[aur-dev] pkgbase queries via RPC interface

[Lukas Fleischer]

On Wed, 13 Aug 2014 at 06:56:00, Xyne wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> The RPC search, info and multiinfo methods return no data when the pkgbase is
> passed as the argument.
> 
> I would like to discuss the following ideas:
> 
> A) Return all of the packages in the pkgbase for search, info and multiinfo
>    queries. For search and multiinfo this would be natural. For info it would be
>    left to the client to detect that the result is an array instead of an
>    object and thus infer that the result is from a pkgbase (or simply add that
>    data to a new field in the result object). With the advent of the query
>    version parameter this should not be an issue for backwards compatibility.
> 

I don't quite understand the idea. What is the argument that is passed
to the RPC?

* A package name? If so, I personally think it is very counterintuitive
  to return all "related" packages as well. Also, we are going to waste
  bandwidth by often returning information the user is not interested
  in.

* A package base name? Does that mean we will no longer be able to
  search for packages?

* Both? What happens if there is a package base and a package with the
  same name (and the package doesn't belong to that package base)?

> B) Add a parameter to query pkgbase data (e.g. object=pkgbase) and return a
>    JSON object with pkgbase-specific data (everything that still applies from
>    regular package data, plus an array of the included packages). Given that
>    there are AUR pages for pkgbases, it would be consistent to provide that
>    data via the RPC interface.
> 

This sounds better to me.

> I believe this would be very useful. What do you think? Would it be difficult?
> 

I like this idea. Should not be too hard to implement. Maybe we should
make the whole thing more flexible by replacing everything with a single
search method (instead of search, info and multiinfo) with different
search modes (packages and package bases), a filter to specify the
fields on is interested in and different query types (by name, by name
and description).

> Regards,
> Xyne
>