[RFC] Added support for diff serialization

[lyrixx]

Hello.

It could be fine to have an elegant way to serialize/deserialize a Diff to store it in a database (for exemple).
I have to store it in DB because my repository can not longer exist :(

We could use symfony/serializer. Of course, it's not the responsibility of gitlib to serialize itself. But we can add convenient methods / interfaces to make it easier.

For now, it's not very possible, because every object have a dependency to Repository object.

BTW, if we do that, we should consider to add serialization for object.

What do you think ?

[lyrixx]

Update:

I'm not sure the symfony/serializer will add something here. So a simple Diff::toJson and Diff::fromJson will we much easier to do and to use.

[alexandresalome]

👍 for Diff::fromJson (static) and Diff::toJson (non-static). You can also implement toArray and fromArray.

[dubcanada]

I think we should use serializer and open it up, if we use https://github.com/symfony/serializer we can open it up to what ever format they want. XML, JSON, Array's what ever.

[lyrixx]

I am not sure serializer will add something here.

But the main issue here, is each class has a dependency on Repository.

Pineau Grégoire http://gregoirepineau.fr/

2013/1/21 dubcanada notifications@github.com

I think we should use serializer and open it up, if we use
https://github.com/symfony/serializer we can open it up to what ever
format they want. XML, JSON, Array's what ever.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/19#issuecomment-12506254.

[alexandresalome]

Why is Repository injected

Diff(Repository $repository, array $revisions, $isTree = true)

Mainly, goal was to have a common way to generate diffs. By experience, I discovered that the command to run was different, depending of what you want (a commit, a log or a branch). For this purpose, I introducted $isTree which modifies command to be run (:shit:).

This repository is also injected in File object to provide getOldBlob and getNewBlob on Diff\File. Those methods provide a way to access old/new values of an entry in diff. It's used on server project to render the image before/after deletion, we can consider removing them: we still have getOldIndex and getNewIndex.

How is it used?

• Commit->getDiff()
• Repository->getDiff($revision) with revision being master@{2 weeks ago}..master, as example

What I suggest

Make Diff a standalone model to parse and represent a computed diff.

When this is done, change methods Commit::getDiff and Repository::getDiff to return a computed diff.

What to test

I'm not even sure it's working by now, but this could be a great opportunity to clear this up:

• Merge commit
• Regular commit
• Initial commit
• master@{2 weeks ago}..master

[dubcanada]

Regarding your proposal list, php-diff is for comparing strings, I use it to generate a diff between two blobs. And it works wonderful. But it's poorly coded. Drupal diff is also "drupal coded" both of those would be very hard to work with for gitonomy. I spent a good 4 hours trying to find something better with little to no luck.

I spent a while trying to figure out what to do with the diff parser to fix my issue, but I still don't know.

[alexandresalome]

That should be OK now with this last commit, Diff is now independent from Repository.

I ended concluing that we don't need another dependency to parse a diff.

[alexandresalome]

Now, we have in model:

$data = $commit->getDiff()->toArray();

And:

$diff = Diff::fromArray($data);

[lyrixx]

👍 Very nice :)

I will test ASAP. Thanks.