Getting rid of the namespaces

[kelson42]

The ZIM namespaces in the ZIM force to rewrite directory/file structure following a certain scheme.

This is/was necessary to distinguish file types and allow certain features (like the ZIM file suggestion system which should only returns articles - and not images).

The problem is that by not respecting the original directory/file organisation, it breaks the links between the contents, forces the URL rewriting and in many case this is really annoying for the people creating ZIM files.

For these reasons we should remove the namespaces and find a few new ideas to keep the level of features without using them. Of course this would be a serious ZIM spec change, so we need to find solutions to keep backward compatibility in the libzim.

Remark: Of course zimwriterfs needs to be modified too.

[julianharty]

See also kiwix/kiwix-js#220 for a possible problem when using --uniqueNamespace I'll test the ZIM file to see what the content-type is for ./A/style.css

[kelson42]

I have posted a concept at http://www.openzim.org/wiki/Remove_namespaces. @mgautierfr please have a look to it and comment if you need to refine or see problem I might have overseen.

[kelson42]

@mgautierfr If we want to do that in Q1/Q2 like planned, we will have to slowly elaborate a strategy on this.

[JerwuQu]

If holding off on creating a new ZIM format major version, wouldn't it work to just place everything into namespace - for now?

[kelson42]

@JerwuQu This is not stopping us to do any big ZIM file

[Jaifroid]

Subscribing to this issue so we can be prepared over at Kiwix JS for this change...

[mgautierfr]

Just to mention it is done in libzim_next branch. Not yet in master.