doc/addressbook.txt

   1 SquirrelMail Addressbook Internals
   2 ==================================
   3
   4 This document describe 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 (is 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, [BTYPE])
  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      BTYPE - Optional backend type to search. Either "local"
  69      or "remote".
  70
  71    This method will return an array of result arrays (see below), an
  72    empty array if nothing was found, or false if the search failed.
  73
  74
  75   s_search(QUERY, [BTYPE])
  76
  77    The same as search(), but the result array is sorted by backend and
  78    fullname before it is returned.
  79
  80
  81   lookup(NICKNAME)
  82
  83      NICKNAME - Return the user identified by NICKNAME in
  84      the addressbook.
  85
  86    This method will return one result array (see below), an empty
  87    array if nothing was found, or false if the search failed. The
  88    lookup is only performed in "local" type backends.
  89
  90
  91   list_addr()
  92
  93    This method will return an array of result arrays (see below) for
  94    all addresses in the addressbook, or false if it failed. Only
  95    addresses in "local" type backends are returned.
  96
  97
  98   add(USERDATA, BNUM)
  99
 100      USERDATA - An array with user data. Must contain the following
 101      keys: nickname, firstname, lastname, email, label
 102      See below for information about the keys.
 103
 104      BNUM - ID of the backend, as returned by add_backend, to add this
 105      data to.
 106
 107    This method will return the backend ID of the backend where data
 108    was added, or false if it failed.
 109
 110
 111
 112 If one of the above methods fail, an error message is available in the
 113 AddressBook->error variable. Feel free to ignore it.
 114
 115
 116 For the result of a search, lookup or list_addr, one or more result
 117 arrays are used. These arrays contain the following keys:
 118
 119   nickname:  Unique identifier for this name in this backend. Onlu
 120              usable for the local_file backend, and possibly LDAP.
 121   name:      Person's full name.
 122   email:     Person's e-mail address.
 123   backend:   Backend ID where this was found
 124   source:    Name of the backend where this was found
 125
 126 In addition, the following keys may exist for some backends:
 127
 128   label:     Additional information about the person
 129   firstname: Person's first name
 130   lastname:  Person's last name
 131
 132
 133 3. The backend classes
 134 ----------------------
 135
 136 ... more later ...