Google Summer of Code 2010: Automatic Synchronization between Sahana Instances

This project is part of Sahana Eden Google Summer of Code

• Abstract: Automatic sync between Sahana instances has received much attention from Sahana community. It aims to sync resources between multiple Sahana instances. I will work on resolving its current issues and adding new features:
  1. Modifying sync process to work with S3XRC resources instead of DB tables to maintain full references
  2. Offline Sync facility (USB)
  3. Add the facility to schedule multiple custom sync jobs (custom - weekly/daily/one-time with selected or all resources)
  4. Make sync peer discovery work over WANs & LANs by combining ZeroConf with Beacon Service (an online directory of Sahana instances)
• Student: Amer Tahir
• Mentor(s): Fran Boon and Michael Howden

• Functional Specs
• Launchpad Branch
• Demo instance 1
• Demo instance 2

Do “bzr checkout lp:~amertahir/sahana-eden/sync” (without quotes) to get the latest source-code from repository. Then rename the sync directory to eden and place it under your web2py applications directory. That's all, now fire up your browser and open http://127.0.0.1:8000/eden/ to get started :)

NOTE: the demo instances (specified above) could also be used to test out sync (use username: admin@localhost and password: admin to login)

After setting up the instance, you have to first Register (or Login with administrative account) and specify a few settings for sync. For this, open Administration page and then click Sync > Sync Settings from the menu. You will see the settings page for sync. Here you have to specify you instance URL (e.g. http://sync.eden.sahanafoundation.org/eden), description and so on.

Then proceed to the Synchronisation main page. From there you can sync manually (click “Sync Now”), add sync partners, subscribe to sync pools, resolve sync conflicts and so on. The page is self-explanatory.

Synchronisation process works automatically in the background (as Cron jobs) and you can use the Sync Scheduler to manage sync jobs. However, if you wish to bypass that and manually perform sync, you can click “Sync Now” button to start syncing with sync partners that you have specified.

Sync Partners are instances that you wish to sync with. They could be deployed on SahanaEden, SahanaAgasti, Ushahidi or possibly any platform that SahanaEden can talk to (currently Eden, Agasti and Ushahidi are supported).

Before you can start syncing, you need to define sync partners. This can be done by going to the Sync Partners page. You can either search for partners or add them manually (right now only manual additions are supported). Every sync partner has a

• Thursdays at 1400 UTC Calendar at IRC (this is tentative schedule, *would* change)

• Every Friday on the Mailing List

Following are the chosen SMART Goals that were recommended during the application process, and reviewed over the bonding period: