Easier import location (Site, Building, Storey, Space)

[s-celles]

Hello,

In BEMServer, locations have a hierachical form. 4 CSV files can be used to import location (site, building, storey, space)
Maybe supporting YAML import should be considered as it can be a very convenient maner to populate database with sample data (in an human readable format).

---
sites:
  Site 1:
    latitude: -90
    longitude: -180
    description: AAAAAA
    ifc_id: AAAAAA
    buildings:
      Building 1:
        description: AAAAAA
        ifc_id: AAAAAA
        storeys:
          R0:
            description: AAAAAA
            ifc_id: AAAAAA
            spaces:
              ROOM 1:
                description: AAAAAA
                ifc_id: AAAAAA
              ROOM 2:
                description: AAAAAA
                ifc_id: AAAAAA
          R1:
            description: AAAAAA
            ifc_id: AAAAAA
      Building 2:
        description: AAAAAA
        ifc_id: AAAAAA

Linting and viewing such a file can be done using online tools such as https://jsonformatter.org/yaml-viewer and https://www.yamllint.com/

Others options to consider could be TOML
https://transform.tools/yaml-to-toml

[sites."Site 1"]
latitude = -90
longitude = -180
description = "AAAAAA"
ifc_id = "AAAAAA"

[sites."Site 1".buildings."Building 1"]
description = "AAAAAA"
ifc_id = "AAAAAA"

[sites."Site 1".buildings."Building 1".storeys.R0]
description = "AAAAAA"
ifc_id = "AAAAAA"

[sites."Site 1".buildings."Building 1".storeys.R0.spaces."ROOM 1"]
description = "AAAAAA"
ifc_id = "AAAAAA"

[sites."Site 1".buildings."Building 1".storeys.R0.spaces."ROOM 2"]
description = "AAAAAA"
ifc_id = "AAAAAA"

[sites."Site 1".buildings."Building 1".storeys.R1]
description = "AAAAAA"
ifc_id = "AAAAAA"

[sites."Site 1".buildings."Building 2"]
description = "AAAAAA"
ifc_id = "AAAAAA"

Kind regards

[lafrech]

This makes sense. I like the YAML representation.

Our workflow involves using a spreadsheet as an exchange format between actors of the project, and I don't think a YAML file would work because most are more comfortable using excel than a plain text editor. (Which is a pity because generating a proper comma-separated UTF-8 encoded .csv file from Excel is just a nightmare, but LibreOffice does better.)

In short we wouldn't object to adding this feature, even if it adds a dependency to pyyaml, but we won't take the time to do it ourselves.

Let's keep this open to keep track of the idea. Anyone, fell free to propose an implementation.

Transfering this to bemserver-core as this is where it happens (in input_output).