PIM/MS Windows: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:42, 24 January 2008

This page covers topics related to the MS Windows port of the KDE PIM suite.

Note

This page is work in progress started by jstaniek.

Problem points

Maildir implementation in KMail

It is to be expected, that the maildir implementation in kmail does not work on Windows' file system, since it uses the ":" (formbidden on windows) character in file names. It also relies (as does maildir in general) on the atomicity of making a hardlink and then unlinking the original, to implement an atomic move. The implementation used by akonadi (kdepim/maildir) relies on QFile in that regard, but it's unclear if rename is atomic on all platforms.

jstaniek 12:50, 7 January 2008 (CET): Hard/soft links could be handled on Windows by altering the source code so that the "link" file is a text file itself and contains the target path. If we need atomic renames, Windows apparently lacks them, I have found a pre-Vista blog which contains description on how to perform them in a messy but honest way (look at the very last "Write process (on Foo.txt)" version). There's also a way to recover from application/system crash during the pseudo-atomic operations (see the very last "Recovery from a crash during write" checklist).
jstaniek 12:42, 24 January 2008 (CET): We will most probably benefit from maildir suport on Windows as Thunderbird apparently lacks support for this storage, despite many wishes.
jstaniek 12:42, 24 January 2008 (CET): regarding replacing ":" character on windows:
- we cannot use ":" in any way
- the ability of sharing a single maildir structure on dual boot machines (e.g., using [http://www.fs-driver.org/ IFS Ext2 driver) is affected by the problem with ":" character.
  - Windows FS layer apparently returns "file not found" error for files having the ":" character on a linux filesystem. So if there is a need for storing the maildir at linux side, ":" should be renamed even if Linux itself does work with ":".
  - Conversely, if the maildir has to be stored at windows side, ":" characters shall be renamed. Then, Linux build of KMail (and KDE-PIM in general) should support this rename to in order to access the storage.

Integration into the Windows Explorer & Desktop

Note

jstaniek 22:01, 14 January 2008 (CET): TortoiseSVN is GPLed SVN client which is nicely integrated with Windows Explorer. Perhaps we can use its source code as a reference...

Detecting whether KMail is the default e-mail client

If set as default, KMail should act as a default mailer, and thus be invoked automatically for actions like RMB "Send To -> E-mail Recipient".

This shall be also reused by others for KOrganizer and Konqueror. The solution is relatively simple modifications to the Windows Registry.

http://members.toast.net/4pf/Protocol.html http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1263/

Drag&drop support

Support drag&drop from/to composer and from received mails into the file system (Windows Explorer and the Desktop)

Copy&paste support

Support pasting files copied (in Windows Explorer or the Desktop) as attachments.

Notes

The branches/work/kdab-post-4.0 branch (kdepimlibs, kdepim modules) have been closed and merged into trunk. KDE PIM for Windows development happens in trunk again now.

Links

The KDE on Windows Project
Missing features of kdelibs for Windows - KDE PIM may depend on them

External Links

Find out how others have managed to port their software to Windows:
- Building Firefox on Windows using msvc
- Building Cyrus SASL on Windows

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 == Problem points ==
 === Maildir implementation in KMail ===
-It is to be expected, that the maildir implementation in kmail does not work on Windows' file system, since it uses the ":" character in file names. It also relies (as does maildir in general) on the atomicity of making a hardlink and then unlinking the original, to implement an atomic move. The implementation used by akonadi (kdepim/maildir) relies on QFile in that regard, but it's unclear if rename is atomic on all platforms.
+It is to be expected, that the maildir implementation in kmail does not work on Windows' file system, since it uses the ":" (formbidden on windows) character in file names. It also relies (as does maildir in general) on the atomicity of making a hardlink and then unlinking the original, to implement an atomic move. The implementation used by akonadi (kdepim/maildir) relies on QFile in that regard, but it's unclear if rename is atomic on all platforms.
 *[[User:Jstaniek|jstaniek]] 12:50, 7 January 2008 (CET): Hard/soft links could be handled on Windows by altering the source code so that the "link" file is a text file itself and contains the target path. If we need atomic renames, '''Windows apparently lacks them''', I have found a pre-Vista [http://blogs.msdn.com/adioltean/archive/2005/12/28/507866.aspx blog] which contains description on how to perform them in a messy but honest way (look at the very last "Write process (on Foo.txt)" version). There's also a way to recover from application/system crash during the pseudo-atomic operations (see the very last "Recovery from a crash during write" checklist).
+*[[User:Jstaniek|jstaniek]] 12:42, 24 January 2008 (CET): We will most probably benefit from ''maildir'' suport on Windows as Thunderbird apparently lacks support for this storage, despite [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=58308 many wishes].
+*[[User:Jstaniek|jstaniek]] 12:42, 24 January 2008 (CET): regarding replacing ":" character on windows:
+** we cannot use ":" in any way
+** the ability of '''sharing a single maildir''' structure on dual boot machines (e.g., using [http://www.fs-driver.org/ IFS Ext2 driver) is affected by the problem with ":" character.
+*** Windows FS layer apparently returns "file not found" error for files having the ":"  character on a linux filesystem. So if there is a need for storing the maildir at linux side, ":" should be renamed even if Linux itself does work with ":".
+*** Conversely, if the maildir has to be stored at windows side, ":" characters shall be renamed. Then, Linux build of KMail (and KDE-PIM in general) should support this rename to in order to access the storage.
 ===Integration into the Windows Explorer & Desktop===