Chat app that handles different document layouts

[RubenVerborgh]

Pitch

• Mashlib currently has a short chat and a long chat which are stored in different ways: short chats store all messages in one single document, whereas long chats create one document per day.
• Apps currently need to be coded against one of those options.
• Let's write a component such that apps can read/write messages from any document layout—including future layouts.

Desired solution

• The properties of a chat document layout should be described in RDF:
  • "create one document for all messages"
  • "create one document per day"
  • "store each message in the pod of the user who wrote that message"
  • …
  • This component should be able to understand such layouts, and read/write files accordingly.

Acceptance criteria

• A browser UI component that accepts both short chats and long chats
• The logic for reading chats should be in a separate library/component that can be used by others

Pointers

• https://ruben.verborgh.org/blog/2019/06/17/shaping-linked-data-apps/ (footprints)
• LDES / LDES Write

Scenarios

(none yet)

[pietercolpaert]

A sub-challenge I’m interested in: when would a Solid app choose to:

1. write everything in one big file,
2. write everything in separate files but in the same container,
3. write everything in X items per page?

Hypothesis: when using HTTP/2, the difference between 2 and 3 should be negligible.

[RubenVerborgh]

Hopefully the app would never choose, as it should interact with a knowledge graph, not an interface. (But we're not there yet.)

[pietercolpaert]

Further thoughts: since mainly the Solid auth workflow is per resource, even HTTP/2 would be too slow, so we will try to find a way to bring multiple small resources together into one (“virtual containers”)

[Dexagod]

Has there been any update on new ontologies or something for chats in Solid? Have these interactions been specified anywhere, which predicates are expected where?

I feel like a current implementation should expose the values it works with (chat creator, message author, contents, ...), and allow a mapping of rdf predicates to add / look for, as the used predicates in the current examples do not feel final and will probably update once this usecase is worked upon.

[Dexagod]

We can make use of the created frontends for the VOP project here: https://github.com/SolidLabResearch/SolidChatApp

and use this as a basis to create a backend layer for the challenge

[github-actions[bot]]

Please provide a status update about this challenge. Every ongoing challenge needs at least one status update every 2 weeks. Thanks!

[RubenVerborgh]

Here's an existing app that was built using shapes: https://forum.solidproject.org/t/photo-album-app/5260/7 (source) Might be interesting as inspiration.

[github-actions[bot]]

Please provide a status update about this challenge. Every ongoing challenge needs at least one status update every 2 weeks. Thanks!

[pheyvaer]

@Dexagod @andreipopi What is the status of this challenge?

[github-actions[bot]]

Please provide a status update about this challenge. Every ongoing challenge needs at least one status update every 2 weeks. Thanks!

[pheyvaer]

@Dexagod What is the status of this?

[pietercolpaert]

I just assigned @woutslabbinck to do:

1. An implementation using LDES in LDP specification and his libraries he developed at https://www.npmjs.com/package/@treecg/versionawareldesinldp - according to this specification
2. Identify one of the many open-source prototypes of a Solid Chat that could serve as a demo to get this into, in which you will be able to configure the parameters of how to write
3. A separate library should be able to show a chat regardless of file-structure it is stored in

[github-actions[bot]]

Please provide a status update about this challenge. Every ongoing challenge needs at least one status update every 2 weeks. Thanks!

[pheyvaer]

@woutslabbinck Are you still working on this? If so, what is the status of this?

[woutslabbinck]

Since my assignment, I have not found time yet to execute the plan that Pieter Colpaert has proposed.

[github-actions[bot]]

Please provide a status update about this challenge. Every ongoing challenge needs at least one status update every 2 weeks. Thanks!

[pheyvaer]

@woutslabbinck Is there any update on this?

[woutslabbinck]

I am afraid it's the same answer as last time. I have not found time yet to focus on this challenge.

[pheyvaer]

Ok, then I'm gonna unassign you to make clear that nobody is working on it at the moment.