[Phpmyadmin-devel] Inserting known invalid data

[Isaac Bennetch]

On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 3:23 PM, Marc Delisle <marc at infomarc.info> wrote:

> Le 2013-05-06 09:46, Isaac Bennetch a écrit :
> >
> > On Sun, May 5, 2013 at 7:45 AM, Marc Delisle <marc at infomarc.info
> > <mailto:marc at infomarc.info>> wrote:
> >
> >     Le 2013-05-04 10:54, Isaac Bennetch a écrit :
> >      > Hi,
> >      >
> >      > Can I get some thoughts on [1]? The way the code exists
> >     currently, you
> >      > can insert bad data (you'll get a standard MySQL warning after the
> >      > insert). For example, inserting the output of the MD5() function
> >     in to a
> >      > TINYINT column. This pull request implements the AES_ENCRYPT
> >     function,
> >      > but silently fails to show the salt form field in the event the
> user
> >      > tries to insert to an invalid column type...so it looks broken in
> the
> >      > case the user is trying to do something that's a bad idea.
> >      >
> >      > In keeping with the current system, I thought it should always
> >     show the
> >      > salt field and proceed with the insert regardless of the column
> type,
> >      > however that isn't the most user-friendly idea. To keep users most
> >      > happy, I wondered if we should implement some sanity checks for
> some
> >      > column types and show an inline warning as needed (similar to the
> >      > recently merged warning when creating a new user with the same
> >      > username). Some of the functions require or suggest certain
> >     column types
> >      > which we could easily check, but I'm not sure it's phpMyAdmin's
> >      > responsibility to constantly warn the user in this case.
> >
> >     I added a comment in the pull request. I also asked Garvin about
> this,
> >     let's wait for his insight.
>
> I got a reply from Garvin. He thinks that if the mapping between the
> function list and the columns type is actively maintained, there is no
> reason to show all possible functions in the drop-down.
>

The more I think about it, the more I prefer to show a warning message. Not
showing all functions will likely confuse the user ("using table foo I see
MD5() and AES_ENCRYPT(), with table bar I only see NOW()" ) -- so I propose
that the appropriate way to resolve the situation is to always show all
available functions, but to add a popup warning that "The function you have
selected may not be compatible with the column type."

Doing so would require some method of mapping functions to compatible
column types, but that list shouldn't change much so I don't see a problem
with that.

What's everyone think? It seems to me the best of both worlds -- we're not
changing the user experience and we're not blindly inserting data we know
won't work.

>
> >      >
> >      > Regardless, the question at hand is whether this pull request can
> be
> >      > merged as-is or if we should change the behavior in the case of an
> >      > invalid column type.
> >
> >     If it works well for the correct column type, please merge.
> >
> >
> > My preference would be to change the behavior of the patch before
> > merging. I would prefer to see a small inline popup when attempting to
> > insert potentially invalid data, a second option I do not mind is simply
> > inserting the data and showing the MySQL warning about truncated data on
> > the results page (the current behavior for all functions except for this
> > patch). The least desirable behavior, which is implemented by this
> > patch, is to silently refuse to do anything on the insert page (in this
> > patch, AES_ENCRYPT requires a salt value which is prompted when
> > selecting the AES_ENCRYPT function; however if the column type is not
> > valid for AES_ENCRYPT data, the salt field silently fails to appear,
> > which I thought was a bug in the implementation).
> >
> > I think for now I'll simply ask for the salt field to always appear
> > (matching current behavior), if we reach a decision about handling
> > known-invalid function/column combinations we can create a feature
> > request and move forward.
> >
> >      >
> >      > Thanks!
> >      > 1 -
> >
> https://github.com/phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin/pull/290#issuecomment-17281963
> >
>
> --
> Marc Delisle
> http://infomarc.info
>
>
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