Call for comments

[bourgeoa]

@mrkvon
I would like to try to implement your email agent in PIVOT test-server
I have a few issues, and I need a code explanation

• is this bot agent app a node app running in the background along with PIVOT (flavor of CSS) ?
• how to launch the app. Do I understand well that the actual browser dist/index.js calls need to be replaced by a use case application ?
• one of the application use case is to send an email once everyday to all pods-email that are following changes in a file or a folder
  • like a chat
  • or new meeting note

How to make a one everyday day function ? crontab ?
I'm also wondering why the css components use oidc-bearer ?
What is the sequelize database role in my above use-case ? can it be replaced by storing the user email in the pod like in root/acl with NSS ?
....

[mrkvon]

First, a warning: I'm afraid this code is not immediately usable. It's a legacy code that—in the context of SolidCouch—was replaced by simple-email-notifications¹; although the core principles still hold. It worked at the time of creation—in highly experimental mode—with some limits.

I don't think it can be deployed alongside Pivot/CSS as is, but it could be reworked, or the principles used to create a proper service with an interface that could eventually be standardized.

is this bot agent app a node app running in the background along with PIVOT (flavor of CSS) ?

In principle, it's an independent agent that's subscribed to your resource or container (e.g. inbox) via Solid webhook notifications. It sends you an email when it receives and verifies the notification (e.g. creation of a certain kind of resource in your inbox). It would work with any Solid pod that supports Solid WebhookChannel2023 notifications.

There is an unaddressed gotcha though: CSS drops subscriptions after a certain period of time (20 days or something?), so the agent would have to periodically subscribe to all relevant resources and containers; otherwise it will stop sending emails after the subscription expires.

how to launch the app. Do I understand well that the actual browser dist/index.js calls need to be replaced by a use case application ?

The agent is supposed to be run on a server, and the client, and the Pod, communicate with it via its REST API. This REST API doesn't follow any standards, but it could.

one of the application use case is to send an email once everyday to all pods-email that are following changes in a file or a folder

afaicr this was aspirational and not implemented. The main use-case is to send email when a webhook notification for a relevant resource is received.

I'm also wondering why the css components use oidc-bearer ?

I'm not sure what this means. I assume some authentication incompatibility. Can you elaborate?

What is the sequelize database role in my above use-case ? can it be replaced by storing the user email in the pod like in root/acl with NSS ?

Yes it could, but it's not implemented. Mainly, the sequelize keeps track of emails, and email verification.
This is addressed in simple-email-notifications, but it's not standardized, and would benefit from some c2c spec.

---

Email notifications available in Pivot, especially for Solid messaging, would be great. Unfortunately I don't think I'll have time to improve this codebase (beyond most simple patches) for the nearest future; and I suspect there are better ways to achieve this goal than the approaches tried here.

Footnotes

1. Simple (direct) email notifications agent is closely tied to a specific client, so it's not meant to run alongside a server. Otoh some parts (e.g. storage of emails and email verification) are an improvement compared to this agent. ↩