Initial rev of the accounts refactor design docs

[Sing-Li]

initial rev for comments and corrections

[queso]

What is needed to merge this and get going on the project?

[Sing-Li]

@martijnwalraven and @stubailo - what do you think?

@queso - as it rests, the project is quite decoupled from both Meteor release schedules; and now even Meteor core (since accounts is officially a separate repository). But, until it is merged down, the pieces are indeed all over the place.

[queso]

I read over most of these docs and like what I am seeing, I was hoping the discussions around this project would pick up so the work could get rolling.

[stubailo]

Yeah we've been having discussions about this for weeks! It's why we made this repo in the first place.

[Sing-Li]

Awesome. Let's see what @martijnwalraven feels about merging this down.

I can relocate the Postgresql and RethinkDB access providers' source at anytime (from their current public BitBucket repositories) if we can decide on a home for them.

Also, I've noticed that @queso has some higher level email address unification (across oauth services) suggestion on another thread, we can consolidate it after we tidied this up.

[martijnwalraven]

Thanks @Sing-Li, I think we can agree on the scope and high level design of the refactoring.

What do you need from me to be able to continue? Would you like me to review the changes in the refactor_model_layer_v1 branch? Or is this ongoing work?

I'd be ok with merging these documents, but I hope we can transform them into a somewhat different format over the course of the effort. Right now, they seem more like a project proposal, with mention of phases/deliverables intertwined with the requirements and design discussion. I'd prefer it if we ended up with a more focused document that would continue to be useful for developers trying to understand the new design and codebase. Maybe we could also get rid of some of the overly formal elements (like the duplication in the structure of the requirements and design documents) to make it more readable.

[Sing-Li]

Thanks @Sing-Li, I think we can agree on the scope and high level design of the refactoring.

Awesome. Thanks @martijnwalraven !

What do you need from me to be able to continue? Would you like me to review the changes in the
refactor_model_layer_v1 branch? Or is this ongoing work?

Yes, please review and comment. Much appreciated.

I am thinking that we might want to keep evolving this branch as work in progress by opening it up for community contribution. At least until 1.3 gets out and reaches confirmed stability. Thoughts welcomed.

Work is definitely continuing. As we at Rocket.Chat absolutely need to have our project working with Postgresql asap. But anything that is done together in this upstream effort should remain compatible and we will incrementally merge changes into our core moving forward.

I'd be ok with merging these documents, but I hope we can transform them into a somewhat different format over the course of the effort. Right now, they seem more like a project proposal, ...

Agreed 100%. Let's merge it down and evolve it over time. What you described is definitely what the final form should be - similar in format to the ones currently hosted at the apollo stack repository.

The reason why I went out of my way to stylize the doc (in this rather strange format to FOSS) is to anticipate contributors from enterprise or corporate origins - who might be familiar with the underlying database technology but new to Meteor or perhaps even GitHub styled FOSS altogether. This particular format also clarify our (offline) working relationship up to this point - but that, for sure, is just a temporary stage/convenience.

Summary - the three docs will ultimately become one, the prose will become more concise and technical, flow will be logical, and all the strange formal 'corp doc' structure elements will evolve away.

Suggested next steps:

• merge down doc to get more eyeballs
• determine a home for the Postgresql and RethinkDB adapters, ideally within this repository, and I'll create PRs for merge down (even if this home is temporary, it is important to get more exposure surface area)
• ongoing review and revision of everything - refactor_model_layer_v1 branch, adapter code, docs

Thoughts welcomed.

[stubailo]

Can we make a PR of refactor_model_layer_v1? I feel like it's much easier to review a PR, even if it's not done yet.

[Sing-Li]

👍

Please see #2 :)

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