I suggest posting this to the Summer of Code 2008 group on groups.drupal.org (http://groups.drupal.org/soc-2008) as many reviewers' eyeballs are likely to be there as the 5:00PST deadline approaches. Ezra Gildesgame On Mar 23, 2008, at 3:17 PM, Anthony Bryan wrote:
Hi,
There was some discussion [1] last year about Metalink (which list mirrors & checksums for download programs). Since then, support has been added to KGet in KDE and DownThemAll!, a Firefox extension. What we are missing is things to make it easier for projects to make the simple XML .metalinks.
I know this is late, but if anyone is interested, we'd be willing to co-mentor if needed, and fund development of this (if not accepted for GSoC).
A brief overview of Metalink: "Metalink solves the first problem -- how to find the most speedy way to download a file -- by grouping different download protocols into one protocol. This enables Metalink clients to automatically switch between different mirror servers without explicit user instructions. Not only multiple server information is described but also meta-data (e.g., the location of the server, document tags and license)." Geospatial Semantic Web
Some basic features the information in a metalink can be used for:
* Listing multiple mirrors for higher availability. * Automatic error recovery and repair of corrupted downloads. * Describe mirror location and priority for automated and efficient use. * More information about a download for users. * Add a file or multiple files to a download queue.
-- (( Anthony Bryan ... Metalink [ http://www.metalinker.org ] )) Easier, More Reliable, Self Healing Downloads
[1] http://lists.drupal.org/archives/development/2007-03/msg00011.html http://groups.drupal.org/node/3647