ACAP FAQ

Frequently asked questions concerning ACAP.

Answers for Users

Q1: What is ACAP?

ACAP stands for Application Configuration Access Protocol. ACAP stores your programs' settings on an ACAP server, so that you can use the same settings from any program which supports ACAP. It supports storing bookmarks, address books, e-mail settings, and program configuration.

Q2: What would I use it for?

Well, it can have a range of uses. It means that you can take your bookmarks, your email addressbook, your email account settings, and the like wherever you go. They can be shared between your webmail and your ordinary e-mail program. Not only that, but any other settings can be stored in ACAP, and taken from place to place. This includes desktop settings and the like. However, the software must support ACAP for this to work.

Q3: How do I start using it?

Your administrator needs to be running an ACAP server, and you need to have an ACAP-enabled mail/web client. Currently there are very few ACAP-enabled mail clients, and no ACAP enabled web clients (but keep an eye on the Mozilla projects; they may add support for this). I've seen it claimed that the following support ACAP:

• Eudora for Mac
• Mulberry

Q4: So how can we make it happen faster?

Contact your IT people about this (or maybe your ISP), and ensure they know about ACAP and its benefits, and ask when they're going to be using it. The front-line support people probably have no idea what you're talking about, but you may be able to find someone in the technical team who does.

Be patient with them -- there are no fully-functional Open Source servers or clients available, but you could suggest that your IT people/ISP put some time and effort into getting ACAP functioning on the 'Net. Maybe even, in a mid-to-large organisation, assign someone to help the programmers on the 'Net. You could also send encouragement to the people currently working on this (see the Resources page).

Q5: Where do I find more information?

Most of the rest of the information is fairly technical. The easiest to read is Dave Cridland's site (see the Resources page).

Answers for IT Personnel

Please read also the section above.

Q1: What is ACAP?

ACAP is a Internet Standard (IETF) protocol which will cut down on your support time, because you will be able to access a user's settings and change those which are incorrect, rather than having the user do that for you.

Q2: What would I use it for?

It means that you can move people more easily from machine to machine, and that the required efforts and costs for support are down, because you can access your users' settings and see any mistakes fairly quickly, once they have their ACAP connection working.

Q3: How do I start using it?

You need to set up an ACAP server and supply your clients with ACAP-enabled clients. There are a few ACAP servers out there, but all of them are, as far as I know, beta versions. Additionally, many of these are no longer developed. The only maintained ACAP server I know of is Infotrope. Note that it is still in beta. But you can download it, test it, and give feedback. Helping out like this makes you truly part of the Open Source movement.

Q4: So how can we make it happen faster?

The only maintained, Open Source ACAP server is InfoTrope (see Q3, above). You could download Infotrope and test it out, although it's only in its beta stages at the moment.

Q5: Where do I find more information?

More information can be found on our Resources page.

Answers for Programmers

Q1: What is ACAP?

ACAP is a protocol for storing program settings on a server. It specifies only the method for accessing the data, not the format of the data. The format of the data is specified in the ACAP dataset class specifications.

Q2: What would I use it for?

It means that your program can store all its settings in one place, even when your user moves from machine to machine. If you want your program to be inter-operable with others, you'll need to define a dataset class and get the IETF to approve it, but if you just want to store your settings, there's a vendor-specific area for you to use.

Q3: How do I start using it?

You need an ACAP server to test your stuff against. So you also need to download and install Infotrope. Then you can test your programs with it. You can also generate feedback, and hopefully even patches. Every problem you fix now is one that won't need to be fixed later, and every time you contribute a patch, that's one more patch you don't have to apply to the next release.

Q4: So how can we make it happen faster?

There are a range of places to help, in a range of programming languages. See the Projects page for details.

Q5: Where do I find more information?

More information can be found on our Resources page.