[Dbengine-devel] Re: [Fwd: Re: DBengine still viable?]

[William M. <wi...@kn...>]

On 16 Aug 2002 at 14:53, Mark Temple wrote:
> Since the user already has a session id, it is
> easy (from the web server side) to know who is requesting the page.

I like the LDAP idea but think the solution will need to be based in 
dbengine. The problem is that you need to know which runmode or commands 
the user is allowed to perform. Only dbengine can truly know if the user 
is allowed to access an operation by checking their credentials before 
giving them access. One idea would be to use LDAP to assign users to 
groups and then restrict access to runmodes by user group.


> I really need to study the latest dbengine code base to see what
> options look the best. We will likely use PostgreSQL, but SQL side
> control may be more difficult while maintaining three different SQL
> server platforms.

We hope not. Although I did the port to MySQL, I'm using PostgreSQL myself 
these days (however not with dbengine yet). I'd still like to be able to 
support multiple databases which simply takes some forethought to 
determine when to call a method in one of the database libraries. It's not 
always easy but should pay off down the road.


 > Certainly the variable that are global need to be global. The path
> information to the code base is an example of where global works
> well. However if the variable is going to change based on who is
> using the session, it needs to be private and local to that process.
> It will depend on how each variable is used. If the variable is
> initialize each time it is requested, there shouldn't be a problem
> as a handler.

Ingo had suggested passing a hash around the subroutines. That may be a 
workable solution until we can massage the code into an OO format.
 

> Our changes are just experimental right now. I will work with the
> newest code. Do you want me to just download the latest code, work
> on it, give it to you for review and uploading? Or do you want us to
> work as developers? I don't care.

For now, I think it would be best for you to send your updates to me for 
review and I can submit them to CVS. Have you tried to roll your changes 
into the latest CVS scripts? How's it going?
 

> I don't know what MVC is. Templates are the way to go.

Model-View-Control design pattern. It's been heavily discussed in the 
mod_perl mailing list lately (esp. June). 
<http://mathforum.org/epigone/modperl?in=early&from=2002-06-01&to=2002-06-
31>

Also check out this url which references Smalltalk but has the basic 
concepts of MVC:
<http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/smarch/st-docs/mvc.html>
If you're using templates, you're probably halfway there without knowing 
it.
 

> So are you still using the create,test,install found in Makefile.PL?

Yes, make simply calls the makefile.pl file with the appropriate 
parameters.


Best wishes,
William

PS- The mailing list is active now and I've sent this email to it so we 
can begin to archive our discussions.
-- 
 Lead Developer
 Knowmad Services Inc. || Internet Applications & Database Integration
 http://www.knowmad.com