Labs/Snowl/Roadmap

Priorities

As with Firefox development (f.e. with Firefox 3.1 features), Snowl tasks are prioritized. I'm using the following fuzzy scheme:

   * P1: really want
   * P2: want
   * P3: nice to have

Release Dates

These are the target release dates for the upcoming 0.2 release and the three releases after that:

   * 0.2: Monday, January 12
   * 0.3: Monday, March 9
   * 0.4: Monday, April 20
   * 0.5: Tuesday, May 26

Releases

0.3

Theme: simpler and smarter

Feeds

   * P1 expose feeds from frecent (frequent + recent) websites [atul]
   * P1 pick a feed automatically from among feeds with equivalent content
   * P1 let users subscribe to feeds by entering the location of a website
   * P2 automatically subscribe to feeds in live bookmarks [atul?]
   * P2 automatically discard old feed items and tweets
   * P2 automatically determine how often to refresh feeds
   * P2 let users specify how long to retain feed items and tweets

Twitter

   * P1 support replying to messages
   * P2 support direct messages (private messages to specific users)
   * P2 automatically subscribe to Twitter account in browser history
   * P3 shorten long URLs when composing messages

Architecture/Extensibility

   * P1 simplify composition of messaging service implementations from Source and Target prototypes

Misc

   * P1 split collections view into resizable accounts/people sections [alta88]
   * P1 support email protocols [alta88]
   * P2 integrate Snowl into Thunderbird
   * P2 organize river view into editions
   * P3 use JS templates to build stream, river views

0.4

Theme: people and extensibility

People

   * P1 add a person-centric view
   * P1 automatically associate identities that represent the same person
   * P1 let users associate identities that represent the same person

Extensibility

   * P1 optimize database schema for sparse/custom attributes (f.e. username for Twitter, website URI for feeds)
   * P2 move OPML import/export processing into messaging service connectors so they can provide custom attributes (f.e. username for Twitter)
   * P2 compose subscription dialog from messaging service connector-specific overlays
   * P3 factor out common functionality from Feed and Twitter implementations into Source and Target prototypes

Conversations

   * P2 derive conversations from message metadata
   * P2 display messages in the contexts of the conversations to which they belong

Misc

   * P2 add a wordle-like view of messages

0.5

Theme: broader horizons

Feed Conversations

   * P1 retrieve comments on feed items automatically
   * P2 enable users to post comments on feed items

People

   * P1 consume contact info from Portable Contacts service providers
   * P2 provide contact info to Portable Contacts consumers

Misc

   * P1 support several additional messaging services/social networks

   * P2 support categorization of accounts and messages via tagging
   * P2 synchronize subscriptions to a cloud datastore
   * P3 synchronize all message data to a cloud datastore