[RFC] Global events naming convention

[skjnldsv]

Intro

Welcome!

Since I find it quite awesome that we can use global events, I think we should aim for a nice convention.
Let's list an example of potential events we could see across Nextcloud... 🤔

Thoughts

• A file have been updated
• An app have been enabled/disabled
• A contact have been deleted
• A file have been uploaded
• A header menu have been opened
• The sidebar have been toggled
• ...

Goals

I think it would be nice to have some kind of modifier syntax.
I really dislike underscores, so I would favour dashes.

Proposal

• files:file.update
• contacts:contact.delete
• nextcloud:app.disable
• nextcloud:unified-search.search

Sub-proposal

I would love to be able to watch for partial event names.
Like file:update:12345 and file:update would both trigger if the file 13245 is updated?

Questions

• Shall we enforce the dashes and throw errors
• Shall we strongly suggest the syntax event:modifier:data (e.g. file:update:12345)
  • If so, the header-menu-unified-search:open should most likely be header-menu:open:unified-search ?

Thanks!
cc @georgehrke @korelstar @ma12-co @juliushaertl @ChristophWurst @raimund-schluessler @danxuliu @rullzer

[ChristophWurst]

Ref https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/stable/developer_manual/app/events.html#naming-scheme for what we do for php events

[ChristophWurst]

A more high level question: do we want to prefix the event names with app IDs, if applicable? Like if more apps start using events the chances of a conflict arise if the events are named too generic, like logout or whatever. Should it be mail:logout instead if the event is meant to be used in Mail only?

Of course that does not apply to global stuff that is possibly emitted by the Nextcloud server.

[skjnldsv]

do we want to prefix the event names with app IDs, if applicable?

I like the idea, and thought about it, but will be a nightmare when the id is something like files_sharing. Then we'd have events like files_sharing:create or whatever?
I'm more willing to do things like share:create straight away?

[ChristophWurst]

I'm more willing to do things like share:create straight away?

But that calls for conflicts.

Then we'd have events like files_sharing:create or whatever?

That sounds actually fine to me? It's very clear what app this belongs to.

[skjnldsv]

Okay, so what about enforcing dashes with a nice str_replace on the library itself so everyone uses the same? :D

[ChristophWurst]

Could you elaborate on your strong feelings against underscores? 🙊

[skjnldsv]

Could you elaborate on your strong feelings against underscores?

it reminds me of lodash xD
No, it's just mixing both of them I dislike 🤷
I feel like it's messy for a naming convention ?

[ChristophWurst]

If we want to scope things with an app ID then we should allow the _s. IMO it's not worth to forbid this sign just because of cosmetic preferences. We could use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_case but I'm sure you won't like it 😉

[skjnldsv]

Okay then, let's move on! We go for appID every time? Or only for non-core ones?

What about the modifier syntax? files_sharing:create ? And the partial event trigger?

I would love to be able to watch for partial event names.
Like file:update:12345 and file:update would both trigger if the file 13245 is updated?

[ChristophWurst]

Okay then, let's move on! We go for appID every time? Or only for non-core ones?

Prefix for app events, no prefix for core ones?

What about the modifier syntax?

I don't dislike it, but it would be quite different to the naming scheme with have for php events. Like if you create a file in php we'd use a FileCreated and with the modifier syntax we'd have file:create, right? The more streamlined alternative would be file-created or similar, depending on how we join multi word event names.

And the partial event trigger?

Sounds interesting but I do not have a real preference on that yet. Guess it depends on how much we use this.

[skjnldsv]

To be fair I'm fine to go for any solution. But I feel we should really start to ensure this is done properly :)

[skjnldsv]

Like if you create a file in php we'd use a FileCreated and with the modifier syntax we'd have file:create, right? The more streamlined alternative would be file-created or similar, depending on how we join multi word event names.

What made me thought of this was the vue event syntax which I kinda like :)
But I'm also fine with events like files-create contacts-delete mail-send.. etc 🤔