[Mailman-Developers] Questions in regard to the database operations

[Ian Eiloart]

On 26 Jun 2012, at 01:54, Barry Warsaw wrote:
> On Jun 25, 2012, at 03:30 PM, Danci Emanuel wrote:
> 
>> As for the latter problem, I still have something in mind. If we were to
>> choose the  second option (the one which implies setting the flag
>> "delivery_status" to the proper value) does this not mean that we will have
>> to keep the user`s preferences alive, without deleting them?
> 
> Here's how preferences work.
> 
> There is an IPreferences interface which describes the kind of things that are
> "preferences".  Members, users, and addresses all can have a pointer to a
> preferences record.  There are also some system default preference values.
> When we look up a preference on a member, the search order goes like this:
> 
> * member
> * address
> * user
> * system

Do you mean "membership"? If I (a user) am a member of a list, then I have a membership record. But, the member is the user. If the term "member record" is used to describe a membership record, things are going to get confusing, I think. Or, perhaps it's a subscription (but still not a subscriber) record?

To be more explicit, I'd expect a "members" table to simply list references to users. 

Whereas a "subscriptions" or "memberships" table would include references to members, as well as information about the subscription (preferred mailing address, start date, permission type, subject line munging, etc, etc).

My guess is that the link to users is implied, though? 

> meaning, if the member doesn't have a preference set, we fall back to the
> subscribed address, then to the user linked to that address, and finally the
> system default.  At each level, the object only has a preference record if
> explicitly created.  Usually, they don't have preferences (meaning the system
> default takes over).
> 
> When a member record is deleted, only that member's preferences are deleted.
> If either the address and user associated with that member has a preferences
> record, it *has* to stick around because an address or user can be subscribed
> to many mailing lists.  E.g. You could decide that you want all your postings
> to be acknowledged.  You'd set that on your user record and then all your
> subscriptions would automatically inherit it.
> 
> I don't see much savings in trying not to delete a member's preferences when
> being unsubscribed.  It's just a row in the database, and probably not a very
> big one at that.  Plus, it'll usually be empty anyway.
> 
> Cheers,
> -Barry
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-- 
Ian Eiloart
Postmaster, University of Sussex
+44 (0) 1273 87-3148