[CalendarServer-dev] Hoping for a sanity check

[Cyrus Daboo]

Hi Mark,

--On September 4, 2008 5:34:20 PM -0400 Mark Cockfield 
<mark.cockfield at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am developing an RIA in Flex which needs to be built upon a calendaring
> foundation. After discovering that the CalendarServer is the Holy Grail I
> have not only found my foundation, but a good part of my infrastructure as
> well. Really nice work!

A little Google'ing indicates that the RIA in Flex seems very limited.

> Now imagine my disappointment upon realizing that Actionscript has been
> apparently locked down to only allow GET and POST http methods.

Apparently you can do a little more than that with their proxy service:

<http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/2/langref/mx/rpc/http/HTTPService.html>

However, you really need to be able to do PROPFIND (and possibly PROPPATCH) 
and REPORT to work well with CalDAV, so that probably doesn't help.

> After considerable thrashing about I seem to be faced with the following
> two options:
>
> 1. Code my own HTTP client in Actionscript at the socket level.
>
> 2. Use PyAMF and the Twisted Gateway to hook a Remote Messaging interface
> into the Calendar Service.

Helge's suggestion of using X-HTTP-Method-Override is probably your best 
choice. I am not sure whether we could support such an option. It probably 
wouldn't be that big a change. The alternative is to use a proxy that 
understands that header and turns the request into the "real" one as it 
passes through to the real server.

I would strongly urge you to file a ticket against RIA/Flex asking for 
arbitrary HTTP method support. It seems silly not to provide that when 
workarounds such as X-HTTP-Method-Override, and more importantly when more 
web services are using "richer" WebDAV protocol elements.

-- 
Cyrus Daboo