Re: Message Etiquette

[Gregg Liming <gregg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Darren,

Quoting darrenp_lock (4/11/07 4:26 PM):

> Firstly, addressing:
>
DGarage.vmxml.<context>.<mailbox>:<folder>.<message>

I'm somewhat assuming you understand the implications (as I know them),
but ... just to be clear ... In the above example, each mailbox is bound
to a separate listening port and is it's own device.  I'm assuming that
you have good/valid reasons for doing so.  But, all things aside, I
probably would have mapped the server to the device and then cascaded
(in whatever fashion makes sense) the endpoints.  Again, I don't presume
to understand your design; just want to highlight issues along the way.

> Where <mailbox> is the mailbox name/number, <context>
allows for more
> than one Asterisk VoiceMail Context (I am also making the assumption
> that there will not be more than one Asterisk VMail Server on the
> network with the same context). <folder> is used to address
commands
> at a particular folder within the mailbox and <message> is used
to
> perform message related commands on messages within a mailbox folder.

This reminds me of the debate that I've had w/ Kevin regarding
transient/dynamic "endpoints".  The folder example is arguably
relatively "static" and ok (in my opinion).  The part that seems
questionable (again, in my opinion) is use of an inherently
dynamic/transient concept like a "message" being an endpoint.

> Now my question is how to best construct the messages. For example, I
> have a command to list all folders and their attributes (e.g. message
> count)in the mailbox. Should I have a multi block message or multiple
> messages per folder.

You can't if you use the above endpoint strategy as the folder isn't an
endpoint.  On the other hand, if you forgo the <message> as an
endpoint,
then that seems reasonable.

> The same goes for listing the messages in a
> folder. I conscious of low spec devices listening on the network.
> What works best, lots of small messages or one big message?

It's not clear to me what information you're trying to convey (and, may
well be a reason to ignore all of my comments).  But, assuming it might
be (1) semi-verbose, (2) you're exceptionally popular and (3) you're
away on vacation: your transported content might exceed the packet
length if you're contemplating sending one big message. (I'm tempted to
offer comments toward the liklihood of #2 since you're sending to the
dev list, but I'll be polite).  Unless there are clear practical bounds
that would likely prevent it, I'd opt for more, smaller ones to avoid
any likelihood for busting packet length limits.

Gregg