Extend API for managing various settings

[Robert Rauch]

Am 09.09.2015 um 21:33 schrieb Mads Kiilerich:
> On 09/09/2015 09:00 PM, Robert Rauch wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> In order to make Kallithea more easily configurable via automation tools
>> (like Puppet), it would be really helpful if I could manage various
>> settings, which are stored in the database backend and normally
>> configured via the webinterface, via the API.
>>
>> For example, LDAP configuration is a classic realm of configuration
>> management from my point of view, but there is no easy way to configure
>> this in Kallithea in an automatic way.
> 
> Agreed!
> 
> But also, config settings (which currently not are per repo) are very
> fundamental things. They might thus not be the best candidates for
> exposing on a web service API. It could also easily end up in a chicken
> and egg problem - especially when it gets to the initial user and
> authentication configuration.

That's true.

> An alternative idea could thus perhaps be to do something like tweaking
> paster setup-app/setup-db so it also could be used without zapping the
> database and extend it to also be able to set more than just the initial
> user credentials.

Yes. At the end of the day, we need this feature at the CLI level, no
matter how it is implemented. What I really don't like about the `paster
setup-db` thing is that it wipes the complete database, even if I only
want to *change* one of the initial parameters (like admin password
etc), or am I mistaken?

> The chicken-and-egg problem could also be handled by implementing the
> API you suggest and giving kallithea-api a mode where it access the
> controllers and database directly in the process (assuming it is passed
> the right .ini file and has the right permissions to database and
> filesystems) instead of calling a web service.

This confuses me a bit. If kallithea-api, as you said, accesses the
controllers and database directly, which API has to be implemented then?
Anyhow, it sounds good! B-)

Robert