r15094 - gnucash/branches/gda-dev - Initial commit of initial gda backend framework. See GDA_STATUS.

[David Hampton]

On Wed, 2006-11-08 at 17:22 -0500, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Quoting Phil Longstaff <plongstaff at rogers.com>:
> 
> > Question: A user updates to GC 2.2 (or whatever rev has the new backend)
> > and opens his XML file.  He then saves the file using the Save button.
> > Is it saved as SQLite?  Does the need for the Save button disappear
> > because he runs from then on with the GDA backend?  Or, does he
> > specifically need to Save As to convert to SQLite?
> 
> This is still an open question.  There are multiple ways to consider
> handling this.  One way is to do as you suggest; if you open an XML
> file it stays as an XML file, but if you create a new file it's SQLite.
> In this approach users much manually convert from XML to SQLite via Save-As.
> In another approach GnuCash would automatically upgrade a user from XML
> to SQLite..

That would completely break backward compatibility.  Gnucash should
automatically *offer* to upgrade any XML file to its Sql equivalent, but
it should never take that action without explicit user approval.  The
user should be informed that if they convert to SQL then they cannot go
back to the Gnucash 2.0 without either a) using a backup file, or b)
jumping through hoops to create a new XML file.  The user should have
the option of continuing to use the XML file format in GnuCash 2.2
without any further inquiries about upgrading.  I would have no problem
pulling the XML back end in GnuCash 2.4 and relegating XML to a pure
import/export format, but I don't believe its appropriate to do that
with the first release of the new SQL back end.

David