+ 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 :)
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++ Visualization of a HGPO
<code>
+ app
| + prefgroup
| | + pref
| | + pref
| + prefgroup
| + pref
+ app
+ prefgroup
+ pref
</code>
* 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
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++ 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?
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.
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++ 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.
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++ 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.