[ic] MySQL tables and text files -- Oddity?

Ed LaFrance interchange-users@interchange.redhat.com
Thu Mar 7 23:55:01 2002


At 03:18 PM 3/7/2002 -0800, you wrote:
>This may be an odd statement, but I can't seem to grasp what is really
>going on with the user data when using MySQL.
>
>My basic specs:
>
>IC 4.8.3
>RedHat 7.1
>MySQL 3.23.36
>Perl 5.6.0
>
>I realize that IC uses text files for it's tables by default, and adding
>in MySQL tables has to be done correctly for it to use them instead of
>the text files.  I used the foundation demo as a baseline to start from,
>and it set up MySQL tables for the following:
>
>affiliate
>area
>cat
>country
>gift_certs
>inventory
>merchandising
>options
>order_returns
>orderline
>pricing
>products
>state
>transactions
>userdb
>
>I have been running an IC catalog for about a month now, and have a
>sizable userdb (>100k users) as a result.  I just found out though, that
>something is not working the way I was thinking it was working.. ( I
>don't think that means what you *think* it means ;) )
>
>In my <CATALOG_ROOT>/products/ directory, I see the following:
>
>
>-rw-------    1 intercha intercha       19 Dec 19 18:39 userdb.autonumber
>-rw-------    1 intercha intercha        1 Dec 19 18:39 userdb.sql
>-rw-r--r--    1 intercha intercha 13257625 Feb 21 05:25 userdb.txt
>
>This is also true for the other tables in the list above.  They have a
>txt file that holds all of the data in the MySQL DB.
>
>Even though my MySQL DB is finctioning correctly and the user data is
>being saved there, all of the data is also being saved in the userdb.txt
>file.  Is there a problem with my setup, or is this normal?

Either some code somewhere is doing an [export table=userdb], or you are 
periodically editing the userdb in the UI as superuser, and leaving the 
"export table" checkbox checked when you update your changes.

- Ed L.


>  I haven't
>really been able to find something that says that IC needs both in order
>to operate.  Having a text file that is required (and getting really
>big, really fast!) is not something that I would imagine would help in
>the speed of the cart, and I have noticed a huge slowdown in response in
>the Admin interface when going to the "customers" section.  This worries
>me for future ramp ups...
>
>Another oddity that really threw me for a loop was seeing the following:
>
>1) bring up MySQL and search for a user
>2) clear a field for that user using the mysql client
>3) Verified that the field was empty
>4) restarted IC
>5) field was populated with the old data!
>
>Now am I not seeing this correctly, or is there something that IC is
>doing that I don't know about, like checking the DB against the text
>file and "fixing" any data that it sees is different?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>-- orko
>
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