bw2io.package, classmethod import_file: databases mapping needed

brightway-lca / brightway2-io

Importing and exporting for the Brightway LCA framework

BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License

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bw2io.package, classmethod import_file: databases mapping needed #202

Open KarinTreyer opened 1 year ago

KarinTreyer commented 1 year ago

When importing a bw2package from someone else, it might happen that the name of e.g. your ecoinvent database doesn't match exactly with the database name in the package.

It should be possible to do the following:

open the package
check which databases are used in it
(if necessary get these databases OR) tell the importer how to map the used databases to those which exist in my project
import

That's also how AB is doing it.

cmutel commented 1 year ago

I don't think bw2package is an especially secure way of transferring data, at least not in its current form, and there are a number of possible improvements including this issue.

The underlying bw2package architecture doesn't make this kind of manipulation (i.e. change database name) easy.

As a mitigation measure, I would suggest exporting the complete project (bw2io.backup_project_directory()) and restoring it on the other computer (bw2io.restore_project_directory()).