[rt-users] RT to go? Dependency graphs?

[Marc Hedlund]

On 16 Apr 2002, Johan Ihren wrote:
> I *realise* this, and I want to make that clear. Also, I am not
> experienced with real databases. So I have to ask: way too much work
> to *whom*? To me to make it work? To the master db keeping update
> logs? To the client (my laptop) trying to stay in sync?

I think there would be a lot of work with resolving conflicts between
a disconnected user and the master db, or between two or more
disconnected users.  If the state of the system changes during
disconnection (for instance, a new ticket is created) or if
conflicting changes are made to a ticket state (for instance, two
people set the status of a ticket differently, or if someone merges a
ticket), you would have to do some amount of work (I think a fair bit)
in order to get those conflicts resolved.  Also, you'd have to coerce
the disconnected RTs into knowing they are disconnected (queueing mail
for later delivery, etc.).  I do think it would change a fair bit for
each RT version, and I don't think it would be as simple as "turn on
replication."

> Ssh tunneling: not relevant, if I have net access, then I have net
> access. This is for *not* having net access.

Okay, my mis-read.

> Excel: well, we are not a Windoze persons, we're Unix people. I have
> lots of respect for Excel, which is a fine tool running under the
> wrong OS (not a religious point, merely an observation of the
> cumbersomness of dualbooting etc).

Whatever.  Consider "Excel" to be a variable and define it however
people of your religion do.  The point is, a dump of readable data
would be trivial in mysql:

 SELECT query INTO OUTFILE "filename" ...

and there you are.  That file can be delimited with whatever you want and
read in anything that reads delimited files (like Excel, perl, emacs, blah
blah blah...).  Set up that query once and it will likely continue to work
quite well through RT revisions.  The point was not which tool to use, but
instead that a read-only extract would take a couple of minutes to put
together, and would work for many cases.

> But to become convinced I would like to hear why replication wouldn't
> work in this scenario.

I didn't say it wouldn't work -- I just said it would be a lot of work
to do, and it isn't clear to me the benefit would be that great.

But hey!  It's not my implementation time we're talking about.  You
asked for an opinion and I gave it, now do whatever makes you happy!  ;)

Cheers,

Marc Hedlund
e: marc at precipice dot org