On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 10:50 AM, Michael DeHaan <mdehaan(a)redhat.com> wrote:
Now that Daryl Pierce has written rubygem-cobbler* for making
Cobbler's
XMLRPC API even easier to use for webapps, and I have already mentioned
WebUI improvements are going to be a major focus of the next release, I
am pondering /potentially/ making a future iteration of Cobbler Web use
Rails. This seems easier to me in many ways that adding some new
capabilities into the existing web app.
The downside to this is there is no Rails in EL 4, but it is there in EL
5 (Rails 2.0.2 is in EPEL 5). This would mean if you wanted Cobbler
Web, you'd have to install the Web app on a EL 5 or later server, but
cobbler could stay on an EL 4 server. This would also mean you would
have the option of installing Cobbler on a seperate box from
cobbler-web, which is now /not/ supported easily by the RPM.
The biggest issue I have seen with frameworks is you have to outline
that you are only going to use WebPlatform-X.Y and stick with that for
a while. This means that people using it will have to know that any
other apps they have on that server are going to use WebPlatform-X.Y
and not X.Z or W.Y. This becomes a bigger issue with voltronic
software because if Red-Lion uses X.Y and Blue-Lion uses X.Z then they
will never be able to summon Super-Massive-Sword.
And with a lot of web-plats you end up bundling your own version
inside of you app to get around where you needed X.Y but the mainline
has bundled Y.Y or W.Y.
One of the other issues I have seen with multi-language projects is
the constant context switching needed because language A and B are
different enough that you aren't sure if you mean an Object when you
meant an Entity etc etc.
These aren't impossible issues, but they are always better to say up
front and figure out how to best manage them versus finding out that
you ahve to completely rip out WebPlatform-X because it just makes
your skin itch any time you deal with it.
For those concerned about setup, this would /not/ require a database
as
it would be using Cobbler for the model. (* = Daryl should be sending
an email about this shortly, and we're going to put some Wiki examples
up). Also this would move CobblerWeb to a seperately installable
package, such as cobbler-web, reducing Cobbler dependencies for those
that do not need the web app -- which seems to be goodness.
Just thinking about it at this point, comments welcome.
Django/TurboGears are also valid choices, but I figured since we already
have the XMLRPC wrapper module we should use it.
If we do this, the existing CobblerWeb code would continue to be
included for a couple of releases as a deprecated feature before we
would remove it.
--Michael
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--
Stephen J Smoogen. -- BSD/GNU/Linux
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed
in a naughty world. = Shakespeare. "The Merchant of Venice"