[Vtigercrm-developers] Receiving data from outside sources

[Jeff Kowalczyk]

Mike Fedyk wrote:
> Can we keep it in adodb XML format so we don't have to have multiple
> copies for the various database backends?

That would be more elegant, but I'll suggest this practical consideration:

we should ship everything as needed to install without the site-admin
needing to run any adodb sql generation scripts, which should be the job
of the person making the change to DatabaseSchema.xml

The convention should be that the DatabaseSchema.xml is the master data
model, and the .sql files' verbatim output are reviewed for correctness
and committed to the repository under the exact changeset as the change to
DatabaseSchema.xml.

The .sql files defining the schema and migrations for each backend are
never modified by developers, only generated by some adodb tool.

If we don't like the generated SQL output, change the model or improve the
tool. Or set the minimum adodb dependency version to one containing the
upstream fix you require.

This should be our policy for a number of reasons;

- adodb sql generation probably works reasonably well, but we can't trust
its cross-platform sql-generation for every subsequent adodb release.
adodb could have bugs from time to time, and vtigercrm production
databases will be very high-value assets.

- adodb schema SQL generation output must be reviewed by experienced
vtigercrm developers, and be invariant per repository revision per
backend. (i.e. the .sql file output is part of the release)

- site-admin deployers may not have PHP or SQL schema eyeball-verification
experience. They may only have .sql file loading skill to the backend of
their choice. That should be enough skill to deploy vtigercrm, and we
should bear the repository and development overhead to make it so.


It should be said that I don't know how DatabaseSchema.xml becomes .sql
file output, either :)  I just remember how this has to work from my
ADO.net XSD schema experience.

When it comes to adodb schema, ask Mike Crowe ;)   Where is he these days?