Re: [Tracker] Simplifying DBus interface

["Samuel Cormier-Iijima" <sciyoshi gmail com>]

On 9/11/06, Jamie McCracken <jamiemcc blueyonder co uk> wrote:
> Samuel Cormier-Iijima wrote:
> > I had a strange idea: what if all (or most) search methods were SQL
> > queries implemented client-side? i.e. if DBus had one real method such
> > as ExecuteQuery, and the client library had a wrapper which created
> > the right queries? this would radically simplify the DBus interface,
> > and would allow executing more exotic queries also. the live query
> > interface would still have to be implemented "server"-side though...
> > at worst, could you include such a method? it would be fun to execute
> > queries on my indexed filesystem :-)
> >
>
> Im quite happy to add this feature (patches welcome)

I'll see what i can do :-)

> bear in mind that not everyone knows sql nor trackers database structure
> intimately so it cannot replace tracker's Dbus API which is focused
> around easy to use methods for first class objects.

The idea i had was that we could provide frontend libraries (python ,
c, etc) that build the right SQL queries client side, and send it
through one DBus function, instead of multiple DBus functions that
build queries server side; however, i'm not sure it would add any
advantages except for the simpler DBus interface, and could very well
be harder to code (since we'd have to write sql building code for
languages we need to support).

> Also we will have at least two backends (mysql and sqlite - which is
> coming along nicely and can be seen in cvs) and that any sql you submit
> should avoid non-standard propriety extensions.

I'll see if i can write up the DBus function, and maybe add some
documentation to how the tables are structured.

Samuel