[cgi-wiki-dev] Flat-file backend

Ryan Jendoubi ryan.jendoubi at gmail.com
Sat Feb 4 19:02:49 GMT 2012


Hi Kake,

On 04/02/12 16:10, Kake L Pugh wrote:
> On Fri 03 Feb 2012, Ryan Jendoubi<ryan.jendoubi at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> I'm thinking of implementing a flat-file backend. As Dom pointed
>> out, metadata and versioning would need to be addressed.
> Neat idea!  I seem to have missed the conversation with Dom that you
> mention - did this happen offline, or was it on another mailing list
> somewhere?

Sorry, that was unnecessarily cryptic of me - I emailed Dom directly as 
the current maintainer.

Here's the exchange:

On 03/02/12 18:58, Dominic Hargreaves wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 03, 2012 at 02:26:15PM +0000, Ryan Jendoubi wrote:
>> Curious about the status of Wiki::Toolkit? I'm envisioning hacking
>> together something based on flat files, if such a think is possible,
>> and considering extending W::T to make that possible. I see the
>> module includes things like its own DB abstraction though, which
>> many people would tut at nowadays. So I'd like to know what kinds of
>> changes might be well received and what should be left well alone.
> Hi Ryan,
>
> Good to hear that there is still some interest in Wiki::Toolkit :)
>
> I don't see why you couldn't implement a new storage backend using flat
> files, but I don't think it's something we've discussed before.
>
> I guess you'd have to think about how to store the metadata, and
> versioned data. The DB abstraction you've identified should be stretchable
> to flat file formats, once one was designed.
>
> There is a confusingly named mailing list at
> <http://www.earth.li/mailman/listinfo/cgi-wiki-dev>  which would be a good
> place to discuss details. There's also a dev site at
> <http://www.wiki-toolkit.org/>
>
> Cheers,
> Dominic.

As to your question:

> Do you plan to use this as part of another project, or is it just "oh,
> it would be nice to have a flat-file backend"?

I would plan to use it :-) Just a for a personal site. If you're asking 
if I have a use-case that really demands a flat-file backend, I guess 
not... maybe it's just that I'd quite like to throw markup together in 
vim when I want, but still edit it over the interwebs when I need to as 
well?

As an addendum to my previous suggestions, I guess it would be good to 
have /all/ the previous versions kept in one central "archive" 
directory, which you could then hide from web spiders. That would also 
make sure one's directories with current versions aren't choked with 
previous version files if/when one goes in to modify things by hand.

I'm starting to think this use-case might be too bespoke to be worth 
contributing back to WT. More of a burden than a benefit possibly?

Cheers,

--Ryan



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