[Mailman-Developers] SQL in MM3 issues

[Kevin McCann]

For those who are interested in working on a MySQL and/or Postgres 
backend end for Mailman 3, I'd like to get some feedback on *very basic* 
notions. First, for me, the whole reason I want to see this SQL thing 
happen is so that I can have the three primary data tables at my "SQL 
select" disposal so that I can build Neat Things. Those data tables 
being 1) list configuration data, 2) member data, and 3) message archives.

What kind of Neat Things require this, you ask? Well, let's say I wanna 
build this wonderful tool called "EZ-Groups." It has all sorts of great 
stuff: list info w/ archives, user profiles, documents, a calendar. You 
name it. All the stuff I want to have to build my happy communities. I 
wanna log into my EZ-Groups web site, which is powered by Mailman 3, of 
course. And once I log in, on the left hand side I want to see all of my 
groups (lists) listed on the left hand side. I then want to click on one 
of them and voila!, I see all sorts of info about the list. The purpose, 
how many members, and, of course, an index of most recent messages. I 
want to click on a message subject to view the message. I might even 
want to see profile information about the person who sent that message. 
If the list is configured as "members can view subscriber list" then I 
want to see a link which will allow me to see the list of subscribers ( 
I also get to see it if Im logged in as the list admin). And I want to 
do this - and much more - all on one site, with a common header and one 
display area. Basically a one-stop place for me to engage my various 
communities.

Are you still reading this? If so, maybe you've thought about this stuff 
before. Or you're thinking "this kinda sounds like Yahoogroups." And if 
you have tried to build something like this before with an MLM that has 
various bits of data here and there in hard-to-get-at places, you know 
it's not a walk in the park. As it turns, out my colleagues and I *have* 
built something like this. We were able to do so with Lyris as the 
backend, a MS SQL database which contains all of the Lyris data - and I 
mean all of it - and the ColdFusion scripting language. This set up has 
allowed me to write some pretty neat Lyris data-accessing apps since 1998. 

I want to do this same kind of thing with Mailman 3. And so I want, at 
the very least, to have those three aforementioned tables of data:

lists
members
messages

Can anyone think of any reason why we would not want to have these three 
tables in a SQL-enabled Mailman 3. What other tables might you want to 
see? Or fields that might not be found in the above three tables? May I 
suggest that you be creative, think ahead, and don't restrict yourself 
by notions of what an MLM is in the here-and-now. If we can first agree 
on tables, maybe we can move forward and work on the core field sets for 
each one. And this will in turn give us something to chew on at the 
sprint. Barry does this approach make sense?

Also, would it be better to set up a Wiki or another list somewhere for 
this topic (SQL-enabling Mailman3)?

Thanks,
Kevin