Re: State of Perl-based database setup utilities for LedgerSMB 1.3

["Adam Thompson" <..hidden..>]

> Where would the data be stored?  Do we require write permissions to
> the ledgersmb directory?

Um, in the case I was describing, yes, I think so.  In the examples I've 
seen, the administrator has the choice of either configuring their 
webserver & system to allow the PHP script to write to the config file, 
*or* updating the config file manually.  Which is what LSMB requires, 
currently.

> I suppose we could create a single world-writable file and maybe delete
> it or something after the database setup.

>From my perspective, even if we force the admin to edit a config file by 
hand, at least the "installation instructions" are now embedded in a 
sanity check expressed as code - and as we all know, (generally) 
programmers like to code yet hate writing documentation.
So, we
1) package LSMB as a self-contained RPM/DEB/whatever *without* needing a 
(relatively speaking) very complex post-install script
2) now allow the install script to be written in perl, since it's part of 
the LSMB code
3) avoid keeping a separate piece of documentation up-to-date w.r.t. 
dependencies, DB setup, etc.  (It still has to be kept up to date, but in 
a different way.)

Dunno if it's worthwhile, I was bringing up as an alternate approach that 
satisfies some of the longer-term project goals.

Two ways I've seen this done are
a) every page calls an initialization function that, if it fails, 
redirects to a setup page
b) default index page *is* the setup page, instructions include telling 
the admin to delete it and rename the real setup page when done.

-Adam