Option to put user library into custom directory?

[matthiasbeyer]

Checklist

• I have filled out the template to the best of my ability.
• This only contains 1 feature request (if you have multiple feature requests, open one feature request for each feature request).
• This issue is not a duplicate feature request of previous feature requests.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Hi! I am currently packaging HA-Battery-Notes for nixpkgs (here). I stumble upon the issue that it fails to read its library.json, because on nix, all installed artifacts are immutable (see traceback here).

Describe the solution you'd like

For that issue to be resolved, it would be nice if there was an option to tell HA-Battery-Notes a custom location where to put the library.json, so I could point it to /var/cache/... or something other sensible (like suggested by this comment).

Describe alternatives you've considered

One alternative would be to manually patch HA-Battery-Notes for each installation via nixpkgs. Otherwise the package is not usable for nix users from what I see.

Additional context

Thanks a lot for your effort writing this awesome HA extension!

[andrew-codechimp]

Hi, if I was doing this new I'd use the config/.storage folder but the required change is significant as I'd have to modify the new battery submissions form, schema, and consider user transition.
I'll move this to a discussion where I keep all my long roadmap features but don't plan on changing this at the moment.

[matthiasbeyer]

I am not 100% sure why you'd have to change the submissions form or schema when the database file is located at a different path than before, but I guess you're the one that knows the code here 😆

Either way: thanks for the fast response!

[dotlambda]

I also don't think that would be needed. If the data is not present at the new location it would simply be re-downloaded. If you don't make this affect a user library file, it wouldn't be a breaking change.

[andrew-codechimp]

Whilst I could put a configuration option for this it wouldn't be the way I'd want to tackle it.
It would mean an old (release version) of the library was in a location that wasn't used and confuse people.
It would add an extra configuration option which would increase the amount of testing I'd have to do each time I changed something in this area.
The optional user library would also potentially have to change location
The schema that is referenced in the library.json is a relative path, which would not work with a user location

My preferred solution of moving to the new config/.storage location and work out a good migration strategy is definitely the better long term for me supporting this, I'm just not going to rush it.