ContactMetadataStorageType

Values of this enumeration indicate the extent to which metadata such as aliases and group memberships can be stored for the contacts on a particular connection.

On some protocols, certain metadata (for instance, contact aliases) can only be stored for contacts on the contact list, or contacts with a particular contact list state. To make it easier to deal with such protocols, if clients set metadata on a contact who is not in the required state, the Connection MUST cache the metadata for the duration of the session. If clients request the attributes of that contact after the appropriate "set" method has returned successfully, the Connection MUST return the new (cached) value. If the contact is later placed in the required state to store metadata (for instance, if subscription to the contact's presence is requested, on a protocol like MSN where the alias has storage type Subscribed_Or_Pending), the connection MUST store the cached metadata at that time. If the Connection didn't cache changes in this way, a client intending to change the alias on MSN would have to wait until the server acknowledged the subscription request; in the meantime, other clients would still display the old alias. The only exception to that general rule is that if the Connection cannot store particular metadata at all (i.e. the storage type is None), it MUST reject attempts to set it. If the implementation knows that metadata can't be stored at all, it's useful to report that, which can be done synchronously. In general, user interfaces should detect storage type None and not display editing controls at all.

Bitfield/set of flags generated from the Telepathy specification.