Horde Group Policy Objects
(or perhaps some other name, as Microsoft may have a copyright on that term)
The idea of Horde Group Policy Objects (HGPO) is to implement a replacement for the current prefs system, modeled after how Group Policy Objects work in a Microsoft Active Directory. Including a nice administrative GUI, meaning no more editing prefs.php files, and happier admins :)
Visualization of a HGPO
+ app
| + prefgroup
| | + pref
| | + pref
| + prefgroup
| + pref
+ app
+ prefgroup
+ pref
- The list of apps would be pulled from the registry
- each app would have a prefs.xml file defining what prefs are available.
- bundle the GPO and specify a target. A target can consist of:
- entire horde installation
- horde group
- individual user
- guest user
- OU if using LDAP backend
What would need to be done
- build a HGPO manager to list, create, edit, delete, etc. HGPO's
- Store HGPO in DB table(s)
- horde_gpo table?
- possible extend the datatree
- would (Rampage|RDO) apply?
- Store HGPO in DB table(s)
Possible DB schema, extending existing prefs schema:
horde_prefs table: pref_uid, pref_scope, pref_name, pref_value, HGPO
- If pref_uid is set, the pref is a user pref
- if HGPO is set, it is a HGPO pref
- what happens if both are set?
horde_gpo table: HGPO_ID, HGPO_name, HGPO_target, HGPO_target_type, HGPO_override_user_settings
- link horde_gpo::HGPO_ID to horde_prefs::HGPO to get a list of prefs belonging to a given HGPO.
Other Thoughts
- all $pref->getValue() calls could be handled on the backend by a HGPO manager, giving us a drop-in replacement.
- we'd need a way to clearly define what happens if two HGPO's have overlapping, conflicting settings.
Links
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/msit/security/grppolobjectmgmt.mspx - gives a good overview on how MS GPO's work, and a nice graphic that really helped me visualize the internal workings.