[buddypress-trac] [BuddyPress Trac] #6350: XProfile field database schema

[buddypress-trac]

#6350: XProfile field database schema
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 Reporter:  johnjamesjacoby          |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement              |      Status:  reopened
 Priority:  normal                   |   Milestone:  3.0
Component:  Extended Profile         |     Version:  1.0
 Severity:  normal                   |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  2nd-opinion needs-patch  |
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Comment (by boonebgorges):

 The main improvement I see from @johnjamesjacoby's comment
 https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6350#comment:4 is that "field
 groups" feels like an arbitrary object type. IMO it feels more like a
 taxonomy of fields than a field type itself (it's a way of grouping
 fields, and in theory it could be many-to-many - thus a taxonomy), but the
 general point seems right to me. If we were designing this component from
 scratch, knowing what we know now about how it's used, we'd certainly do
 something different from what actually exists.

 Given that the component *does* exist, the question is, what do we do now?
 The amount of work required to design and implement the new schema is a
 small fraction of the overall labor required. We'd need an abstraction
 layer, so that queries by field-groups get translated into whatever new
 schema we have. We'd need a migration routine, which will need a bulk data
 migration tool #6841. The migrator is bound to be not-quite-100%
 efficient, which introduces support overhead. We'll cause breaks for
 people doing direct SQL queries or other advanced things with xprofile;
 we'll need publicity and documentation about this, and even then, we'll
 have to prepare for reports of breakage.

 So, it's an expensive project, both in terms of BP team time and in terms
 of developer/user goodwill. If someone stepped forward to own this whole
 project, I think it'd be worth considering. If not, it feels hard to
 justify this project holding up other projects that would have more direct
 user impact.

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Ticket URL: <https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6350#comment:13>
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