[Mailman-Developers] [CLI Project] Support of filtering of objects in Command Shell

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

You don't need to put me in the addressee list if you Cc
mailman-developers.

Rajeev S writes:

 > As this is a command shell, I wish to give it a SQL like feel.

I don't understand why you want it to feel like SQL.  SQL is hardly
something I would expect typical list admins to know about.  Choice of
some of the operators might be inspired by SQL's more-or-less natural
language style.

 > For example,
 > 
 >  >>> show users where display_name = 'foo' and subscribed_list_ids 
 > contains = 'list at domain.org <mailto:%27list at domain.org>'

Given that we use objects, I somewhat prefer

  >>> show users with display_name = 'foo' and
      subscribed_lists containing 'list.domain.org' or 'list.domain.net'

Or somewhat contorted grammar:

  >>> show users with 'foo' as display_name and
      'list.domain.org' or 'list.domain.net' in subscribed_lists

 > 1.Use the Storm library to query the database directly, as mailman core 
 > does.
 >
 > 2.Use the REST API
 > 
 > By using the first approach, a good performance improvement is
 > achieved, by leaving the data filtering to database engine. But
 > this limits the usability of of the CLI to the system in which the
 > mailman database exists, as the remote connections to DB servers
 > are usually disabled.

I think this is a distinction without a difference as the REST API is
usually disabled for remote clients as well.

 > By using the second approach, the performance is bad, as it requires a 
 > normal python `for` loop that compares the the results one by one. 

Extend the REST API if performance bothers you.  (FVO "you" that
include future GSoC students and users.)  I don't think performance
should be a consideration here.  Focus on functionality.

 > So, the final question is, Should the CLI support filtering using the 
 > WHERE clause? Or should I proceed as per my proposal, building a basic 
 > Mailman shell and leave the rest to be completed in future?

I think it should support simple filtering at least.