[katello-devel] Future feature RFC: Package Upload

[Todd Sanders]

On 03/19/2012 03:25 PM, Brad Buckingham wrote:
> In the future, the plan is to provide Katello users with the ability 
> to upload a package.  This email is to present a couple of options for 
> accomplishing this in the UI and gather some initial feedback.
>
> Assumptions:
> - Prior to package upload, the target repository must exist.
> - When a package is uploaded, it will be uploaded only to the Library.
>
> The following are a couple of options for accomplishing this in the UI:
>
> 1. Incorporate it as part of Content Management -> Custom Content 
> Providers
>
>     For example,
>     a. select [provider] -> Products & Repos -> [repository]
>     b. from the Repository Details subpanel, allow the user the 
> ability to browse
>         to a package file and click 'Upload'
>
> 2. Incorporate it as part of Content Management -> Promotions
>
>     For example,
>     a. in the content tree, navigate to Repos
>     b. select the repo.  (Note: currently, users can see repos listed, 
> but not select them).
>     c. from the Repository Details pane (new), allow the user the 
> ability to browse
>         to a package file and click 'Upload'.  (Notes: We could also 
> use this pane to display
>         a few details on the repository, such as name, url and other 
> useful info.).
>
> I lean towards option 2 for a couple of reasons:
> - Before a user adds a package, they are likely to browse to see what 
> packages exist.  Currently, this would be done from the Promotions 
> page; therefore, they would already be on the page.
> - In the future, users will have the ability to download packages.  
> Assuming this will be based on earlier implementations, this would be 
> from the Promotions page; therefore, having both upload/download on 
> Promotions keeps it 'somewhat' consistent.
>
> There may be other options as well.
>
> Any thoughts/opinions/preferences?
>
> Thanks,
> Brad
>
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Couple of comments here:

1. Let's not reinvent the wheel here, the heavy lifting has already been 
done in Pulp.  We should expose the same set of functionality that Pulp 
provides with regards to package uploads via it's cli.  See: 
http://pulpproject.org/ug/UGContent.html#upload

2. Package uploads are only valid for "Custom" Providers.

3. We need to support both uploading single packages and/or 
*directories* of packages to the Library, and only to the Library.  IMO, 
the best place for this functionality would be within a content browser 
either (a) from a screen where the user is browsing all packages in the 
Library, or (b) from a screen where the where the user is browsing all 
packages scoped to a repository in the Library.  Isn't the content 
browser functionality targeted for our next release?

4. Packages should be able to exist without repository associations.  
Meaning I can upload to server, then associate with one or more 
repositories.  This could be done in a single operation for convenience, 
but not required.

5. Packages that already exist in a Library repository should be able to 
be associated and un-associated from other Library repositories.

6. We need to support chunked uploads; and the upload should be able to 
resume if restarted after a failure.

7. The uploads should be supported over SSL.

-Todd