GDA: current status

[Derek Atkins]

Quoting Phil Longstaff <plongstaff at rogers.com>:

> - To avoid having the backend commit everything twice (because of the
> Qof two phase commit protocol), saved objects are marked clean when
> committed.  To do this, I need to reach right into the QofInstance
> structure and clear the dirty flag.  There should be a better way to do
> this.  Note this also keeps the book from being marked dirty.  Q: If a
> db backend becomes the standard and xml is only for import/export, does
> the concept of clean/dirty disappear?

Yeah, with a DB backend the book should never be dirty.  So, yeah,
this is the right thing to do; you should clear the dirty bit when
you commit.  Perhaps there needs to be a qof_instance_clear_dirty().

> - Recurrences are currently only used by budgets, and recurrence
> save/restore is included in the budget save/restore code.  If
> recurrences will eventually be used elsewhere in GC, recurrence
> save/restore code may need to be split out on its own (separate
> recurrences table?)

*GRR*  I knew this was going to be a problem.  I really should have
been more insistant that Chris fix this BEFORE 1.8.   Recurrence and
Freqspec should merge into a single data object.  We don't need both,
and having both just duplicates code and confuses the data model.  They
perform essentially the same functions and even do it in fairly similar
ways.

It's unfortunate that they are still two separate objects.

For the DB backend I'd really like there to be only one (probably
Recurrence).  And yes, it should be its own table.

> - The backend has its own tables for objects which include db-related
> info.  Can these be merged with the engine object tables?

I dont understand the question.  Could you give a more specific example
of what you mean?

Keep in mind that the db backend certainly needs a table for its own
configuration, so you can keep track of, e.g., the currenct schema version.
This way we can easily update the database over time when we notice that
the DB is at schema version X and gnucash is at schema version Y and X < Y..
Or we could report an error if X > Y...

> Some engine tables don't exist (commodity), some have extra parameters,
> some don't have all needed parameters, some don't have setters for every
> parameter, some have an inappropriate setter, ...   I've often wondered
> if the engine object <-> backend interface should NOT use the standard
> get/set APIs but should be more of a serialize/deserialize interface
> where when an object is to be committed, the object's SaveYourself
> method is called.  This method grabs the backend and calls
> SaveThisParameter multiple times.  When loading, the object would be
> malloc'ed and then its RestoreYourself method would be called.  This
> would call the backend's RestoreThisParameter.  This would also solve
> the problem of commits occuring while an object is being loaded (I have
> a flag to catch these).

The way the PG backend did this was to clear out the backend pointer
during the load, so it didn't call back into the backend commit.  But
yeah, a Serialize(), Deserialize() "private" interface might be useful.

> - When a price is committed, the priceDB is also committed.  Could there
> eventually be multiple priceDBs?  The priceDB is currently ignored.

The PriceDB is just the collection of Prices.  I dont think we ever
have multiple PriceDBs.

> - Multiple books?  The old postgres backend had a books table.  If the
> new db should have one, accounts (and other objects) should have a book
> guid field.

*ponders*  Might not be a bad idea to do this now.

> - If I try to "Save As" and type a url (e.g. gda://xxx), this gets
> converted to file:///home/phil/.../gda%3F%2A%2Axxx.  (I don't remember
> the % escapes exactly, but you get the picture).  I tried adding
> gtk_file_chooser_set_local_only( file_box, FALSE) but that didn't help.

I think it's a bug in the File Chooser..   We probably should revert back
to the GNC File Select dialog we used to have.  This bug has already
been reported against 2.0 because you cannot save as to postgres either.

This is.... unfortunate.  :(

> Phil

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available