Question on BooleanField value

[chinyeungli]

Following are the keys that only take Boolean value:

            ('redistribute', BooleanField()),
            ('attribute', BooleanField()),
            ('track_change', BooleanField()),
            ('modified', BooleanField()),

My question is should this be restricted? For instance, some users may want to have a x instead of Yes to represent the True condition and a blank value instead of No to represent the False value.

@DennisClark and @pombredanne input are welcome

[DennisClark]

I think it's a good idea to support x and blank value for BooleanField; in fact, ideally some or all of the following should be supported:

Yes: True, T, Yes, Y, x
No: False, F, No, N, blank

[chinyeungli]

Bugs:
In the gen process, the current code will only generate 'yes' value for: True, T, Yes, Y
However, if user has False, F, No, N in the boolean field, the tool will not have this field generated in the ABOUT file.

In the inventory process, the following boolean value seems been ignored: yes, no, only Y, N works

[mjherzog]

I recommend one set of values only for simplicity and clarity with blank allowed. The ABOUT "specification" says "Flag fields have a "true" or "false" value. True, T, Yes or Y must be interpreted as "true" in any case combination. False, F, No or N must be interpreted as "false" in any case combination." so we should revisit that also.

[chinyeungli]

@mjherzog

I recommend one set of values only for simplicity and clarity with blank allowed.

Do you mean the tool should only show the True Boolean value whenever user uses T, True, Yes, Y, while and the tool will not show the False Boolean value in the output?

For instance,
If the input CSV has modified = N and attribute = Y, the generated ABOUT file will only has attribute: yes and the modified key will not be created.

Same behavior the other way around. If the ABOUT file has modified = N and attribute = Y, the generated inventory (csv or json) file will only has attribute: yes and the modified key will not be created (or blank in the CSV case)

[chinyeungli]

@DennisClark @mjherzog please see the above notes if that make sense to you, or do we still want to support x and true etc..

[chinyeungli]

Do you mean the tool should only show the True Boolean value whenever user uses T, True, Yes, Y, while and the tool will not show the False Boolean value in the output?

After thinking again, I think if users put a "No" or false value in the boolean field, they mean to put it there and the generated ABOUT files or inventory should contains the "False" value.

[chinyeungli]

@DennisClark and @mjherzog
The above fixes add support for 'x' as a True value for boolean field, but in the end, the tool will convert all the "True" to "yes" and all the "False" to "no" in the output (either in the generated ABOUT file or the inventory file)
Note that in the gen process, if a boolean field, let say the "modified" field, is empty, the boolean field will not be shown in the generated ABOUT file.

For instance,

about_file_path, about_resource, name, modified, track_changes
/input/project/about3.ABOUT, test3.c, test3.c, x, no

will gives

about_resource: test3.c
about_resource_path: test3.c
modified: yes
name: test3.c
track_changes: no

and

about_file_path, about_resource, name, modified, track_changes
/input/project/about3.ABOUT, test3.c, test3.c, , no

will gives

about_resource: test3.c
about_resource_path: test3.c
name: test3.c
track_changes: no