Clarifications to room/space relationship

pull/977/head
Richard van der Hoff 4 years ago
parent e746aa3aad
commit 2f557daac1

@ -66,48 +66,6 @@ of `m.space` (see
[MSC1840](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/1840)). XXX nobody has
convinced me this is actually required.
We introduce an `m.space.child` state event type, which defines the rooms
within the space. The `state_key` is an alias for a child room, and `present:
true` key is included to distinguish from a deleted state event. Something
like:
```js
{
"type": "m.space.child",
"state_key": "#room1:example.com",
"contents": {
"present": true
}
}
{
"type": "m.space.child",
"state_key": "#room2:example.com",
"contents": {
"present": true,
"autojoin": true // TODO: what does this mean?
}
}
// no longer a child room
{
"type": "m.space.child",
"state_key": "#oldroom:example.com",
"contents": {}
}
```
XXX if we use aliases here, and we are using it to maintain a tree of rooms in
the room list, what happens when the alias gets repointed and we don't know
about it? Maybe room IDs would be better, though the interaction with room
upgrades would need considering.
XXX Rooms also need to be able to advertise related spaces, so that users can
discover other, related, rooms.
XXX We also want to be have "secret" rooms within a hierarchy: do this with
either a "parent" state in the child, or possibly by hashing the room id?
Space-rooms may have `m.room.name` and `m.room.topic` state events in the same
way as a normal room.
@ -118,10 +76,10 @@ such messages.
### Membership of spaces
Users can be members of spaces (represented by `m.room.member` state events as
normal). Depending on the configuration of the space (in particular whether
`m.room.history_visibility` is set to `world_readable` or otherwise),
membership of the space may be required to view the room list, membership list,
etc.
normal). The existing [`m.room.history_visibility`
mechanism](https://matrix.org/docs/spec/client_server/r0.6.1#room-history-visibility)
controls whether membership of the space is required to view the room list,
membership list, etc.
"Public" or "community" spaces would be set to `world_readable` to allow clients
to see the directory of rooms within the space by peeking into the space-room
@ -130,6 +88,122 @@ the room).
Join rules, invites and 3PID invites work as for a normal room.
### Relationship between rooms and spaces
The intention is that rooms and spaces form a hierarchy, which clients can use
to structure the user's room list into a tree view. The parent/child
relationship can be expressed in one of two ways:
1. The admins of a space can advertise rooms and subspaces for their space by
setting `m.space.child` state events. The `state_key` is an alias for a
child room or space, and `present: true` key is included to distinguish
from a deleted state event. Something like:
```js
{
"type": "m.space.child",
"state_key": "#room1:example.com",
"content": {
"present": true
}
}
{
"type": "m.space.child",
"state_key": "#room2:example.com",
"content": {
"present": true,
"order": "abcd",
"default": true
}
}
// no longer a child room
{
"type": "m.space.child",
"state_key": "#oldroom:example.com",
"content": {}
}
```
Children where `present` is not present or is not set to `true` are ignored.
The `order` key is a string which is used to provide a default ordering of
siblings in the room list. (Rooms are sorted based on a lexicographic
ordering of of `order` vales; rooms with no `order` come last. `order`s
which are not strings, or do not consist solely of ascii characters in the
range `\x20` (space) to `\x7F` (`~`) are forbidden and should be ignored if
received.)
If `default` is set to `true`, that indicates a "default child": see [below](#default-children).
XXX if we use aliases here, what happens when the alias gets repointed and
we don't know about it? Or we are already in a room which *claims* to be
`#room1:example.com`, but actually isn't? Probably room IDs (+ vias) would
be better, though the interaction with room upgrades would need
considering.
2. Separately, rooms can claim parents via `m.room.parent` state
events, where the `state_key` is the alias (?) of the parent space:
```js
{
"type": "m.room.parent",
"state_key": "#space1:example.com",
"content": {
"present": true
}
}
```
In this case, after a user joins such a room, the client could optionally
start peeking into the parent space, enabling it to find other rooms in
that space and group them together.
XXX how do we avoid abuse where randoms claim that their room is part of a
space it's not?
XXX do we need an "order" in this direction too?
This structure means that rooms can end up with multiple parents. This implies
that the room will appear multiple times in the room list hierarchy.
In a typical hierarchy, we expect *both* parent->child and child->parent
relationships to exist, so that the space can be discovered from the room, and
vice versa. Occasions when the relationship only exists in one direction
include:
* User-curated lists of rooms: in this case the space will not be listed as a
parent of the room.
* "Secret" rooms: rooms where the admin does not want the room to be
advertised as part of a given space, but *does* want the room to form part
of the heirarchy of that space for those in the know.
### Sub-spaces
XXX: Questions to be answered here include:
* Should membership of a sub-space grant any particular access to the parent
space, or vice-versa? We might need to extend `m.room.history_visibility` to
support more flexibility; fortunately this is not involved in event auth so
does not require new room versions.
* What happens if somebody defines a cycle? (It's probably fine, but anything
interpreting the relationships needs to be careful to limit recursion.)
### Default children
The `default` flag on a child listing allows a space admin to list the
"default" sub-spaces and rooms in that space. This means that when a user joins
the parent space, they will automatically be joined to those default
children. XXX implement this on the client or server?
Clients could display the default children in the room list whenever the space
appears in the list.
XXX: do we need force-joins, where users may not leave a room they autojoined?
### Long description
We would like to allow spaces to have a long description using rich
@ -222,7 +296,8 @@ mechanics of propagating changes into real `m.room.power_levels` events.
XXX Question: currently there are restrictions which stop users assigning PLs
above their own current power level. Do we need to replicate these
restrictions? If so, that probably necessitates changes to event auth?
restrictions? If so, that probably necessitates changes to event auth? (Does
anyone actually make use of allowing non-admins to send PL events today?)
#### Propagating changes into rooms
@ -344,41 +419,26 @@ Options:
### Membership restrictions
XXX: this section still in progress
A desirable feature is to give room admins the power to restrict membership of
their room based on the membership of spaces (for example, "only members of the
#doglovers space can join this room"<sup id="a1">[1](#f1)</sup>).
Another desirable feature is to give room admins the power to restrict
membership of their room based on the membership of spaces<sup
id="a1">[1](#f1)</sup> (and by implication, when a user leaves the required
space, they should be ejected from the room). For example, "Any members of the
#doglovers space can join this room".
XXX can we maybe do this with invites generated on demand? If not, we probably
need some sort of "silent invite" state for each user,
### Automated joins
By implication, when a user leaves the required space, they should be ejected
from the room.
XXX: this section still in progress
XXX: how do we implement the ejection? We could leave it up to the ejectee's
server, but what happens if it doesn't play the game? So we probably need to
enact a ban... but then, which server has responisiblity, and which user is used?
A related feature is: "all members of the company should automatically join the
#general room", and by extension "all users should automatically join the
#brainwashing room and may not leave".
## Future extensions
The following sections are not blocking parts of this proposal, but are
included as a useful reference for how we imagine it will be extended in future.
### Sub-spaces
Questions to be answered here include:
* Should membership of a sub-space grant any particular access to the parent
space, or vice-versa? We might need to extend `m.room.history_visibility` to
support more flexibility; fortunately this is not involved in event auth so
does not require new room versions.
* What happens if somebody defines a cycle? (It's probably fine, but anything
interpreting the relationships needs to be careful to limit recursion.)
XXX seems we need to un-de-scope this.
### Restricting access to the spaces membership list
In the existing `/r0/groups` API, the group server has total control over the

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