| Version 3 (modified by , 8 years ago) ( diff ) |
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Improvements to our data models
Usually implemented in the <subsystem>/model.py files.
In the current situation (1.0.x/1.1.1), we have different APIs and different conventions for the different models. We should try to be more consistent.
Representation of data
Standardize missing values
For tickets, when a field is unset, we currently put the value back to the empty string. This was not always the case, as we used to reset it to None / NULL which is still what we do in some situations (retargeting tickets to no milestone after a milestone delete/close). See #7691 and #11018.
We should standardize on NULL again. When retrieving NULL values from the database, we get None in Python. If needed, we can carry on this distinct meaning yet manipulate it as a string by converting None to the special value empty. See e.g. what we do for ticket fields.
NOT NULL columns
Validation of the ticket summary is done in the IRequestHandler, to avoid creating a ticket with an empty summary. The schema could be changed to use NOT NULL in the column specification since the empty string is replaced with NULL. Alternatively, a TracError could be raised in the Ticket model when inserting or updateing a ticket with an empty summary (#12458).
Class methods
Class methods, one example being select, are used for table-wide queries.
The signature of the select method is not consistent across all classes.
The Milestone class has an include_completed parameter in the select method.
We could reconcile the inconsistency by having where, limit and order_by parameters on each method, with the parameters directly mapping to phrases in the SQL query.
This would make the methods more generally useful to plugin developers.
Not only is the interface inconsistent, but also the return value. In most cases a generator is returned by select, however some select methods return a list:
