[Opensync-devel] mozilla-format FORMAT plugin?

[Henrik /K. <he...@ka...>]

Dear all,

During my work on upgrading mozilla-sync to Thunderbird 3, I am once 
again thinking about creating a mozilla-format FORMAT plugin.

But, as always, I have a question...

The mozilla-format would be an non-string format - basically a C struct 
with a couple of members, implementing a key/value array.
The struct would be wrapped in functions like 
mozilla_format_add_key_value_pair(key, value).

Now the question is: Where to put the definition of the C struct and the 
wrapping functions?

Those definitions would have to be accessible both by the mozilla-format 
FORMAT plugin and the mozilla-sync SYNC plugin (an external plugin, by 
the way...)

Looking at xmlformat we have functions like osync_xmlformat_parse and 
osync_xmlformat_assemble defined in the main OpenSync codebase 
(opensync/xmlformat/opensync_xmlformat.c), not in the format plugin.
But I guess we would not like to pollute the main OpenSync codebase with 
mozilla-format stuff.

Looking at vformat, it seems that the internal format is a string, so 
even if the vformat plugin has some internal woodo to convert to/from 
xmlformat, a peer wishing to create a vformat would just create a string.
But this would not work for mozilla-format, where we would need to 
create the C struct.

Putting the definition of the C struct and the wrapping functions inside 
the format plugin is no good, as they would not be published for the 
mozilla-sync SYNC plugin to use.

So, I need some help here:
Where to put the definition of the C struct and the wrapping functions?

Bonus question:
If I want to create a converter between mozilla-format and vformat, I 
would need access to the vformat functions. Currently those are internal 
function in the vformat plugin. How can I get access to them?

/Henrik