libsoup 2.22 plan

This page looks awful, but it's the wiki's fault.

Overview

• Goals / Drivers

  • ../DesktopWideHttp

  • Binding support (python, mono, etc)
  • Close outstanding bugs, fix API ickiness reported by users
    • In particular, streaming support for gvfs/gstreamer

  • Fedora Crypto Consolidation

• Constraints

  • Try not to break API/ABI too much. (Breaks are noted with (*).)

    • But also try to lay groundwork for future API/ABI break plans...
  • Not a whole lot of time: 2.22 feature freeze is January 14

Requirements

Desktop-wide HTTP

• Easy GnomeKeyring integration for passwords

• Cookie parsing/setting. Storage?

• GnomeKeyring/Cryptoki integration for certificate stuff

• Cache support?
• Read GConf proxy settings (gvfs?). Better proxy settings?

Binding support

• Clean up API; hide types/methods that shouldn't be public (*)

• Use GObject properties more

• use GDestroyNotify and/or GClosure to make callbacks more bindable

• Further gtypification

  • glib-mkenums

  • register boxed/pointer types for important structs
• Make better opaque types for message headers and body (*)
• Fix up memory-management oddities

  • soup_message_new does not dup the method string (*)

  • SoupOwnership does not translate well

  • SoupMessage refcounting semantics may work better with floating refs? (*)

• SoupServer auth is a disaster. Server handlers are only slightly better. (*)

• SOAP and XML-RPC APIs expose libxml types (*)

Outstanding bugs/issues

• Bugs

  • gnomebug:266516 - SoupUri shouldn't decode URI parts (*)

  • gnomebug:334021 - client certificate support

  • gnomebug:347108 - improved SoupServer digest auth support (*)

  • gnomebug:396081 - Icecast support
  • gnomebug:471380 - improved client digest auth support

  • gnomebug:491639 - Avahi-using SoupServer

  • gnomebug:491653, gnomebug:493686, gnomebug:494128 - misc minor SoupServer fixups (*)

• Company's suggestions

  • Improve docs
  • avoid g_thread_init() requirement if not using threads?
  • consolidate handlers and signals (*)
  • add getters for object fields to make it clearer what's public

  • SoupOwnership is weird. Refcounted buffers are better. (*)

• tbf's suggestions

  • basically "SoupServer needs more love"

• Zombie's suggestions
  • Streaming improvements
    • Sync pull API
    • Allow caller-provided buffers to avoid extra copies
    • cancellability of individual reads, not just whole message
  • depending unconditionally on libgconf would be bad

  • msg->status vs msg->status_code is confusing (*)

• Misc mailing list suggestions
  • Turn authenticate signal into callback (*)
  • XML-RPC server support

• ../ToDo, etc

  • 100 Continue processing is currently useless

  • SoupMessageFilter sucks in various ways and would work better as a SoupSession signal (*)

  • HTTP I/O is currently split oddly between SoupSession, SoupConnection, and SoupMessage in ways that make the code confusing and buggy

  • NTLM auth is implemented in ways that make the code confusing and buggy
  • A "soup_simple_..." API would be nice
  • Handle non-GET redirects properly. (*)
  • XML-RPC API is not fabulous (*)

NSS / FedoraCryptoConsolidation

• Unless this goes together with GnomeKeyring/Cryptoki, this requires us to keep our own NSS databases

• No obvious way to API-compatibly abstract between NSS and GnuTLS. (*)

To Actually Do

(To do...)