Naming in Web4Groups

This table describes the naming principles used in Web4Groups. Last update: 22 August 1997 by Jacob Palme E-mail: jpalme@dsv.su.se. This research was partially funded by the EU Telematics program.

	Internal names inside the Web4Groups data base (these names are unique within each set of connected Web4Groups servers)	User-friendly name shown to users of Web4Group (not guaranteed unique)	Name used in e-mail and Usenet News (these names are globally unique)	HTTP URL1 (these names are globally unique)	Fax & Phone ID2
Messages	44*123@456	44*123@456	W4G-44*123.456@w4gmail.dsv.su.se	w4g.dsv.su.se:1741/goto?44 *123@456	725643
Messages which have been given an internal name by its sender 3	44*123@456	Agenda listing	W4G-44*123.456 @w4gmail.dsv.su.se	w4g.dsv.su.se:1741/goto?44*123@456	312
Activity	123@456 where 456 is the Web4Groups server number and 123 is the number of this activity within this server	W4G UI issues	W4G.UI.issues@w4gmail.dsv.su.se where "w4gmail.dsv.su.se" is the domain of the e-mail gateway used by the Web4Groups server to which this Activity belongs.	w4g.dsv.su.se:1741/goto?123@456	312
Users who want their e-mail to a mailbox in Web4Groups	123@456 where 456 is the Web4Groups server number and 123 the number of this user within this server	Jacob Palme	Jacob.Palme@ w4gmail.dsv.su.se where "w4gmail.dsv.su.se" is the domain of the e-mail gateway used by the Web4Groups server to which this user belongs.	w4g.dsv.su.se:1741/goto?123@456	415
Users who want their e-mail to mailboxes outside of Web4Groups	123@456 where 456 is the Web4Groups server number and 123 the number of this user within this server	Jacob Palme <jpalme@dsv.su.se>	"Jacob Palme" <jpalme@dsv.su.se>	w4g.dsv.su.se:1741/goto?123@456
Servers	456	alexei.dsv.su.se:1741 where "alexei.dsv.su.se" is the host on which this server runs, and 1741 the port number	postmaster@w4g.dsv.su.se	w4g.dsv.su.se:1741/w4g	0 (=map)

Notes

Note 1: The number in the URL (1741 in the example) is the port number of the W4G server. It can be omitted, if the ordinary HTTP port number 80 is used. After the URL can follow "#N" where N is a number between 1 and 5, to indicate a certain view of the board. URLs of type "/goto?" can be saved in bookmark lists, sent to other users, etc., just like ordinary web URLs. If a web user uses such a bookmark, he will get to this activity. If the activity is closed, he will first be asked to log in. It is possible to try to access W4G with a URL like w4g.dsv.su.se:1741/goto?agenda%20meeting or w4g.dsv.su.se:1741/goto?agenda.meeting or w4g.dsv.su.se:1741/goto?agenda-meeting or w4g.dsv.su.se:1741/goto?jacob.palme or w4g.dsv.su.se:1741/goto?jacob or w4g.dsv.su.se:1741/goto?jpalme if the string after "?" is a unique abbreviation of the name of an object in this Web4Grous server, that object is returned. If the string after "?" is ambiguous (matches more than one name) a list of the matched objects is returned, so that the user can choose which to use.

Note 2: These IDs are only valid for one particular server. They are used for retrieving the documents via Fax-on-demand. The number is generated automatically, if the board has the property to support fax-on-demand. The creator can change the number to another unique number. Documents from other server are either referred to by combining the number with the IP-number of the server, or given local shorter numbers in the server to which the Fax-on-demand service connects. Note 3: Messages are normally referred to as shown in the previous row of the table. Users can however use a command to store a name for the message in the directory of the server also for a message (like they always do when creating users and boards). These names are not guaranteed unique.