Expose ISourcePackage.branches

This is the highest priority medium bug.

How does this relate to ISourcePackage.linked_branches()?
Should only official branches be returned?
How about a distro series filter?
Should this ideally return just a `SeriesSourcePackageBranch` collection?

In order:

  - This is linked_branches, the bug title is out of date.
  - Yes.
  - No. SourcePackage has already got a distroseries associated with it. It ought to be called DistroSeriesSourcePackage.
  - No. The SSPB objects are an implementation detail and should never be exposed in any API, internal or external.

Hmm .. interesting. IMHO the `ISeriesSourcePackageBranch` class has nothing to it that would preclude it from external exposure. Why is it banned from all APIs?

The ISourcePackage.linked_branches() method returns a collection of

   (SeriesSourcePackageBranch.pocket, Branch) tuples

which makes it difficult to declare its return type using something like @operation_returns_collection_of(). Or am I missing something?

On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 7:22 PM, Muharem Hrnjadovic
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Hmm .. interesting. IMHO the `ISeriesSourcePackageBranch` class has
> nothing to it that would preclude it from external exposure. Why is it
> banned from all APIs?
>

Because it's a boring implementation detail of no actual use. It's
sole purpose is to allow us to associate a mapping from pocket ->
branch with each source package.

If we weren't using an ORM, it wouldn't be a class at all.

> The ISourcePackage.linked_branches() method returns a collection of
>
>   (SeriesSourcePackageBranch.pocket, Branch) tuples
>
> which makes it difficult to declare its return type using something like
> @operation_returns_collection_of(). Or am I missing something?
>

TBH, I'm not sure why it's a list of tuples rather than a dict. I
don't know how to expose a dict over the API. Surely someone has done
it before though.

jml

Jonathan Lange wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 7:22 PM, Muharem Hrnjadovic
> <email address hidden> wrote:
>> Hmm .. interesting. IMHO the `ISeriesSourcePackageBranch` class has
>> nothing to it that would preclude it from external exposure. Why is it
>> banned from all APIs?
>>
>
> Because it's a boring implementation detail of no actual use. It's
> sole purpose is to allow us to associate a mapping from pocket ->
> branch with each source package.

It's akin to a "linking table" in the SQL/schema modelling world and,
as such, can be very useful even to "external" users.

> If we weren't using an ORM, it wouldn't be a class at all.
>
>> The ISourcePackage.linked_branches() method returns a collection of
>>
>> (SeriesSourcePackageBranch.pocket, Branch) tuples
>>
>> which makes it difficult to declare its return type using something like
>> @operation_returns_collection_of(). Or am I missing something?
>>
>
> TBH, I'm not sure why it's a list of tuples rather than a dict. I
> don't know how to expose a dict over the API. Surely someone has done
> it before though.

That's a nice idea, construct a dict from the list of 2-tuples and
expose that in the API.

Best regards

--
Muharem Hrnjadovic <email address hidden>
Public key id : B2BBFCFC
Key fingerprint : A5A3 CC67 2B87 D641 103F 5602 219F 6B60 B2BB FCFC

On Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:22:56 Muharem Hrnjadovic wrote:
> Hmm .. interesting. IMHO the `ISeriesSourcePackageBranch` class has
> nothing to it that would preclude it from external exposure. Why is it
> banned from all APIs?
>
> The ISourcePackage.linked_branches() method returns a collection of
>
> (SeriesSourcePackageBranch.pocket, Branch) tuples
>
> which makes it difficult to declare its return type using something like
> @operation_returns_collection_of(). Or am I missing something?
>

I think all you have to do is to define that ISourcePackage inherits from
IHasBranches. That and the implementation class mixing in HasBranchesMixin.

On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 8:20 PM, Muharem Hrnjadovic
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Jonathan Lange wrote:
>> On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 7:22 PM, Muharem Hrnjadovic
>> <email address hidden> wrote:
>>> Hmm .. interesting. IMHO the `ISeriesSourcePackageBranch` class has
>>> nothing to it that would preclude it from external exposure. Why is it
>>> banned from all APIs?
>>>
>>
>> Because it's a boring implementation detail of no actual use. It's
>> sole purpose is to allow us to associate a mapping from pocket ->
>> branch with each source package.
>
> It's akin to a "linking table" in the SQL/schema modelling world and,
> as such, can be very useful even to "external" users.
>

I know what a linking table is, but I'm still sceptical. Can you give
an example of an instance of an object representing the row in the
linking table being useful?

jml

OK .. I followed a recommendation of Leonard's and came up with the following solution: lp:~al-maisan/launchpad/352094

Please let me know what you think.