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• Launchpad Entry: desktop-m-media-library

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Summary

A distributed media library leveraging desktop-couch. Media-files are given a globally unique ID based on their content-hash (SHA224 or similar). The media-files themselves are stored on the file-system in a special dot-directory. Metadata for the media-files is stored in CouchDB using the content-hash as the document '_id'. As the metatada is small, it's feasible for a person to keep the metadata for all their user-generated media on every device they own (even on phones and smartbooks). However, the media-files are big and may only fit in their entirety on a beefy home-server or in some cloud storage. So the plan is to sync metadata continuously, sync media-files as needed. The per-file couchdb documents will track which devices are currently storing a given file. Some basic functionality has already been implemented in dmedia.

Release Note

This section should include a paragraph describing the end-user impact of this change. It is meant to be included in the release notes of the first release in which it is implemented. (Not all of these will actually be included in the release notes, at the release manager's discretion; but writing them is a useful exercise.)

It is mandatory.

Rationale

• User-generated media (photos, videos, etc) is irreplaceable, is probably the user's most valuable data. We need software to do the right thing automatically, without burdening the user with error-prone media-management tasks.
• If we get media out of the current application-specific-silos, it will be much easier to integrate with the social desktop.

• This sort of distributed media library can lay the foundation for a distibuted content creation workflow.

User stories

Assumptions

Design

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Implementation

This section should describe a plan of action (the "how") to implement the changes discussed. Could include subsections like:

UI Changes

Should cover changes required to the UI, or specific UI that is required to implement this

Code Changes

Code changes should include an overview of what needs to change, and in some cases even the specific details.

Migration

Include:

• data migration, if any
• redirects from old URLs to new ones, if any
• how users will be pointed to the new way of doing things, if necessary.

Test/Demo Plan

It's important that we are able to test new features, and demonstrate them to users. Use this section to describe a short plan that anybody can follow that demonstrates the feature is working. This can then be used during testing, and to show off after release. Please add an entry to http://testcases.qa.ubuntu.com/Coverage/NewFeatures for tracking test coverage.

This need not be added or completed until the specification is nearing beta.

Unresolved issues

This should highlight any issues that should be addressed in further specifications, and not problems with the specification itself; since any specification with problems cannot be approved.

BoF agenda and discussion

Use this section to take notes during the BoF; if you keep it in the approved spec, use it for summarising what was discussed and note any options that were rejected.

CategorySpec