There's been some confusion around how Hub users should access /
generate
ticket-URLs for sharing.
Currently there are 2 URLs end-users are exposed to. The first is
well-known: the ticket-URL, which allows users to view collections in
Chandler Hub and subscribe to collections with Chandler Desktop
without an
account.
The second is less-known. It's the URL with /mc/ in the middle of
it. It's
intended for Chandler Hub users with accounts and provides them
with a way
to bookmark collections and/or subscribe to collections with Chandler
Desktop that requires authentication. In other words, it's more
secure *and*
Chandler Hub can tell *who* is editing items when subscribers edit
collections from Chandler Hub. By contrast, when Chandler Desktop
subscribers who don't have Chandler Hub accounts subscribe to
shares with
ticket-URLs, the server can't identify them when they make edits.
The distinction makes a lot of sense...once you understand how it
all works.
But I think it can be confusing to navigate the different URLs and
the
different ways to subscribe and share without that context.
Why are there all these different ways to subscribe to the same
collection?
The 'ticket' versus 'mc' URL expose something to the user that the
web and
desktop clients should probably handle *for* the user.
What if instead of presenting users with 2 different kinds of
URLs, we're
simply 'smarter' about the way we handle the ticket-URL.
If you access a collection you've already added to your Chandler
Hub account
and you're logged in, we should directly re-route you to the 'from
your
account' view of the collection.
This is already logged as:
http://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10776
We're currently 'sort of doing this' on the Desktop. If you've
filled out a
Chandler Hub account, even if you subscribe to a collection with a
ticket-URL, the server is able to identify you (if not your
specific Hub
account) when you make edits because the client sends your account
information along with your edits. This doesn't always work though
because
the client simply sends account information from the first email
account in
the accounts dialog and you may not have any email accounts. We
could do a
better job of matching up shared collections with their corresponding
sharing accounts.
(The ultimate solution for the Desktop is to automatically sync up
Chandler
Desktop and Chandler Hub as soon as users enter their Hub account
info into
Chandler Desktop. Forcing Chandler users to subscribe 2x, once in
Chandler
Hub and a second time in Chandler Desktop is really a hack from a
workflow
perspective. But I will reserve that for a different proposal/
thread.)
The gist of it is: Can we shift the burden of understanding the
difference
between the ticket and /mc/ URLs from the user to the web and desktop
clients? If we can pull that off, then we can have a single
interface for
providing URLs. In other words, the URL the Hub account holder
uses to
subscribe with Chandler Desktop should be the same URL they pass
to friends
and colleagues to subscribe.
Mimi
