[asterisk-dev] Asterisk 1.6 Realtime Database must use ', ' not '|' in appdata field?

[Sherwood McGowan]

Tilghman Lesher wrote:
> On Thursday 22 May 2008 15:30:57 JR Richardson wrote:
>   
>>>> So I'm guessing pipe processing has been deprecated or possibly this is
>>>> a bug?
>>>>         
>>> Removed.  Comma is what most people are used to using in extensions.conf,
>>> and has thus been made the authoritative delimiter.
>>>
>>>       
>>>> The problem is that 1.2 (which i still use in production) behavior
>>>> requires a | for the separator in the appdata fields for ARA database
>>>> operation due to ',' being a end of field indication for the database
>>>>         
>>> I don't understand this.  Character type fields are all enclosed in
>>> quotes, and commas are fine embedded in fields.
>>>       
>> Curious, when was '|' removed? 1.4 or 1.6?
>>     
>
> 1.6.  It has been the non-preferred way of doing configurations since long
> before even 1.0.  Unfortunately, since realtime extensions is fairly
> barebones, it has to use exactly the same delimiter as the internals, so there
> wasn't a good way to make the transition.
>
>   
>> The ',' used inside of a database field is not a real problem for the
>> database once it's there, the issue arises during import/export
>> operations to and from the database.  This has a great potential to
>> screw up the database, one bad csv import and all hell breaks loose.
>>     
>
> Yes, well, that hasn't changed.  You could screw up the import before, and
> you can still screw it up.  This is one of the reasons why many people use
> tab for a database import delimiter.  It's also easier to read the import
> file, and almost nobody uses tabs in data (especially not in Asterisk config
> files), which makes it an ideal delimiter.
>
>   
>> I'm sure this is why 1.2 ARA used pipes.  To have to change all
>> provisioning, documentation, methods for importing, just to upgrade
>> from 1.2 to 1.6 will be a considerable effort, plus it will have to be
>> a hot-cut for my database, almost not worth doing.
>>     
>
> Might I suggest that you prepare an alternate table for realtime extensions,
> with the translations, and just change the table in extconfig.conf?  That
> might make the transition a little easier.
>
>   
>> I'm not opposed to commas at all, but if it were at lease backwards
>> compatible, I could gradually remove the pipes from my database over
>> time.  I have allot of database and allot of pipes in that database.
>>     
>
> I've just added a config file of pbx_realtime.conf, which allows the setting
> of an option to use the 1.4 syntax and translating it on the fly to the 1.6
> syntax.  You'll be able to see this in the current 1.6.0 SVN tree or in the
> next beta or release candidate of 1.6.0.
>
>   
Thanks Tilghman, that is gonna save me from some extra work with a 
client as well. Like Steve, I applaud the developers for listening to 
logical arguments from the community :)

Sherwood McGowan