[GH-ISSUE #501] Remove dependency mptt library #387

New issue

Closed

opened 2026-02-25 21:31:49 +03:00 by kerem · 2 comments

kerem commented

2026-02-25 21:31:49 +03:00

Owner

Originally created by @ciur on GitHub (Dec 31, 2022).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/ciur/papermerge/issues/501

Originally assigned to: @ciur on GitHub.

Remove the dependency on the following packages:

There are couple of reasons why above dependencies should be removed:

libraries are buggy and are not well maintained.
standard SQL now support with recursive statement i.e. common table expressions = cte which are useful when searching through hierarchies.

mptt is especially problematic as the tree structure is maintained in application level using extra attributes (left and right) and

there is a full "tree rebuild" on every insert (very dubious practice) - left/right attributes need to be updated for all nodes!
If there is a bug/error while "rebuilding tree" - the whole tree may become corrupt which is to say that some folder and documents just vanish from the radar - which is to say "not good"!

The funny part is that mptt/polymorphic/polymorphic tree is very easy to replace with own code.

Originally created by @ciur on GitHub (Dec 31, 2022). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/ciur/papermerge/issues/501 Originally assigned to: @ciur on GitHub. Remove the dependency on the following packages: - [polymorphic_tree](https://github.com/django-polymorphic/django-polymorphic-tree) - [polymorphic](https://github.com/django-polymorphic/django-polymorphic) - [django-mptt](https://github.com/django-mptt/django-mptt) There are couple of reasons why above dependencies should be removed: 1. libraries are buggy and are not well maintained. 2. standard SQL now support `with recursive` statement i.e. `common table expressions = cte` which are useful when searching through hierarchies. mptt is especially problematic as the tree structure is maintained in application level using extra attributes (left and right) and 1. there is a full "tree rebuild" on every insert (very dubious practice) - left/right attributes need to be updated for all nodes! 2. If there is a bug/error while "rebuilding tree" - the whole tree may become corrupt which is to say that some folder and documents just vanish from the radar - which is to say "not good"! The funny part is that mptt/polymorphic/polymorphic tree is very easy to replace with own code.

kerem

2026-02-25 21:31:49 +03:00

closed this issue
added the
dependencies

technical debt
labels

kerem commented

2026-02-25 21:31:49 +03:00

Author

Owner

@ciur commented on GitHub (Dec 31, 2022):

Work in progress...

@ciur commented on GitHub (Dec 31, 2022): Work in progress...

kerem commented

2026-02-25 21:31:49 +03:00

Author

Owner

@ciur commented on GitHub (Jan 1, 2023):

PR papermerge/papermerge-core#107
PR papermerge/papermerge.js#37

@ciur commented on GitHub (Jan 1, 2023): [PR papermerge/papermerge-core#107](https://github.com/papermerge/papermerge-core/pull/107) [PR papermerge/papermerge.js#37](https://github.com/papermerge/papermerge.js/pull/37)

kerem referenced this issue

2026-02-25 21:32:19 +03:00

[PR #387] [MERGED] Bump django from 3.2.1 to 3.2.2 in /requirements #584