AddonManager : Add NTLM Proxy support

[zacl]

Hello,
Under the guidance of luzpaz I'm opening a discussion about NTLM proxy support in the Addon Manager.
I have just re-implemented proxy support before and want to improve and maintain Addon Manager as far as possible.
It seems some people need NTLM proxy support. It is a proxy protocol with authentification used in company to acces internet.

The python module used in Freecad to check and download Addon is urllib and it does not support NTLM directly.
A external module was develloped to add this feature : python-ntlm (https://github.com/mullender/python-ntlm)

FreeCAD devellopers try to not add new dependancy to make the project manageable by the small lead-team.
I agree but I don't think i will be able to implemant NTLM without this library. For me it seems to complex to handle without it.

I think NTLM support (as for proxy) is usefull to bring FreeCAD in big company world that are well locked behind proxy systems.
So will we support NTLM by adding new dependancy or not?

If you have another solution you are welcome

Original discussion : https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-addons/issues/57

[vocx]

...
So will we support NTLM by adding new dependancy or not?
...

My suggestion is to implement it. As long as you have a working concept, and is a benefit, it will probably be accepted to the master code.

Ideally you can produce a version using urlib, and another version that uses this ntlm. Maybe you can use ntlm by default and if that is not available, it could fall back to urlib even with limitations.

Don't worry too much about adding dependencies. As long as your proposal is a clear benefit for FreeCAD, I don't think it will be rejected by the administrators. Especially if the dependency is a pure Python library that can be installed by Pip, then it should be easy to handle, and not a big problem.

The real problem is if you are adding a binary dependency that is unstable, or that is not easily packaged for most Linux distributions; that's the real problem as it will be additional work for the maintainers, but I don't think you are suggesting adding a binary dependency.

[UrsO]

Are there any news regarding proxy support?

[zacl]

Are there any news regarding proxy support?

Nope, stopped coding during covid containment.