[DB-SIG] URI syntax for database (was: [SQLObject] Re: SQLite connection - relative filename)

[Ian Bicking]

Dittmar, Daniel wrote:
>> Of course, following that pattern you could get 
>>dbapi:jdbc:postgresql://... which feels awfully weird to me.
> 
> 
> a) I'd prefer pydbapi: as a prefix. That way, someone looking at a
> configuration file could at least get the notion that any problems might
> be related to some Python lib.

I guess... blah, feels like the namespacitus problem of Java, though.

> b) Using a module path instead of a DBMS product name is generally
> preferable (and seemed to be the consent so far). With the JDBC scheme,
> all relevant drivers have to be loaded into memory first, the diver
> manager then asks each if the driver would accept a specific URI. 

Yes, it's certainly a problem.  For most the module name isn't that bad, 
though explaining why you have to use MySQLdb: instead of mysql: will be 
a little annoying, and certainly unsatisfying to the user.  I'd feel 
compelled to create a mapping of aliases, even if I fell back on the 
module name.

There exists the possibility of centrally registering aliases, that is 
short of importing modules and having them self-register.  E.g. put a 
"db-api-aliases" directory somewhere on sys.path, with filenames like 
"mysql.txt" that contains "MySQLdb".  Maybe multiple lines in a file if 
there are multiple implementors (and the connector can either bail with 
a helpful error message about options for being more explicit, or can 
prefer one driver over another).

> c) Should username and password be used similar to other protocols?
>   pydbapi:<modulepath>://[<username>:<password>@]<host>[:
> <port>/

That was my expectation.  Any parameters could also be interpreted as 
well, like ?autocommit=t&datestyle=mxDateTime -- and so on, which leaves 
room for any parameters that would be useful.

-- 
Ian Bicking  /  ianb at colorstudy.com  /  http://blog.ianbicking.org