1 = Future Plans = 2 3 The intention is to continuously improve imip-agent to fix known problems 4 and to support missing features. Where it makes sense to do so, omissions 5 in the [[../CalendaringSupport|calendaring support]] should be addressed 6 as a matter of priority. 7 8 Various other areas of improvement are described in the 9 [[../UseCases|use cases guide]], and the functionality of imip-agent should 10 be expanded to address such use cases. The intention is that imip-agent go 11 beyond supporting the manual scheduling of events by providing functionality 12 to automate scheduling and provisioning, employing readily-adopted tools and 13 techniques that are adaptable to existing standards-based infrastructure. 14 15 See the [[../Developing|development guide]] for more information on 16 improving imip-agent. 17 18 == Specific Plans == 19 20 The following topics are likely to be addressed first: 21 22 === Event Properties === 23 24 The [[../CalendarManager|management interface]] does not expose the full 25 range of event properties, nor does it allow recurring events to be defined. 26 Support could be expanded for such properties. 27 28 === Event Limits === 29 30 Being able to specify a frequently-recurring event that has many periods 31 could cause excessive amounts of free/busy data and make perusal of calendars 32 very difficult. Certain policies could be supported to avoid this: 33 34 * Reject indefinitely-recurring events 35 36 * Permit certain frequency levels only (for example: hours, days, weeks, 37 months, years, but not minutes or seconds) 38 39 * Permit only a certain number of periods per interval (for example: an 40 indicated number of periods in a day) 41 42 Such limits are orthogonal to quotas because they would apply to all events 43 created for a user. 44 45 === Quotas === 46 47 To prevent excessive booking of resources and the resulting denial of those 48 resources, quotas could be introduced. In their most basic form, quotas 49 would resemble the restrictions imposed by event limits, but would differ 50 from event limits by imposing such restrictions on a per-user (or other) 51 basis. Some examples: 52 53 * Permit certain frequency levels depending on the organiser for a 54 resource 55 56 * Permit only a certain number of periods per interval depending on the 57 organiser (or other property derived from the organiser) for a resource 58 or for collections of resources 59 60 * Impose a total limit on the number of active events made by an 61 organiser (or other property) for a resource or for collections of 62 resources 63 64 Where quotas must be coordinated between resources, perhaps on the basis 65 of groups of users, an external mechanism might need integrating to manage 66 the activity. Such a mechanism might also support things like billing or 67 accounting for resources, although this is beyond the scope of imip-agent 68 itself. 69 70 == Other Ideas == 71 72 Some more ideas that would be worth pursuing... 73 74 === Mail Client Integration === 75 76 Although the original focus of imip-agent was to produce mail handling 77 programs that would be [[../MailIntegration|integrated with mail systems]], 78 some effort has been directed towards making libraries and components that 79 can be reused in other kinds of programs. Indeed, the 80 [[../CalendarManager|management interface]] employs the libraries in a 81 different way from that of the [[../AgentPrograms|agent programs]] and acts 82 as a kind of calendar client that just happens to use the same 83 [[../FilesystemUsage|filesystem structures]] to store information and 84 control the software's behaviour. 85 86 It would therefore be interesting to use the `imiptools` package, possibly 87 with some modifications, in projects like [[https://mailpile.is/|Mailpile]] 88 and other Python-based mail clients. And a process-based method of 89 integration, similar to that employed by the [[../Testing|test suite]], 90 could benefit even non-Python programs, with imip-agent-based programs 91 being run to perform certain tasks and to update schedule records that 92 would then be interpreted independently by the calling programs. 93 94 Where end-to-end encryption is being used for mail communications, such 95 client integration would be essential for imip-agent to be useful: the 96 [[../AgentPrograms|agent programs]] are unable to inspect messages without 97 access to the recipient's secret keys, and unless a recipient is willing 98 to run their own MTA on their own computer and grant access to various 99 keys so that the MTA or imip-agent can perform decryption, the only way 100 that imip-agent might see the actual content would be as part of the 101 recipient's mail client.
