[Feature] Person sharing (v3.3.0-rc.2): standing share rules for "named people" / "everyone", with role and share-back

[ssavkar]

I have searched the existing feature requests, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate request.

• Yes

The feature

Relates to: person sharing as shipped in v3.3.0-rc.2 (tested on a multi-user instance with a shared cluster group).

The feature: turn person sharing from a one-time snapshot into a standing share rule (owner → recipient) that keeps applying as people are created or named.

The problem

Person sharing in 3.3.0 is a great step for households with several accounts on one library. In practice, though, sharing is a snapshot: "share all people" shares the people that exist today. Anyone created or named afterwards is not shared unless the owner repeats the share, which in practice means re-sharing after every scan or naming session. There is also no way to say "share the people I have actually named and ignore the unnamed clutter": today it is all people or hand-picked people.

Proposal

In the existing share dialog, offer a mode: Everyone / Named people / Selected people (as today).

• Everyone and Named people store a rule (owner, recipient, mode, role). The rule is applied by a database trigger whenever a person is created or gets named/renamed, so it does not depend on a scheduled job.
• The rule carries the role to grant (read / write / admin; the web UI currently hardcodes admin), and optionally a share-back role for the recipient's copy. Share-back matters because a rename by the recipient only reaches the owner if the recipient has shared back at write or admin, so a two-way setup currently needs manual shares in both directions.
• Unsharing removes the rule.
• When a user joins the cluster group, existing rules that involve them are applied.
• Reopening the dialog shows the saved rule rather than inferring "Selected people" from the existing shares.

Why it fits core

It builds on the existing person_user shares and roles and does not change how access is checked. It only automates creating those shares, and removes the repeated manual re-sharing.

Open questions

• Overlapping rules from several owners: the highest role should probably win.
• Delete and merge cascade across owners' copies and are not limited by role; a "also delete for people I share with?" prompt might help.
• Recipients cannot currently see rules that apply to them.

I have a working implementation against rc.2 that I am still testing, and I am happy to share it or turn it into a PR if the maintainers are interested.

Platform

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

[bo0tzz]

This will become possible with workflows/smart albums (#1673)