[Announcement] Separate APCu and MongoDB adapters into dedicated packages to reduce maintenance overhead

[ackintosh]

Background

Currently, Ganesha includes storage adapters for Redis, Memcached, APCu, and MongoDB within the main repository. While this provides convenience for users, it introduces several maintenance challenges:

• Maintenance overhead: Some adapters (APCu, MongoDB) were contributed by community members, but I (@ackintosh) lack deep expertise in these storage systems, making it difficult to properly maintain, debug, and evolve these components (e.g., MongoDB adapter - SlidingTimeWindow support #88)
• Testing complexity: CI/CD pipeline must test against multiple storage systems (e.g., Tweak ext-mongodb #134)
• Dependency bloat: Maintainers must install dependencies for all storage backends in require-dev even when working on unrelated components

Proposal

I propose to extract the following adapters into separate, dedicated packages:

• APCu adapter (Apcu.php, ApcuStore.php)
• MongoDB adapter (MongoDB.php)

Keeping in core:

• Redis adapter (most commonly used, stable, and within my expertise)
• Memcached adapter (widely used, stable, and within my expertise)

Implementation Plan

Phase 1: Create separate packages

1. Create ganesha-apcu-adapter repository
2. Create ganesha-mongodb-adapter repository
3. Each package will:
   • Implement the same AdapterInterface
   • Include its own test suite
   • Have dedicated CI/CD pipeline
   • Maintain backward compatibility
   • Be maintained by contributors with expertise in the respective storage systems
   • Alternatively, I am also considering transferring ownership of these separated adapters to motivated developers who are willing to take responsibility for their maintenance

Phase 2: Update core repository

1. Mark APCu and MongoDB adapters as deprecated in core
2. Update documentation to reference new packages
3. Add migration guide for existing users

Phase 3: Remove from core

1. Remove deprecated adapters in next major version
2. Clean up related dependencies from composer.json
3. Simplify CI/CD pipeline

Migration Path

Existing users can migrate seamlessly by:

# For APCu users
composer require ganesha-apcu-adapter

# For MongoDB users
composer require ganesha-mongodb-adapter

The API remains identical, ensuring zero breaking changes during migration.

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Please feel free to comment if you have any questions or feedback.

CC: @MikkelPaulson @nikitaksv - I'm notifying you as the original contributors of the APCu and MongoDB adapters respectively, in case you're interested in maintaining the separated packages.