| 1 | SquirrelMail Addressbook Internals |
| 2 | ================================== |
| 3 | |
| 4 | This document describes how the SquirrelMail address book works. It is |
| 5 | primarily intended for developers. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | 1. The Basics |
| 9 | ------------- |
| 10 | |
| 11 | The address book is written using PHP classes, with one class, |
| 12 | AddressBook, that use one or more "backend" classes to access |
| 13 | different address books. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | All operations, such as search, lookup, add etc., are performed by |
| 16 | calling the appropriate methods from the AddressBook object. The |
| 17 | operation will then be distributed by calling the correct method in |
| 18 | the appropriate backend(s). |
| 19 | |
| 20 | To initialize the address book, the function addressbook_init() from |
| 21 | functions/addressbook.php is called. This function will create an |
| 22 | AddressBook object, add one backend for a personal address book (file |
| 23 | based storage), and add the LDAP backends defined in the $ldap_server |
| 24 | configuration directive (if any). |
| 25 | |
| 26 | An addressbook can also be initialized like this if you want to: |
| 27 | |
| 28 | $abook = new AddressBook; |
| 29 | |
| 30 | // Add one file based backend (personal address book) |
| 31 | $abook->add_backend("local_file", Array("filename" => $filename, |
| 32 | "create" => true)); |
| 33 | |
| 34 | $abook->add_backend("ldap_server", <array with parameters>); |
| 35 | |
| 36 | $res = $abook->search("John Doe"); |
| 37 | |
| 38 | echo $res[0]["name"] . " " . $res[0]["email"]; |
| 39 | |
| 40 | |
| 41 | |
| 42 | 2. The AddressBook class |
| 43 | ------------------------ |
| 44 | |
| 45 | This class acts as the glue for the address book. The following public |
| 46 | methods are provided: |
| 47 | |
| 48 | add_backend(NAME, PARAMETERS) |
| 49 | |
| 50 | NAME - The name of the backend to add. A file with a |
| 51 | class abook_NAME must be included before this can |
| 52 | be done. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | PARAMETERS - A mixed variable that is passed on to |
| 55 | the backend class constructor. See each backend |
| 56 | for docs. |
| 57 | |
| 58 | This method will return a backend ID number (not usable at the |
| 59 | moment), or false if it failed. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | |
| 62 | search(QUERY, [BNUM]) |
| 63 | |
| 64 | QUERY - Something to search for. At the moment, only |
| 65 | a string is allowed here, but advanced expressions |
| 66 | will be supported through an array of parameters. |
| 67 | |
| 68 | BNUM - Optional backend number to search. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | This method will return an array of result arrays (see below), an |
| 71 | empty array if nothing was found, or false if the search failed. |
| 72 | |
| 73 | |
| 74 | s_search(QUERY, [BNUM]) |
| 75 | |
| 76 | The same as search(), but the result array is sorted by backend and |
| 77 | fullname before it is returned. |
| 78 | |
| 79 | |
| 80 | lookup(NICKNAME, [BNUM]) |
| 81 | |
| 82 | NICKNAME - Return the user identified by NICKNAME in |
| 83 | the addressbook. |
| 84 | |
| 85 | BNUM - ID of the backend to look in (optional). |
| 86 | |
| 87 | This method will return one result array (see below), an empty |
| 88 | array if nothing was found, or false if the search failed. The |
| 89 | lookup is only performed in "local" type backends. |
| 90 | |
| 91 | |
| 92 | list_addr() |
| 93 | |
| 94 | This method will return an array of result arrays (see below) for |
| 95 | all addresses in the addressbook, or false if it failed. Only |
| 96 | addresses in "local" type backends are returned. |
| 97 | |
| 98 | |
| 99 | add(USERDATA, BNUM) |
| 100 | |
| 101 | USERDATA - An array with user data. Must contain the following |
| 102 | keys: nickname, firstname, lastname, email, label |
| 103 | See below for information about the keys. |
| 104 | |
| 105 | BNUM - ID of the backend, as returned by add_backend, to add this |
| 106 | data to. |
| 107 | |
| 108 | This method will return the backend ID of the backend where data |
| 109 | was added, or false if it failed. |
| 110 | |
| 111 | |
| 112 | remove(NICKNAME, BNUM) |
| 113 | |
| 114 | NICKNAME - Delete the user identified by NICKNAME in the |
| 115 | addressbook or, if NICKNAME is an array, all users indentified by |
| 116 | nthe nicknames in the array. |
| 117 | |
| 118 | BNUM - ID of the backend, as returned by add_backend, to remove |
| 119 | the user(s) from. |
| 120 | |
| 121 | This method will retrun true if the user(s) was removed, or false |
| 122 | if removal failed. |
| 123 | |
| 124 | |
| 125 | modify(NICKNAME, USERDATA, BNUM) |
| 126 | |
| 127 | NICKNAME - Update the user identified by NICKNAME in the |
| 128 | addressbook. |
| 129 | |
| 130 | USERDATA - Array with user data. The exisiting data for the user |
| 131 | will be replaced with this. |
| 132 | |
| 133 | BNUM - ID of the backend, as returned by add_backend, to update |
| 134 | the user in. |
| 135 | |
| 136 | This method will retrun true if the user was modified, or false if |
| 137 | something failed. |
| 138 | |
| 139 | |
| 140 | If one of the above methods fail, an error message is available in the |
| 141 | AddressBook->error variable. Feel free to ignore it. |
| 142 | |
| 143 | |
| 144 | For the result of a search, lookup or list_addr, one or more result |
| 145 | arrays are used. These arrays contain the following keys: |
| 146 | |
| 147 | nickname: Unique identifier for this name in this backend. Only |
| 148 | usable for the local_file backend, and possibly LDAP. |
| 149 | name: Person's full name. |
| 150 | email: Person's e-mail address. |
| 151 | backend: Backend ID where this was found |
| 152 | source: Name of the backend where this was found |
| 153 | |
| 154 | In addition, the following keys may exist for some backends: |
| 155 | |
| 156 | label: Additional information about the person |
| 157 | firstname: Person's first name |
| 158 | lastname: Person's last name |
| 159 | |
| 160 | |
| 161 | 3. The backend classes |
| 162 | ---------------------- |
| 163 | |
| 164 | ... more later ... |
| 165 | |
| 166 | Ask pallo@squirrelmail.org if you have any questions on how to build |
| 167 | new address book backends. |