[wp-hackers] Grab a seat. On Delaying 2.2, separating tables

[Robin Adrianse]

+1. Definitely +1.

On 4/14/07, Robert Deaton <false.hopes at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Okay, I'll try to cut right to the point here, cause its getting late
> and my brain functionality is quickly slipping away. WordPress 2.2 is
> shipped for release very shortly. Unfortunately, we're cutting it
> pretty close again, with big changes going in only a week before its
> scheduled for final release. Not only does this mean we're once again
> not leaving time for the testing that is likely needed (think WP 2.0),
> it means we are only a week away from releasing into the wild what I
> see to be a mistake.
>
> WordPress 2.2 features the new WP core tagging system. That's an
> inevitability, its not going anywhere, and that's not what I'm
> suggesting. The problem is, like linkcategories, its been thrown into
> the categories table as well. Now, without getting into specifics, it
> is a given that tags and categories are not the same. So why are we
> storing them in the same table? Post categories and link categories
> are also not the same, so again, why?
>
> I believe that we should take the time now, before a release of
> WordPress is made with these database schema changes, to fix the
> issue. I think that the categories table needs to be resplit into a
> link categories table, a post categories table, and a tag table, each
> set up to handle their own specific job instead of throwing them
> together with legacy fields. Let's have a look at the categories
> table.
>
> 13      $wp_queries="CREATE TABLE $wpdb->categories (
> 14        cat_ID bigint(20) NOT NULL auto_increment,
>
> 15        cat_name varchar(55) NOT NULL default '',
> 16        category_nicename varchar(200) NOT NULL default '',
> ^^ those two lines do seem rather inconsistent, don't you think?
>
> 17        category_description longtext NOT NULL,
> 18        category_parent bigint(20) NOT NULL default '0',
> 19        category_count bigint(20) NOT NULL default '0',
>
> 20        link_count bigint(20) NOT NULL default '0',
> 21        tag_count bigint(20) NOT NULL default '0',
> ^^ two different count fields only used for some of the things stored
> in the table at different times
>
> 22        posts_private tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
> 23        links_private tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
> ^^ again
>
> 24        type tinyint NOT NULL default '1',
> ^^ a bitfield, instead of an enum? brilliant.
>
> 25        PRIMARY KEY  (cat_ID),
> 26        KEY category_nicename (category_nicename)
> 27      ) $charset_collate;
>
> So, basically, its all lumped together. No wonder WP is notorious for
> slow and poor queries.
>
> While on the subject of splitting these out, I also believe that it is
> about time that we created a proper schema and structure for managing
> category hierarchies. I'm personally favoring the nested set model at
> the moment, but really any proper schema that would allow us to manage
> hierarchies easily with fewer queries would do.
>
> The categories schema changes can probably wait for the next version,
> as its a large undertaking and a lot to test, however I think that it
> definitely wouldn't hurt to push back 2.2 and get these tables
> separated and sorted out before they ship in a release and then we
> have to worry about serious backwards compatibility issues when trying
> to make these changes in the next version.
>
> --
> --Robert Deaton
> http://lushlab.com
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