Re: Connecting by data source?

[Rodrigo Moya Piernavieja <rmoya tsai es>]

>
> Aren't datasources flexible enough to be very general (specify only a
> given server) and very specific (specify a user, server, database,
> language, etc.)?  Looking at the current implementation, it looks like
> users can decide how they want to use the datasource feature.
>

This is not true. The only thing is that, depending on which provider you are
going to use, you are allowed to pass all needed information in the DSN field
of the datasource. This string may contain USER, PASSWORD... but it will not
have any effect if the provider does not recognize this option.

>
> Since my gdalib file is in /home/bjepson/.gnome, I think it should be
> acceptable for me to put some user-specific datasources in that file.
>
> >
> > ...and storing passwords... you know what i mean?
> >
>
> You're right - in most cases, storing passwords can be a problem.  In
> practice, people put passwords in .netrc and .fetchmailrc (and are warned
> about setting appropriate permissions).  I feel that it should be up to
> each individual site to develop policies about these files, depending on
> how sensitive their data is.  People shouldn't store passwords without
> giving it some thought (by the same logic, they also shouldn't run rolodex
> without -p, since you can see the password with ps).
>

rolodex must be modified to ask for user name and password in a nice dialog
box.

>
> Even forgetting about the passwords, a data source can still wrap up
> useful information like host name, user name, database, etc.  So, if I've
> set up a datasource in my home directory that specifies a database server,
> a database within that server, and my username, is it possible to write a
> program that lets me supply the password at runtime and use the datasource
> as an index into that other useful information?
>

Same as before. If the provider accepts the username in the DSN string, this
will work, but if not...

Although I'm thinking we could use a new entry per datasource to specify a
default user. So, if you don't provide a username in the call to
gda_connection_open, it will use this one, and if you specify a username, it
will use this one instead of the datasource-specified.

What do you think?