Open Stack

Comments below.

On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 5:25 PM, Vishvananda Ishaya
<vishvananda at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
>
> We are in the unfortunate position of not knowing how good our OpenStack API XML support is. All of our integration tests use json. Many of the compute extensions don't even have XML deserializers. We also assume that there bugs we don't even know about due to underuse. We need to do something about XML by Folsom, because releasing a buggy api isn't good for anyone.
>

Vish, to make sure I understand, it's only extensions that do not have
XML support currently. But these have never been moved to core. So
technically the spec is being followed, except where you've identified
some cleanup for server data. Is that accurate?

> We don't want to alienate the communtity by dropping XML support, but we also can't recommend it in its current state. If there are people out there who use XML (or want to use XML) we need your help. We need help identifying what works and what doesn't, we need bug reports, and we need merge proposals for the extra serializers and fixes that are important. Nova-core has too much going on right now to tackle XML.
>
> I see a few potential results from this effort.
>
> 1) We get a lot of community support and we manage to get XML into usable shape by Folsom.
>
> 2) We get enough community support to get the core api working and the most important extensions in place. We release clear documentation on what is expected to work.

To me it sounds like making sure Tempest tests the core API XML
support is a good first step.

I'd like to see a list of "most important extensions" and then follow
that with a prioritized list. If these extensions are basically
essential to using the Compute API, you need to map out a path for
putting them in core, with XML support, if that is the basic line we
have defined and documented already.

A logical approach to me is to keep XML support in core, and in this
investigation of "important extensions" mark which ones should move
into core and support XML. This would be a prioritized way to do the
work with a road map for users to know when they'll have core
essential extensions with XML support.

Any input here? Time estimates?

>
> 3) We get no support, in which case we mark XML support deprecated and encourage people to use JSON only.

We need to do a wider survey and find actual log data of clouds being
used that would indicate this is possible. Also since you're defining
it vaguely here (when is support deprecated (date or version?), is the
API versioned up at that time, is JSON only for extensions only, etc.)
I would encourage more definition here as well.

We need more details and more data on a decision like this. Please
expand, add details, and ask more people.
Thanks,
Anne

>
> Note that other openstack projects only support json, and there are already java bindings that use json so option 3) isn't terrible, but we don't want to go that route without discussing it with the community first. If anyone has alternative solutions or suggestions, feel free to let me know.
>
> Thanks,
> Vish
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