FDC3 Desktop Agent Bridging Discussion group 28th Feb 2024

Group overview

Discussion group devoted to 'bridging' between FDC3 implementations (aka Desktop Agents), allowing applications running on one Desktop Agent to integrate with FDC3 applications running on additional Desktop Agents and devices for the same user.

Desktop Agent Bridging was added to FDC3 in the 2.1 release as an @experimental 5th-Part to the Standard. The group is now dedicated to the discussion of implementations, Q&A on the protocol, and working to improve the protocol further.

Relevant issue tags

Issues that relate to Desktop Agent Bridging bear the label:

Meeting Date

Wednesday 28th Feb 2024 - 9am (US eastern timezone EDT/EST) / 2pm (London, GMT/BST)

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Agenda

[x] Convene & roll call, review meeting notices (5mins)
[x] Review action items from previous meeting (5mins)
- #1145
[x] Revisit BackPlane's release process and the NWM release bot
[x] Testing Bridge implementations
[x] #1165
[ ] Building language adaptors via bridging @robmoffat
[ ] AOB (5mins)
Adjourn

N.B. @bingenito sends apologies for absence for this meeting and will raise the topic of federated/online bridges for a subsequent meeting

Minutes

Revisit BackPlane's release process and the NWM release bot
- There is a partially automated release process already in place via the semantic release
  
  semantic-release automates the whole package release workflow including: determining the next version number, generating the release notes, and publishing the package.
  - There is a desire to move this (and the associated both account?) to FINOS
  - Vivek to raise an issue for the the migration in the BackPlane project's repo
@kriswest provided an overview of tests written at interop.io to confirm correct operation or a DA Bridge (which is then used to test correct interactions with a Bridge by a Desktop Agent).
- @Vivek-NatWest confirmed that access to this test implementation would help to further the BackPlane integration (which could switch to test-driven development if tests exist).
- A FINOS labs repo would probably be the simplest place to contribute to... @kriswest to request one
- A small amount of work in the test server implementation will be needed to allow the bridge to be started and stopped
- A light refactor of private channel tests is also neededto remove the need for access to the bridge's internal state in those tests.
#1165
- Closed after clarification of the original design decisions
  - State synchronisation must be done on either joining the bridge or joining a channel
  - If done on joining a channel this introduces delays and introduces greater complexity more state synchronisation events. There are also small races possible during state synchronisation and its better to deal with them on connection only, rather than every time an app or DA joins a channel for the first time.)
Building language adaptors via bridging @robmoffat
- We briefly discussed what was being tested in the FDC3 for the Web project, where bridging messages are being used (temporarily), to encode messages between app and DA.
- Rob proposes to build language adaptors allowing .NET, Java, Python etc. to integrate with a DA - although this would be over a bridge?
- Pick up that discussion at the next meeting

Action Items

[ ] @Vivek-NatWest to raise an issue for release bot migration in BackPlane repo / @robmoffat @maoo Revisit discussion of BackPlane's release process and the NWM release bot
[ ] @kriswest contact [email protected] to request a finos labs repo - after getting permission to contribute the tests.
[ ] @kriswest Resume discussion of language adaptors at our next meeting