenience methods, e.g. the ones that set criteria, etc.
29. Bug: ProcessedContent doesn't do insertions.
    Neither does its predecessor, InterFormContent. (1998-07-08)
    

Description of Keywords

Bug

A (typically small) problem with a simple, unambiguous description of its symptoms.

Hole

A piece of missing, but important, functionality.

Goal

A target capability (includes a date)

Check

Something to check for; a potential stumbling block or place where the implementor may have cut corners in the heat of the moment. For example, Y2K problems.

Improvement

A desirable improvement.

Proposal

A proposal that will need to be discussed further.

Wish

A desired improvement of low priority.