RAPI Spec Comments

[Aaron Turner <aturner@linuxkb.org>]

http://PSPUB.cinteractive.com/servlet/com.cinteractive.powersteering.GetLinkServlet/rapi.txt?proj=0411A804000000DBFE5D746F00000000&link=0411A804000000DC03F06EC500000000&cn=linuxkb

See above link in PS for current RAPI spec.

First as everyone is aware, we currently don't/can't support natural
language queries.  Jason and I have talked about how great that would be,
but we ain't there yet and I don't know how to get there.  If anyone knows
anyone at AskJeeves or something like that where we could license their
tech or maybe have them host a co-branded site to power this, let me know.
But we'll worry about that later. :)

One thing I'd like to see as part of the spec is support for our
Applications dialog.  I know Hugo didn't know about this, but for his and
anyone else who doesn't know's benifit:

Withing the categorization of our SQL DB, we have the ability to
cateogorize something as an "application".  Linked with our search
engine's ability to drill down searches, we can literally limit a search
to a specific application like BIND, sendmail, Apache, etc.  It would be
nice if the RAPI supported the ability to download a list of Apps, which
the user could use to narrow their search.

We also have the ability to determine the source of documentation as being
either internal KB docs submitted by users or external docs that we
mirror/index (like the LDP, man pages, etc).  (type 6 & 7 in KB DB speak)
I'd like to seperate this one step further:

- internal KB docs 

- System docs (man pages, readmes that come with source code, LDP, and
other "offical docs")

- Everything else (mirroring other 'non-offical' sites and content)

Allow people to search based on the source of the content would be another
useful feature to support that the web interface already does.

As a matter of fact, I'd like the RAPI to support ALL the features of the
web interface.  People who write apps to use the RAPI don't have to use
them, but it would be nice to offer it.

My .02 to start the discussion.

--
Aaron Turner, Core Developer       http://vodka.linuxkb.org/~aturner/
Linux Knowledge Base Organization  http://linuxkb.org/
Because world domination requires quality open documentation.
aka: aturner@vicinity.com, aturner@pobox.com, ion_beam_head@ashtech.net