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<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" [
]>
<article id="index">
<articleinfo>
<title>Recent File Storage Specification</title>
<releaseinfo>Version 0.2</releaseinfo>
<pubdate>12 August 2002</pubdate>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>James</firstname>
<surname>Willcox</surname>
<affiliation>
<address>
<email>jwillcox@gnome.org</email>
</address>
</affiliation>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</articleinfo>
<sect1 id="overview">
<title>Overview</title>
<para>
Many applications choose to have a menu containing a list of recently
used files, which can be used as an alternative to opening a file
selector. GNOME, and KDE applications have done this for quite some
time, and probably others have as well.
This specification aims to do the following things:
</para>
<itemizedlist mark="bullet">
<listitem>
<para>Provide a standard mechanism for storing a list of recently used
files (really, URIs)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Allow for notification of changes in the list</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Accomplishing this will make using applications that are not native
to the user's desktop a bit nicer, and give a more unified feel to
the X desktop in general. It will be especially useful to applications
that don't belong to a specific desktop at all, such as Mozilla and
Open Office,
since those applications could become compatible with all desktops
in this area without special case considerations for each one.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="storage">
<title>Storage</title>
<para>
For different desktops and applications to have access to the same
information, a protocol for storing the recent file list has to be
determined. An XML document will be used, of the form below:
</para>
<programlisting><![CDATA[
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<RecentFiles>
<RecentItem>
<URI>file:///home/jwillcox/testfile.txt</URI>
<Mime-Type>text/plain</Mime-Type>
<Timestamp>1028181153</Timestamp>
<Private/>
<Groups>
<Group>Recent File Test</Group>
</Groups>
</RecentItem>
<RecentItem>
<URI>file:///home/jwillcox/recent-file-spec.xml</URI>
<Mime-Type>text/xml</Mime-Type>
<Timestamp>1028181158</Timestamp>
<Private/>
<Groups>
<Group>Recent File Test</Group>
</Groups>
</RecentItem>
</RecentFiles>
]]></programlisting>
<para>
The URI, Mime-Type, Timestamp tags are required, but the
Private, Groups, and Group tags are not. The Timestamp tag should be
the number of
seconds sinced the Epoch when the item was added to the list.
The Group tags exist for the purpose of
making groups of items with an arbitrary set of MIME types. A single item
can belong to an unlimited number of groups. If the Private tag is
specified, it means that implementations should only include the item if
requestor has specifically asked for items in a group that the item
belongs to. For instance, maybe a file selector would like to hold a list
of directories that you have recently saved files in, and allow you to
choose from one of these next time you save a file. You wouldn't want
those directories showing up in the "Recent Documents" menu. If the items
are put into the "File Selector Save Directories" group and marked as
private, this problem is solved.
</para>
<para>
All text in the file should be stored in the UTF-8 encoding.
No local paths are allowed in the URI tag. They should be converted to a
valid
<ulink url="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt">URI</ulink>
with a "file" scheme. Items with the
same URI should not be allowed. If a duplicate is found, it should have
its timestamp updated, and any new groups added to it. No other
information should be changed. The document should be stored in
"~/.recently-used", and it should contain no more than 500 items.
</para>
<para>
Before reading or writing the document, it should be locked using the
POSIX lockf() mechanism, and unlocked when finished.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="notification">
<title>Notification</title>
<para>
Notification should be accomplished by simply monitoring the document for
changes. This can be done by either polling the file every so often,
or using a library like
<ulink url="http://oss.sgi.com/projects/fam/">FAM</ulink>.
</para>
</sect1>
<appendix id="changes">
<title>Change history</title>
<formalpara>
<title>Version 0.2, 12 August 2002, James Willcox</title>
<para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Switched from flat-file storage to XML. This was done to
facilitate easier storage of meta-data. Files can now belong
to "groups", and the timestamp is now a required piece of
meta-data.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Version 0.1, 8 July 2002, James Willcox</title>
<para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Created initial draft.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</formalpara>
</appendix>
</article>
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