[Popcon-developers] HTTP POST support and popcon

[Bill Allombert]

On Sat, Apr 02, 2005 at 11:45:38AM +0200, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote:
> 
> [Bill Allombert]
> > I agree, but this create a breach of trust to make the change without
> > warning the users.[1] IOW, users upgrading to the new version have
> > agreed we send the report through SMTP when saying OK in the debconf
> > template[2] They did not agree we send it through HTTP.
> 
> Perhaps.  Or perhaps they agreed to submit reports, and the only
> available method was SMTP at the moment.  At least that is what I
> agreed to, no matter the wording of the template.

Sure, but we are not supposed to second-guess the users.

> > To avoid that we to add a debconf template warning when users
> > upgrade and change the installation template to mention both smtp
> > and http.
> 
> Yes, this might be a good idea.
> 
> > Creating a new package will be much simpler to implement for sarge.
> 
> I do not believe a new package is a good idea.  We will then need to
> re-educate all users familiar with the popularity-contest package that
> there are now two packages, and we also need to update all the
> documentation mentioning popularity-contest.  And, we will have the
> problem with all the existing documents (postings, etc) mentioning the
> popularity-contest package, and users reading old messages will not
> find information about the rename.

The popularity-contest will still be available, working etc. for people
already using it.

Only people needing the new functionality and being unable to use the
regular popcon will need to know about it.

> I believe we should leave SMTP as the default now, add a low priority
> debconf question to enable the "experimental" HTTP reporting, and try
> HTTP first and SMTP next if HTTP failed when HTTP is enabled.
> 
> We should also rewrite the original debconf template to drop the
> details of the reporting method, and change the default to have HTTP
> enabled.  This way existing installations will continue using SMTP
> unless the admin changes the configuration manually, new installations
> will use HTTP, and no user should be surprised by the change of
> reporting protocol.

As you want, but I am concerned about making changes to debconf support
at this stage.

> Did you check in your changes?  Please do, so I can have a look at
> perhaps extend it.

No, but you can grab the source packages on
http://people.Debian.org/~ballombe/popcon/debs

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.