gistfile1.md

Hi,

I would like to start a discussion around the import/export of installations in UPS. To track all the tasks, we have a ticket[1] also containing some sub-tasks.

Scope

For now we stick to installations, meanning we can import or export installations from a particular Variant. Import/Export for Variants will maybe come later but due to some security issues (mainly for iOS cert/passphrase) it's on hold.

Import Service

That's an easy one ;) since the service already exist [2]. It's a REST service and it uses the VariantId/Secret combination to authenticate.

Data format looks like :

[
   {
     "deviceToken" : "someTokenString",
     "deviceType" : "iPad",
     "operatingSystem" : "iOS",
     "osVersion" : "6.1.2",
     "alias" : "someUsername or email adress...",
     "categories" : ["football", "sport"]
   },
   {
     "deviceToken" : "someOtherTokenString",
     ...
   },
   ...
 ]

Export Service

Like import, it will use the variantId/secret combo to authenticate and retrieve the right variant to export the installations. The data structure format would of course looks like the one used for import.

Output format

How should provide the exported data ? I need your input here

1. Raw Json ?
2. Json file ?
3. Zip / tarball ?

UI

UI should be a nice to have

I would suggest to add 2 items (import and export) in the contextual menu that you can see in this screenshot :

For import, the user will have a file input and feedback on how many installations were imported. For export, the user just have to press an export button

Migration issues

So, that is a very important point that I would like to discuss. Even if we are able to import installations, the _variantID and the variantSecret will not match with those that are in the Clients.

Imagine the following scenario : I export 15000 installations, my datacenter burns, I create a new UPS instance, with a new Push App and a new Variant (so new VariantID and VariantSecret), then I inport the installations. Well, my 15000 clients will point to the wrong variant. For sure, they can be updated but that might not always be an option.

That is why I would like suggest the following change : Make VariantId and VariantSecret editable, so after someone has done an import he can change the values of the variants so it matches the clients.

I know we had this discussion before, but in the future we might want to change the naming around VariantId and VariantSecret, to me it sounds more like variantAPIKey / variantAPISecret

wdyt ?

Security

As said before, import/export uses variantId/variantSecret to authenticate. So if someone has access to these keys he could make a malicious import of 500k installations. What should we do for that ? We could give this access only to authenticated "console" users but then it would be hard to expose import/export as rest service (because of KC implication)

Please comment, ask questions , be crazy ...

Sebi

[1] https://issues.jboss.org/browse/AGPUSH-978

[2] http://aerogear.org/docs/specs/aerogear-unifiedpush-rest/registry/device/importer/index.html