Can't use app data after upgrade to 13.0.0

[detly]

For a while I've been running a script based on pyocclient that manipulates data in the app data store to keep track of what it's doing. Since upgrading to Nextcloud 13.0.0, it's suddenly started failing. I've reduced it down to this single example Python script. You need to do pip install pyocclient to be able to run it (or however you want to install dependencies). Put in the appropriate credentials and execute it to test.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import owncloud

DOMAIN = "https://nextcloud.../"
USER = ""
PASSWORD = ""
APP_NAME = 'some-test-app'

oc = owncloud.Client(DOMAIN)
oc.login(USER, PASSWORD)
attrs = oc.get_attribute(APP_NAME)

from pprint import pprint
pprint(attrs)

With a Nextcloud server <= 12, this script runs fine — even if you have no data stored for APP_NAME, you'll just get an empty list back. Just to be clear, APP_NAME is made up, it doesn't have to correspond to any installed app to work.

Under 13, the script throws an exception ending in:

owncloud.owncloud.OCSResponseError: OCS error: 998

What's changed that might cause this? I realise that this is an Owncloud library, not a Nextcloud library, but I think they're similar enough for this to make sense.

[detly]

By the way, as far as I could tell this data was just stored in the oc_privatedata table. It was usually empty unless my script had put anything there.

[detly]

Looking through the source, it looks like the route for the privatedata key-value store is ocs/v2.php/privatedata/, whereas pyocclient uses ocs/v1.php/privatedata/. Monkey patching the script like so:

oc = owncloud.Client(DOMAIN)
oc.OCS_SERVICE_PRIVATEDATA = '../../ocs/v2.php/privatedata'
oc.login(USER, PASSWORD)
attrs = oc.get_attribute(APP_NAME)

...now results in a 404 (same as if I manually access the URL https://cloud.heeris.id.au//ocs/v2.php/privatedata/getattribute/some-test-app). Not much better, but at least I know what a 404 is.

I think I have to give up on using pyocclient because it now seems to be incompatible with Nextcloud's routes. Is there a Python library for Nextcloud itself though?

[rullzer]

Mmm we moved this to an app. Please see https://github.com/nextcloud/privatedata

I will look into it.

[detly]

I actually looked for an app named "private" anything, but got nothing (this is via the admin account, apps, ctrl f). Do I need to enable or install it in some particular way?

…

On 25 Feb. 2018 9:37 pm, "Roeland Jago Douma" ***@***.***> wrote: Mmm we moved this to an app. Please see https://github.com/nextcloud/ privatedata I will look into it. — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#8526 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAS_x1Y14HV9nFXSh-DySiQ2zn6S2RPXks5tYTfygaJpZM4SRrdf> .

[detly]

Oh I see, the route is different. Instead of /ocs/vX.php/... it's /ocs/privatedata. I'll change the patching in my script and see what happens.

[rullzer]

Ah mmmit is not in the appstore indeed. I guess we forgot some steps when we moved it to an app.

@MorrisJobke shall I put it in the appstore? Or do we want to ship it by default?

[MorrisJobke]

@MorrisJobke shall I put it in the appstore? Or do we want to ship it by default?

Ship it, or what to do here? Because it is a core feature of OCS, right?

[detly]

What's the outcome of this? Should I wait for a separate app in the app store, or an update to core?

[detly]

If it's a core feature, isn't this more serious than an "enhancement"? Or is there a workaround?

[tflidd]

It is a broken feature, so it's a regression, isn't it?

[detly]

I would have thought so. But should the bug be in the other project or here?

[detly]

I'd love to help with this, but I don't know what the intent is. Is it a core function that needs to be fixed, or a separate app that needs to be published, or something else? Where should I start?

[detly]

I see 14 is ready for beta testing but this is still missing. If private data is deprecated I'll need to find an alternative. Is it likely to be restored in the future?

[tflidd]

@rullzer @MorrisJobke What is the status? The pyocclient can also be very useful for some testing on Nextcloud setups.

[detly]

Hi @rullzer @MorrisJobke — it's been six months, and another major version, since we had any update on this. Could you, or any other dev, please just give some suggestion of what someone needs to do to restore this functionality? Even just where to start? I might have the time to help with something straightforward, but I definitely don't have the time to learn NextCloud's inner workings from scratch and reverse engineer what's going on here.

[MorrisJobke]

@rullzer Is this the app you want to release in the appstore? nextcloud/app-certificate-requests#163

[MorrisJobke]

We released the app now: https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/privatedata

Just install this app and then the API is available.

[detly]

I cannot find this in the apps directory within Nextcloud, and there's no way to search all apps. What category is it in?

[detly]

Sorry, "integration", found it.

[MorrisJobke]

I cannot find this in the apps directory within Nextcloud, and there's no way to search all apps. What category is it in?

We fixed this in 14.

[detly]

It's in 13.x as well. I can confirm that my test script now works, thanks. Note that the route modification I suggested earlier is not necessary. Thanks for fixing.

[detly]

Broken again! See nextcloud/privatedata#2