Make links first class citizen of the data model

[ajefts]

As of now links which are attached to a project, are not first class citizen of the data model. In other words, they don't have a dedicated data table to store the data rather they are stored inside a field bookmarks of projects table as JSON which has limitations as follows:

1. Links are not searchable

2. Does not have easy way to query links

3. Till date we are not storing the audit fields for the links i.e. we are using the projects table's audit fields whenever there is some operation performed on the links which makes it difficult to identify who added or updated a particular link and when.

We have to migrate this data to a separate table so that they can be queried and audited as a normal object in the data model.

[ajefts]

Link to feature: https://tcprod.productboard.com/feature-board/planning/features/3243055

[maxceem]

We have a requirement to filter files and links including folders.

So far folders of links are generated by extracting links from the topics on the fly. I guess, this feature also would require us to save links to the attachment service when we create a post (extract links and save to attachment service) and also we would have to sync links on posts updates.

[vikasrohit]

@maxceem we didn't merge the PR for this, right?

[maxceem]

No. It has breaking changes, so we keep it in a separate branch until we make client side changes. Currently preparing the spec for client side challenge.

[maxceem]

This was internal refactoring of the API for links. To verify this task we have to check that all the operations with links work goo:

• create link
• view link
• update link
• delete link

This can be tested on any project Assets Library page, for example, https://connect.topcoder-dev.com/projects/8600/assets.