Re: [bug-myserver] Google Summer of Code '09 - GUI

[Giuseppe Scrivano]

ivailo ilionov <address@hidden> writes:

>  Why should the application write directly to a config file ? Anyway
> it'll only be an
> option if the app and the server are on the same machine. ( which is
> often true for
> home based servers )

In some way the configuration should be exchanged between the server and
the client, isn't better if they use exactly the same format (the xml
configuration files in this case)?  If you work directly on the files
you are able to save them in another location, without link them to a
single instance of MyServer.

> If we take out the "local management" and do everything through the
> server ( i still haven't check how the control_protocol.[cpp|h] is
> used and if it is used where the
> server acts as ftp only ). Of course, we follow the process as written above:
>
> - the  server reads the config files
> - converts them to xml if neccessary
> - send them to the client
> - the client sends them back in xml after editing is finished
> - the server reads them and convert to appropriate config format if neccesssry
>
> In this case, the "abstract layer" is the server which convert to/from
> xml format
> from/to some format.

As I wrote above, if this format is exactly the xml then we don't need
this additional work.  The MyServer configuration is done always
throught these files, the control protocol should be used to transfer
files, modify them locally and after put again online.

The control protocol in addition gives the possibility to list active
connections, kill one and restart the server.  If you have other ideas
about how to expand it, we can add new commands without problems.


> Now when that's out of our head, what if the user have two servers which he
> wants to have identical configuration ? :) Or what if there are more ?

Working directly on files make this very easy as the user can keep the
same configuration in many ways: 
1) transfering files one by one using the GUI - generic windows user.
2) using a graphical FTP client - newbie GNU/Linux user.
3) using scp or rsync - GNU/Linux sysadmin.
4) ...


> Unless for
> testing I don't imagine other practical scenario ( maybe something
> private available
> through intranet ? ), but we can put it in  the optional features, no ?:)

> <off-topic>
> s/(out of our) head/$1 way/; #For the previous paragraph
> </off-topic>

Usually before a configuration change is committed to a production
server, it is used on a testing one and see if it really works before
procede, anyway I doubt that there are already similar scenarios with
MyServer :)
We are already not very friendly to sysadmins as we are using XML for
configuration files, write/read directly to/from files is the best way
IMO.

Giuseppe