Server GUI Configuration Tools

[Arwyn Hainsworth]

On 24/10/06, Carlos Ribeiro <carribeiro at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 10/23/06, Ivan Krstić <krstic at solarsail.hcs.harvard.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Carlos Ribeiro wrote:
> > > before implementing a GUI tool, we should talk about whether
> > > to have X installed on a server or not.
> >
> > This isn't much of a discussion topic; we absolutely won't enable X by
> > default in Ubuntu Server.
>
>
> Agreed :-) I was trying to say that it doesn't make much sense to talk
> about a GTK based GUI for a server that does not have X libraries installed
> - unless one is willing to write his own client-server protocol to make it
> work (which is not a good idea IMHO).
>

Depends on how you implement it. I suspect you can use well-tested libraries
to do most of the hard work.

[Snip]

For a first shot, I think a Web interface is the way to go - no need for X,
> and the limitations of the Web interface are a bonus as they force the
> designer to keep the UI simple. Going to the GUI route implies that either X
> libraries have to be installed (which may be a good idea or not), or that
> the application implement some "protocol" of its own (even if only to copy
> config files from & to the server during the configuration session).


Web interfaces restrict the abilities of the client, not force simplicity.
I've seen some really ugly, non-simple web interfaces before now.

As for inventing protocols, that depends. One way of doing it is to use the
http/tls python libraries to create a specialised mini-webserver that serves
and receives XML (SOAP?) files. That way various back ends can be
implemented.

I'm a bit busy these coming few weeks, so I can't sit down and write a full
spec, only assist, but If no one has done it by the time I'm free, I'll
write one.

Arwyn

Also, a simple Web interface will work over a regular SSH connection using
> elinks or lynx (which support curses). It's not pretty, but it works. And
> elinks supports HTTPS also, which is a plus.
>
> --
> Carlos Ribeiro
> Consultoria em Projetos
> blog: http://rascunhosrotos.blogspot.com
> blog: http://pythonnotes.blogspot.com
> mail: carribeiro at gmail.com
> mail: carribeiro at yahoo.com
>
>
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>
>
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