Features/Plain Query Format

Summary

Provide simple string query format for Datastore find() method to cover all kinds of requests.

Owner

• Name: Aleksey Lim
• Email: send an email

Current status

• Targeted release: 0.86
• Last updated: Fri Jul 17 06:34:13 UTC 2009
• Percentage of completion: 0%

Detailed Description

Instead of having complicated query format for org.laptop.sugar.DataStore::find(), use plain string of full featured query format i.e. use all system query parameters(like timestamp, mime_type etc.) in query string(from former find()'s 'query' argument).

All system, users predefined and some(its up to user) of users query terms

• use prefixes like mime_type:"text/plain", author:Strugatsky etc.
• could be ranged e.g. timestamp:<stamp1>..<stamp2>
• could be sorted

New find() method still has optional dictionary argument to control final result set

• offset
• limit
• order_by

System terms

Datastore field	Flags/Parameters	Notes
tree_id
version_id
parent_id
ctime	ranged sorted
bundle_id
entry_type
creator
mime_type
title	sorted
activity_id
timestamp	ranged sorted
keep
filesize	ranged sorted	TODO: propose adding this field to DS
participant	sorted	TODO: propose adding this field to DS
buddies_count	sorted	(?)

Users predefined terms

Datastore field	Flags/Parameters	Notes
artist	sorted
album	sorted
author	sorted	and composer as well
date	ranged sorted
genre	sorted
track_number	ranged sorted
track_count	ranged sorted
disc_number	ranged sorted
disc_count	ranged sorted
copyright	sorted

Another ways to differentiate DS objects

All metadata fields will be tracked as usual, so regular search(w/o prefixes) should work. There is only one addition - optional prefixes in tags field.

All substrings(tags) from tags field in format:

• <substring_w/o_separators>:<string_w/o_separators_after_:>
• <substring_w/o_separators>:"<string_w/o_separators_after_: but with separators inside string>"

Will be treated as tags with prefix, so user can type in search bar:

• books:favorite if tags has substring books:favorite
• books:brothers if tags has substring books:"The Strugatsky brothers"

Benefit to Sugar

• simple(plain string in comparing with existed API with dictionary find()'s argument) query format for dbus find() method
• simple and new-feature-proof way to implement find method for example in CLI tools(because this tool needs only to pass plain string to Datastore service)
• let experienced users make complicated search in Journal etc.
• existed implementation has hard-coded logic for example in case of having several mime_types in query(all mime_types will be ORed despite what user wants).

Scope

• implementation in Datastore
• provide new dbus method to search
• support existed find() and mark it deprecated

How To Test

Run unit tests.

User Experience

If this feature is noticeable by its target audience, how will their experiences change as a result? Describe what they will see or notice.

Dependencies

Just regular glucose dependencies.

Contingency Plan

None necessary, revert to previous release behaviour.

Documentation

• Xapian query language

Release Notes

The Sugar Release Notes inform end-users about what is new in the release. An Example is 0.84/Notes. The release notes also help users know how to deal with platform changes such as ABIs/APIs, configuration or data file formats, or upgrade concerns. If there are any such changes involved in this feature, indicate them here. You can also link to upstream documentation if it satisfies this need. This information forms the basis of the release notes edited by the release team and shipped with the release.

Comments and Discussion

• See discussion tab for this feature