[dev] Seamless/streamlined configuring/upgrading Horde/apps

[Josh Endries]

Hello,

I was planning on mentioning this anyway, but a search turned up the  
"Setup, Configuration, Options, Preferences" thread pushed me more  
towards actually subscribing to the list (my vote would be for  
"System/User <something>"). :)

Chuck's comment about DB config seemed to be in jest (from an  
outsider's POV), but I would suggest it be considered seriously. I'm a  
big fan of separating one's data from operation, and custom files from  
distributed. It makes a lot of things easier, and I really wish Horde  
did this. My main issue is upgrading. I've never, ever had an upgrade  
go smoothly...it's never as simple as "copy some files over" like it  
is in other apps. I've lost config files, messied up the hierarchy,  
had old stuff laying around, DB problems...it's just not an elegant  
process IMO. It's much easier to slap in some files and forget about  
it. Wordpress is beautiful with this. To upgrade, I simply unzip or  
copy the files over, log in, and poof! Either I click a button to  
upgrade the DB or it Just WorksTM. phpBB is finally doing this fairly  
well; they have some good pre-install/upgrade checks for various  
things before doing anything.

The reason this works (well, one of a few) is that the "configuration"  
is (1) in the database, independent of the app, and (2) all contained  
in one config file, which mainly just has the DB connection info in  
it. Personally with my apps, I reference a separate "site-specific"  
area and completely separate the app from anything else, so one just  
has to delete and overwrite the app and it works.

Another reason this works is that upgrades are detected and somewhat  
managed un the UI (DB schema changes, for example). This would  
probably be complicated for Horde, but shouldn't be too difficult,  
even a hierarchical solution might work for apps...

I think Horde would benefit significantly from moving all the conf/  
stuff into the DB, having the DB (or DBs) be defined in one central  
file, and possibly have that file by default be located outside the  
downloaded/distributed Horde files. Has this been discussed before? Is  
anyone open to this? I'm guessing H4 is too far along for something  
like this?

I did search for this topic but didn't find anything; hopefully I'm  
not fanning some old flames or applying repeated force to a non-living  
equine.

Thanks,
Josh