[Mageia-webteam] Proposal for maintainers database API

Tue Mar 8 11:04:08 CET 2011

On 8 March 2011 08:48, Michael Scherer <misc at zarb.org> wrote:
+
+> Le mardi 08 mars 2011 à 03:53 +0100, nicolas vigier a écrit :
+> > Here is a proposal for an API that can be used on the maintainers
+> > database, with the list of URLs and what they should do :
+> >
+> > ***
+> > An html page with the list of all packages, and their maintainer :
+> > http://maintdb.mageia.org/packages.html
+> > As we have many packages, the page will be long, so maybe we want to
+> > split the list by first letter of package name :
+> > http://maintdb.mageia.org/packages_a.html
+> > http://maintdb.mageia.org/packages_b.html
+> > http://maintdb.mageia.org/packages_c.html
+>
+> Hi,
+>
+> Thee is other paging system in rails and similar framework, no need to
+> specify this ( and I also think this is not part of a API ).
+>
+
+
+ Indeed that is the case, so we can have a paging system, with no need for
+different pages.
+ If on the other hand we want to split them by the first letter, again that
+is possible.
+ So we could try with the simple paging system and if people find it more
+useful to have them split by name, we can do that later on.
+
+
+>
+> > The list of all packages and their maintainers, in text format :
+> > http://maintdb.mageia.org/packages.txt
+> > With the output like this :
+> > package1:maintainerlogin1
+> > package2:maintainerlogin2
+> > package3:maintainerlogin3
+> > ...
+> >
+> > ***
+> > An html page to show the maintainer of one package (with
+> > [packagename] replaced with the name of a package) :
+> > http://maintdb.mageia.org/packages/[packagename].html
+> > The same in text format :
+> > http://maintdb.mageia.org/packages/[packagename].txt
+> > With output like this (only one line):
+> > packagename:maintainerlogin
+> > If the package is unmaintained, it appears like this :
+> > packagename:nobody
+> > If the package does not exist, an empty file is returned.
+>
+> I would rather say :
+> packagename:
+>
+> Using a name with a special meaning is just a special case to be placed
+> everywhere.
+>
+>
+ It currently uses the package id for displaying information, but I could
+have a look to see if it's possible to have it using the package name, which
+I have the feeling that it is.
+At the moment you can find information about a package by using the All link
+at the top.
+There will also be a search box that gives the same information.
+For finding information about a specific package the format used is:
+url/spackage/id
+(spackage was named like that to dinstinguish it from the compiled packages
+- cpackage. If there is no need for compiled packages information as I've
+seen somewhere that can be removed)
+
+
+> > ***
+> > The list of maintainers (all maintainers who maintain at least one
+> > package) :
+> > http://maintdb.mageia.org/people.html
+> >
+> > ***
+> > The list of packages maintained by someone (with [loginname] replaced by
+> > a login) :
+> > http://maintdb.mageia.org/people/[loginname].html
+> > And the same in text format :
+> > http://maintdb.mageia.org/people/[loginname].txt
+> > With the same format for output :
+> > package1:loginname
+> > package2:loginname
+> > package3:loginname
+> > ...
+> > If the login does not exist, an empty file is returned.
+>
+> A REST API would give a 404, that's also something everybdy doing HTTP
+> should grasp and understand.
+>
+>
+ That's what is used at the moment (REST-404).
+ For the list of maintainers the url is:
+ http://maintdb.mageia.orgl/maintainers
+The extra information in there about first name, surname can be removed.
+
+
+> > ***
+> > The list of unmaintained packages :
+> > http://maintdb.mageia.org/people/nobody.html
+> > And the same in text format :
+> > http://maintdb.mageia.org/people/nobody.txt
+> > With this output :
+> > package1:nobody
+> > package2:nobody
+> > package3:nobody
+> > ...
+>
+> I would use a different url for unmaintained packages rather than
+> nobody. Adding special case is not very clean, as said before.
+>
+
+ I agree with Michael, and say that probably a url like:
+ http://maintdb.mageia.org/umaintained
+ would give the list of all umaintained packages
+
+
+>
+> > ***
+> > The URL to add a package, used by the buildsystem when a package is
+> > uploaded on the repository :
+> > https://maintdb.mageia.org/admin/setnewpackage
+> > Protected with basic http authentication (with a login/password that was
+> > set in maintdb or apache configuration).
+> > Accessed with a POST request and the following two arguments :
+> > package: [packagename]
+> > maintainer: [maintainername]
+> > If the package already exists in the database, it is not updated.
+> >
+> > ***
+> > The same as the previous URL, but the package maintainer is updated when
+> > the package already exists in the database :
+> > https://maintdb.mageia.org/admin/setpackage
+>
+> IMHO, it would be easier to have just 1 url :
+>
+> /upload/$package/$login/ ( and either protect this at http level, or
+> using a key somewhere in the url )
+>
+>
+ Agree. Either way is possible so if there a preferred way we can try that
+first.
+
+
+>
+> > If we compare with the maintainers db website used at mandriva, their
+> > version also has :
+> >  - media name for each package, with pages to list packages from only
+> >    one media
+> >  - a search box to search for a package
+> >  - links to bugzilla for each package
+> > But I don't think we should store the media name in maintdb.
+>
+> That's indeed inflexible, if we want to have a package in more than one
+> media.
+>
+
+ That shouldn't be any problem.
+ We would only need to change the relationship between media and packages,
+which is fine.
+ Again, if we don't want it to look like the mandriva, then we are flexible
+to decide how it would work and what we can display.
+ We had to base it on something to start, but that could change easily.
+
+
+>
+> > maintdb should mainly be used in the following cases :
+> >  - by sophie, mageia-app-db and other package databases which want to
+> show
+> >    maintainers of packages. They download the full list of packages and
+> >    maintainers every day (or hours) from the text file, to synchronize
+> >    with their database.
+>
+> So then we should ask them what they would prefer. I knw for usre that
+> reusing the mandriva format, or the fedora format will ease the work on
+> sophie side.
+>
+>
+ Not sure which format was used before, but again I don't see any problem
+using whatever makes it easier for people that use it.
+ Let me know what you would like it to do and then I'll try and do it.
+
+
+Kosmas
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