[Tickets #9745] Re: Upgrading overwrites backends.php

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Ticket URL: http://bugs.horde.org/ticket/9745
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  Ticket             | 9745
  Updated By         | Michael Slusarz <slusarz at horde.org>
  Summary            | Upgrading overwrites backends.php
  Queue              | IMP
  Version            | 5.0-RC2
  Type               | Bug
  State              | Not A Bug
  Priority           | 1. Low
  Milestone          |
  Patch              |
  Owners             |
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Michael Slusarz <slusarz at horde.org> (2011-03-30 18:20) wrote:

Still think this change is a terrible idea.  Didn't dwell on the  
subject on dev@  
(http://lists.horde.org/archives/dev/Week-of-Mon-20110214/025823.html)  
since it seemed I was outnumbered, but the concerns I raised (or were  
thinking about) are starting to show themselves so I will at least  
mention a few more here.

First, this is a *huge*, not readily apparent, change from H3.  I've  
been getting hammered lately for making changes that change the status  
quo from H3 because this is what users/admins are "used to".  Don't  
see how this is any different.

Adding a disclaimer to the config files is not going to change much.   
Especially since I agree with Chuck - the location of the disclaimer  
now pretty much means that nobody is going to see it, especially if  
they are used to dealing with H3 configs.  But even if you move it  
closer to the actual PHP code, people are still going to ignore.   
After all, if it was me, I'm going to open up the config file, search  
for a string, and start editing anyway.

Second, I can only imagine the e-mail support in the future on the  
mailing list.  Right now (H3), an email in a support thread might say:

Edit horde/config/registry.php and add a 'status' entry to the ingo  
block.  The valid list of status options can be found at the top of  
the file.

In the future, this is what it will entail:

Open horde/config/registry.php and determine the full PHP array  
variable string (in this case $this->applications['ingo']['status']).   
Also, make sure you check the top of that file for the various status  
entries and remember this value.  Then open  
horde/config/registry.php.local.  If this file doesn't exist, you will  
need to create this file.  Make sure this file is readable by the user  
the PHP process is running as.  Then make sure  
horde/config/registry.php.local begins with this exact string: "<?php  
".  Now you can paste the PHP variable string into this file, along  
with the value that you should have determined when looking at the  
original configuration file.  You will probably want to comment this  
entry also since, in isolation, you will likely forget the context of  
this change in the future.