[Feature Request] Deprecate storing config path in database

[arsenyspb]

Hi @fisharebest ,

What would be the impact of deprecating the wt_site_setting's INDEX_DIRECTORY on schema in upcoming releases, and e.g. moving it strictly to config.ini.php?

It would've allowed a more stateless architecture with datastore decoupled that would allow easier underlying migrations with scripts that move files (e.g. from local storage to a NAS or FUSE-based object store) without the need to hook back in to the DB and do updates like:

UPDATE wt_site_setting
SET setting_value = '/new/path/to/'
WHERE setting_name = 'INDEX_DIRECTORY';

We're discussing this as part of issues/1707 with @alexbelgium who is doing amazing job for both webtrees and Home Assistant communities: he is maintaining and innovating on Hassio Webtrees add-on. It's a fantastic wrapper on top of dockerized webtrees from @NathanVaughn 's builds, which from your main.

Making webtrees maintainance more decoupled with focal area in config.ini.php only would've opened up a very good avenue for Hassio owners to manage add-on upgrades with minimal maintenance.

[fisharebest]

webtrees has a folder for system data /data, used for cache, temp files, etc.

webtrees also needs to store user data such as media files, GEDCOM files.

By default this also goes in /data, but it can be configured to use any other folder with read/write permission, aka the INDEX_DIRECTORY setting.

The roadmap in webtrees is to allow the user data to be stored in other locations. The internal changes have been made -we use the flysystem abstraction layer internally and can easily store data in cloud storage, remote filesystems, etc.

The only thing outstanding is the configuration. Instead of INDEX_DIRECTORY I anticipate a number of modules, such as DropBox, GoogleDrive, SFTP, etc.

So, I'm not sure that moving this option to config.ini.php fits in with this roadmap.

If I understand correctly, you are using symlinks to some other storage. Might it be better to specify the desired location directly. This could be done with a (very) simple module that selects whatever local filesystem you like - including reading a location from config.ini.php directly.

On a related note, I have just started writing a CLI interface for configuring webtrees. Creating users/trees, updating config, etc. Would this be another solution for you - a CLI script that updates this setting?

[alexbelgium]

Hi, thanks for this feedback and clear explanations.

Regarding the homeassistant addon, it is globally a shell around NathanVaughn's container. The key difference is that most options are defined through the HA interface (base url ; ssl certificates ...) and a serie of scripts propagates those options to the webtree app itself (for example through environment variables ; direct scripts modification using sed ; symlinks...). This allows consistency with other addons way of working to simplify user experience, and use HA's systems for backups ; mysql availability... As HA doesn't allow to use volumes mapping, I've symlinked /data and /modules_v4 to a folder that is accessible for the user. Up until now it works very fine - but indeed arsernyspb has identified that the mapping of the data_location is not very robust.

A cli would be great to allow to modify by script some options in a much more robust manner. I have other addons working with this type of logic, such as one based on Nextcloud.

Btw congrats on your incredible app. I'm also a geneaology enthusiast and have been using it for a long time.

[fisharebest]

There is already a CLI interface - though it's not documented and the syntax/commands are still liable to change.
When finished, it will allow a fully-scripted setup, without needing the GUI.

Commit 0683965 adds a site-setting command.

$ php index.php site-setting --help
Description:
  Configure site settings

Usage:
  site-setting [options] [--] [<setting-name> [<setting-value>]]

Arguments:
  setting-name          The setting to update
  setting-value         The new value of the setting.

Options:
  -l, --list            List site settings (optionally filtered by setting name)
  -d, --delete          Delete a site setting
  -h, --help            Display help for the given command. When no command is given display help for the list command
      --silent          Do not output any message
  -q, --quiet           Only errors are displayed. All other output is suppressed
  -V, --version         Display this application version
      --ansi|--no-ansi  Force (or disable --no-ansi) ANSI output
  -n, --no-interaction  Do not ask any interactive question
  -v|vv|vvv, --verbose  Increase the verbosity of messages: 1 for normal output, 2 for more verbose output and 3 for debug
$ php index.php site-setting --list DIR
+-----------------+---------------------------------------+
| Setting name    | Setting value                         |
+-----------------+---------------------------------------+
| INDEX_DIRECTORY | /Users/gr4376/Projects/webtrees/data/ |
+-----------------+---------------------------------------+
$ php index.php site-setting INDEX_DIRECTORY /foo/bar

                                                                                                                        
 [OK] Site setting ‘INDEX_DIRECTORY’ was changed from ‘/Users/gr4376/Projects/webtrees/data/’ to ‘/foo/bar’.            
                                                                                                                        

[NathanVaughn]

I know this issue is marked as closed, but I would love to hear about it when this CLI is ready. I (try to) maintain one of the two most popular Docker images for webtrees, and I've created a pretty gnarly Python script to automate the setup wizard and configure webtrees on startup. An officially supported CLI would do wonders for making webtrees easier to Dockerize.

[fisharebest]

Some CLI commands are pretty much complete:

• creating/updating data/config.ini.php
• updating site/tree/user settings
• site on/off-line

Others are still in progress:

• creating/updating users and trees
• import/export GEDCOM files
• database migrations

I hope to have these ready for the next release.

If you want to experiment with the latest dev code, use php index.php to see a list of commands. Feedback welcome.