Thread: [Refdb-devel] refdb db in menu?

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Question:

Should the base db (now called "refdb") be included in the list of dbs 
in the menu?

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

You wrote:

> Question:
> 
> Should the base db (now called "refdb") be included in the list of dbs 
> in the menu?

I don't know the answer to that. The menu is just generated by calling
'refdbc -C listdb'. So, if the based db doesn't show up when you run
that command from the command line, it won't show up in the menu either.

  --Mike

Bruce D'Arcus writes:
 > 
 > Question:
 > 
 > Should the base db (now called "refdb") be included in the list of dbs 
 > in the menu?
 > 

I'm not sure how to handle this intelligently. In a shared environment
you'll always face the problem that your database engine hosts a
variety of databases that do not belong to RefDB. You should exclude
these as well. The only way that I can think of is to stick to a
name pattern for RefDB databases and run listdb with an appropriate
regexp. Maybe the menu code can use a regexp if one is set in .emacs?

regards,
Markus

-- 
Markus Hoenicka
mar...@ca...
(Spam-protected email: replace the quadrupeds with "mhoenicka")
http://www.mhoenicka.de

Markus Hoenicka <mar...@mh...> writes:

> Bruce D'Arcus writes:
>  > 
>  > Question:
>  > 
>  > Should the base db (now called "refdb") be included in the list of dbs 
>  > in the menu?
>  > 
> 
> I'm not sure how to handle this intelligently. In a shared environment
> you'll always face the problem that your database engine hosts a
> variety of databases that do not belong to RefDB. You should exclude
> these as well. The only way that I can think of is to stick to a
> name pattern for RefDB databases and run listdb with an appropriate
> regexp. Maybe the menu code can use a regexp if one is set in .emacs?

Yes -- it actually already have the refdb-listdb-sql-regexp variable in
there already to support just that. The default for it is "%".

But as far as the base db named "refdb" goes, users should never be
directly adding any data to that via refdbc -C addref or whatever,
right? If so, then I will have the code not add it to the menu.

  --Mike

hmm, I realize now that naming the base db "refdb" is arbitrary. I guess
a user could choose during install to call the base database "mybasedb"
or whatever, and then could create another database called "refdb", and
have references added to that.

Maybe I could make it configurable through a variable named
say, refdb-base-database. (In addition to the current
refdb-listdb-sql-regexp variable).

The code would take the list of databases that listdb returns, check it
against refdb-base-database, and remove any whatever name matches.  I
could make "refdb" the default, and document it by saying:

  Set this to whatever name you gave to the base RefDB database during
  installation (that is, using 'mysql -e "CREATE DATABASE refdb1"' or
  the PostgreSQL "createdb" command).

Or to make it more configurable, we could add refdb-listdb-ignore-list
variable, again with default value "refdb", but make it a list. Users
could put multiple names into it that way, and then wouldn't need to
mess around with trying to figure out how to construct a regex and
express it in whatever syntax their backend database supported.

And that way, we could also include the built-in database names for the
backends -- i.e. Postgres's "template0" and "template1" databases, and
whatever the names are of the built-in databases that MySQL sets up.

How does that sound?

Now that I write all that, though, I wonder whether that logic might not
be better handled on the RefDB side -- so that refdbd -C listdb wouldn't
return the name of the base RefDB database, whatever its name, or of the
built-in backend database names.

  --Mike

Michael Smith <sm...@xm...> writes:

> Markus Hoenicka <mar...@mh...> writes:
> 
> > Bruce D'Arcus writes:
> >  > 
> >  > Question:
> >  > 
> >  > Should the base db (now called "refdb") be included in the list of dbs 
> >  > in the menu?
> >  > 
> > 
> > I'm not sure how to handle this intelligently. In a shared environment
> > you'll always face the problem that your database engine hosts a
> > variety of databases that do not belong to RefDB. You should exclude
> > these as well. The only way that I can think of is to stick to a
> > name pattern for RefDB databases and run listdb with an appropriate
> > regexp. Maybe the menu code can use a regexp if one is set in .emacs?
> 
> Yes -- it actually already have the refdb-listdb-sql-regexp variable in
> there already to support just that. The default for it is "%".
> 
> But as far as the base db named "refdb" goes, users should never be
> directly adding any data to that via refdbc -C addref or whatever,
> right? If so, then I will have the code not add it to the menu.
> 
>   --Mike

-- 
Michael Smith
Openwave Systems Japan     +81 90 9148 0269 (mobile)
Nishishinjuku 6-22-1       +81  3 5909 6347 (office)
Tokyo, Japan 163-1117      +81  3 5909 6241 (fax)

Michael Smith writes:
 > hmm, I realize now that naming the base db "refdb" is arbitrary. I guess
 > a user could choose during install to call the base database "mybasedb"
 > or whatever, and then could create another database called "refdb", and
 > have references added to that.
 > 

No, the name is not arbitrary. It is hard-coded in the main header
file. The name changes once in a while if I change the database schema
and want to allow users to run parallel installations of RefDB using
the old and the new schemas at the same time.

 > Or to make it more configurable, we could add refdb-listdb-ignore-list
 > variable, again with default value "refdb", but make it a list. Users
 > could put multiple names into it that way, and then wouldn't need to
 > mess around with trying to figure out how to construct a regex and
 > express it in whatever syntax their backend database supported.
 > 
 > And that way, we could also include the built-in database names for the
 > backends -- i.e. Postgres's "template0" and "template1" databases, and
 > whatever the names are of the built-in databases that MySQL sets up.
 > 

The latter is "mysql" (who would have guessed that?).

 > How does that sound?
 > 

I think it may be useful in quite a couple of cases, so I'd suggest to
add such a list. This black list together with the regexp that allows
to define a white list should be sufficient to pick the right
databases.

 > Now that I write all that, though, I wonder whether that logic might not
 > be better handled on the RefDB side -- so that refdbd -C listdb wouldn't
 > return the name of the base RefDB database, whatever its name, or of the
 > built-in backend database names.
 > 

I could do this of course, but it is still a half-assed solution as it
does not solve the problem of non-RefDB databases served by the same
database engine. A real solution would require refdbd to test each
database returned by listdb whether or not it is a RefDB database,
e.g. by running a query that retrieves values of all fields listed by
their names. This would also filter out databases that the user has no
permission to access anyway. Should I put this on my todo list?

regards,
Markus

-- 
Markus Hoenicka
mar...@ca...
(Spam-protected email: replace the quadrupeds with "mhoenicka")
http://www.mhoenicka.de

Hi Markus,

You wrote:

> Michael Smith writes:
>  > hmm, I realize now that naming the base db "refdb" is arbitrary. I guess
>  > a user could choose during install to call the base database "mybasedb"
>  > or whatever, and then could create another database called "refdb", and
>  > have references added to that.
>  > 
> 
> No, the name is not arbitrary. It is hard-coded in the main header
> file. The name changes once in a while if I change the database schema
> and want to allow users to run parallel installations of RefDB using
> the old and the new schemas at the same time.

Ah, OK. I guess I can then hard-code it into the Emacs code. You say it
changes once in a while, and I remember that it's 'refdb1' for v0.9.3.
Does that mean you alternate it between those two values, and so if I
have the Emacs code filter out both "refdb" and "refdb1", it will handle
things OK if/when you need to change the name again?

>  > Or to make it more configurable, we could add refdb-listdb-ignore-list
>  > variable, again with default value "refdb", but make it a list. Users
>  > could put multiple names into it that way, and then wouldn't need to
>  > mess around with trying to figure out how to construct a regex and
>  > express it in whatever syntax their backend database supported.
>  > 
>  > And that way, we could also include the built-in database names for the
>  > backends -- i.e. Postgres's "template0" and "template1" databases, and
>  > whatever the names are of the built-in databases that MySQL sets up.
>  > 
> 
> The latter is "mysql" (who would have guessed that?).

Heh -- I should have guessed, I guess :)

>  > How does that sound?
>  > 
> 
> I think it may be useful in quite a couple of cases, so I'd suggest to
> add such a list. This black list together with the regexp that allows
> to define a white list should be sufficient to pick the right
> databases.

OK. But, along with the blacklist, should I just have it hard-coded to
always ignore the following, even if they're not included in the
blacklist? If not, there's a risk of users trying to add RefDB data to
these databases.

  refdb refdb1 mysql template0 template1

>  > Now that I write all that, though, I wonder whether that logic might not
>  > be better handled on the RefDB side -- so that refdbd -C listdb wouldn't
>  > return the name of the base RefDB database, whatever its name, or of the
>  > built-in backend database names.
>  > 
> 
> I could do this of course, but it is still a half-assed solution as it
> does not solve the problem of non-RefDB databases served by the same
> database engine. A real solution would require refdbd to test each
> database returned by listdb whether or not it is a RefDB database,
> e.g. by running a query that retrieves values of all fields listed by
> their names. This would also filter out databases that the user has no
> permission to access anyway. Should I put this on my todo list?

Yes, I think it should be on your todo list. How much of a priority it
should be relative to other things you have on there, I can't say.

  --Mike

Michael Smith writes:
 > Ah, OK. I guess I can then hard-code it into the Emacs code. You say it
 > changes once in a while, and I remember that it's 'refdb1' for v0.9.3.
 > Does that mean you alternate it between those two values, and so if I
 > have the Emacs code filter out both "refdb" and "refdb1", it will handle
 > things OK if/when you need to change the name again?
 > 

This should do the trick. So far I didn't find any reason to use
something else but refdb or refdb1.

 > OK. But, along with the blacklist, should I just have it hard-coded to
 > always ignore the following, even if they're not included in the
 > blacklist? If not, there's a risk of users trying to add RefDB data to
 > these databases.
 > 
 >   refdb refdb1 mysql template0 template1
 > 

This is the pitch dark black list, so to speak. In no case a reference
database should have one of these names.

 > Yes, I think it should be on your todo list. How much of a priority it
 > should be relative to other things you have on there, I can't say.
 > 

Ok. I'll put it on my list then. I'll make that user-configurable to
save time for those who know what they're doing.

regards,
Markus

-- 
Markus Hoenicka
mar...@ca...
(Spam-protected email: replace the quadrupeds with "mhoenicka")
http://www.mhoenicka.de

Thread: [Refdb-devel] refdb db in menu?

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