UserPreferences

There are various ways that preferences could be stored:

1. each nooron instance (ie. each website built with nooron) could use its own set of cookies on the user's browser containing particular preferences

   Pros

   • No storage on server

   • Works for anonymous users

   Cons

   • Performance sucks when there are lots of particular preferences, though that would be mitigated by the judicious use of paths in cookie keys.

   • Preferences would not work across sites.

2. each nooron site could store in a cookie the URL of the UserPreferencesTopicMap?

   Pros

   • works for anon users

   • no need for serverside per-user storage

   Cons

   • needs cookies supported by browser and turned on (Dillo?)

3. each site could store the URL of the UserPreferencesTopicMap?

   Pros

   • users could maintain a single UserPreferencesTopicMap? at a single UserCentralPreferencesURI? saving themselves mucho fiddling

   Cons

   • they would have to maintain at least that information about each user

4. each site could store its own UserPreferencesTopicMap?

   Pros

   • might be right for sites / users where the preferences might be sensitive (for privacy or security reasons)

   Cons

   • user has to maintain multiple sets of preferences

5. each site could store its own site-local per-user preferences and merge them with the UserPreferencesTopicMap? specified by the user

6. the user performs basic authentication using an URL as the username and a password which matches the one crypted in the document retrieved by the URL. This notion is hereafter called: NotSoBasicAuthentication

Perhaps an ordering of one or more of the above policies should be defined at each nooron site. This is one more thing to put in the NooronSiteConfig?.

Maybe one of the user preferences should be which of the above policies should be used.

Maybe facilities will be required to merge, filter and rewrite UserPreferencesTopicMap? instances so users can do things like.

• migrate their central copy from nooron to nooron

• copy/clone/mirror it

• permanently redirect from their old UserCentralPreferencesURI? to a new one

There are possible requirements for user authentication being presented with the request for the UserCentralPreferencesURI?.

Maybe per/requester scope can be defined in the UserPreferencesTopicMap? so that only certain preferences are visible to particular other nooron instances.

OK, dead horse thoroughly beaten.