take a look at Vocal if he thinks XML is a good ideal for any-e-thing
at all. I am glad most Unix configuration files have avoided "XML" hell.
Problem will all XML configs:
1. They are nearly imposable for a human to read, for any non trivial
config. 2. Thus requiring a XML app to edit the config. Which in every case
I have ever seen is always out of date with the options that are needed.
Requiring some poor sap to read though thirty pages of crap to edit some
XML tag to turn on some option, that the edit app does not yet support.
3. I personal find it easer to parse a human readable config file, then deal
with any XML library that I have ever seen.
4. Seeing as you need to agree what tags you read in from application
to application, what the hell is the difference from creating your own
config format then your own XML format? Take XML bookmark
files. Every web browser has one. And no other web browser will
read in any others bookmark file. Galeon and Konqueror will read
each others XML bookmark files but they collaborated on the format!
And could just as well have collaborated on a flat text file that was easy
for a human to read!
5. So what was the point of XML again? They is none!
Mark Spencer wrote:
Would someone like to propose what an XML extensions.conf would look like? How about an XML zapata.conf?
I know XML is a fun buzzword and as a syntactic "hammer" seems instantly appropriate for every configuration "nail", but I think in practicality, XML does not lend itself to describing things like zap interfaces as easily and certainly not as compactly as the existing syntax does.
Sure, it takes about 5-10 minutes to understand the nature of Asterisk's config files, but the time is well worth it, and you'll understand why it is done the way it is. Why incur the overhead of trying to parse XML?
Mark
On Mon, 17 Mar 2003, Chris Albertson wrote:
This topic is of interrest to me because I have to re-write the conf. file system on some software I'm working on. It's currently horible. (Just keyword=value pairs minus the keyword= part)
SOAP looks to me like a message passing protocol. Configuration needs to be placed in a persistent storage like a file. Sometimes "db" tables, LDAP, or a DBMS is used. Either way it's "storage"
SOAP looks like a way to send messages, not a way to store data. But SOAP is XML, So I'm glad you agree about the part.
--- Jeremy McNamara <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
SOAP
My 2 cents,
Jeremy
Chris Albertson wrote:
I think the way to go with conf. file for Asterisk is XML.understand.
When I first saw the Asterisk conf files I wondered if Eric Allman had found a new job working on Asterisk. (That's a joke for those of you who have had to maintain a sendmail installation. sendmail.cf is the definition of cryptic)
Some advantages of XML:
1) Parsers and file editors already exist for XML. Users could edit files with ready made GUI tools, programmers can use XML with XML libraries. There are even web-based tools for maintaining XML data.
2) Parsers and file editors can perform file validation. Making it not-possible to save an invalid file.
3) (some) Database systems can gobble up XML and spit it back out. Yes, I think the DBMS idea was resonable for a large installation. Overkill if less then say a few hundred extensions. Large sites like to manage phone extension and, extension to physical location maping and other stuff in a DBMS.
4) XML (with addition of a style sheet) can be directly displayed in a web browser
5) Without a GUI and/or wrb front end the system will remain only "geek usable". (Your average "phone guy" doesn't know how to use vi.)
6) XML readers can ignor parts of the XML file they don't
This allows one file to carry information for multiple readers ad for new additions too the file not to break older readers.
--- Steven Critchfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Mon, 2003-03-17 at 11:36, Stefano Finetti wrote:
I was wondering about a little php-based GUI to manage AsteriskExtensions.
Many way to obtain this, but i think that implementing in a phpscript the
AGI Commands should obtain the best results (more, the best resultwould
come with AGI+Mysql instead of a text file like extensions.conf
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