Services/AndroidSyncClient

Overview

This page is the home of the Android Sync Client project. This project is part of the re-writing of the Fennec UI using native Java rather than XUL (Fennec Native UI).

Engineers

• Jason Voll

Requirements

• Integrate correctly with existing sync clients
• Use existing Sync API's to communicate with Sync server via HTTP
• Reliable
• Behave as existing Fennec sync client does (i.e. no regression)

Specifications

Cryptography

• AES 256 CBC
• HMAC SHA 256
• SHA1 for converting email to a username

APIs for communicating with Mozilla Sync Server

• Registration API
• Storage API (using version 1.1)

Implementation Details

• Utilize a repository pattern for writing to local database on device and talking to the sync server
• Add crypto as a middle-ware layer to the repository so it appears as if other code is just communicating with the repository object
• Here is the beginning of a class diagram for the Sync Client. Details will be filled in as the client is designed
• Run as a lightweight Android service so that sync data is available as soon as Fennec starts
  • Perhaps run service more aggressively when Fennec is actually running, back down when Fennec isn't running to avoid using too large of a memory footprint (Android kills background services when it is in need of more memory)
  • Ideally we'd like to write this as an Android Sync Service so that it shows up in the user's sync accounts screen and that is how they interact with it
  • Screenshots: Add Sync Account Page, Synced Accounts Page

Milestones

• October 2011: Crypto Libraries
• November 2011
  • Week 1 - Repository framework
  • Week 2 - Communication with sync server
  • Week 3 - Setup of storage and accessing it on the client side
  • Week 4 - Work of actually syncing (make this more granular)
• December 2011
  • Week 1 - Work of actually syncing (make this more granular)
  • Week 2 - Wrap up and hand-off
• December 16, 2011 - Last day of Jason's internship

Repository

Initial development will be stored on github in the following repository: https://github.com/mozilla-services/android-sync

Related Bugs

Feature bug: 695463

Resources

• Existing docs: http://docs.services.mozilla.com/index.html
  • Can be edited at: http://hg.mozilla.org/services/docs
• Existing code: https://github.com/mozilla-services/services-central.git
  • Branch "repositories" contains a sync client with the design that will be mimicked
• Project page for Fennec Native UI
• Native Clojure client for Weave 1.0 Sync API: clj-weave

Crypto Notes

• HKDF:
  • HKDF Standard (RFC 5869)
  • RFC Compliant Code
  • Tests