Re: [Ethereal-dev] Re: Field Information

[Ulf Lamping <ulf.lamping@xxxxxx>]

ronnie sahlberg wrote:
> ACK.
>
> A feature to link hf fields to URLs would be very very useful and
> should not be limited to only OIDs.
>
>
> It would be nice with a generic api where one could link arbitrary
> hf_fields and/or values to arbitrary URLs.
>
> Would something similar to the PROTO_ITEM_SET_GENERATED macro be a
> better solution here?
> PROTO_ITEM_SET_URL ?
Yes, sounds good (and better than the FI_URI I've mentioned before).
> To explicitely set the URL for a specific field somewhere  (for
> example to send  them to
> http://wiki.ethereal.com/SMB2/How_ImpersonatingLevel_Really_works_and_what_it_means 
>
> )
That's what I had in mind with a generic way to handle these things.
> It might also be useful with a generic framework how to handle URLs
> for fields where there is no explicit PROTO_ITEM_SET_URL
>
> I.e.
> IF there is a PROTO_.. for this field THEN
>    go to that URL
> FI
> then also
> Switch(type){
> case FT_OID:
>     send them to alvestrand...oidvalue
>       or send them to mib-depot
>
>
> That might require that you register multiple context specific entries
> for each field
Won't that be a bit overkill? I'm unsure but there might be situations 
where it's required anyway.

That will complicate the internal data structures (list of strings 
instead of a pointer to a string) and the GUI handling of it a lot (a 
sub menu in a context menu should be avoided where possible, as it's 
handling isn't very nice).
> Maybe something like having the popup dialog showing
> "AlgorithmIdentifier"   that links to wiki.ethereal.com   due to 
> PROTO_...
> "Relevant RFC" that links to www.rfc-editor.org  also explicitely set 
> by PROTO_
>
> "Alvestrand OID repository"  since this is a FT_OID
> "Mib Depot" also since this is a FT_OID and it might give us the 
> actual mib.
>
>
> with the two last entries since type was FT_OID and preferences are
> set to "If type==FT_OID  then add these two links"
>
>
>
> we should ofcourse first check with the people of those external sites
> if it is ok to link our app to their site by the default preferences
> sicne there are milions of ethereal users and it would be very rude to
> ethereal their websites. :-(
That would be nice, but not exactly required, as there won't be a 
"slashdot" effect. It won't happen that every Ethereal user will click 
exactly that link in a short period of time.

And links are the essence of the web.

Regards, ULFL