[Fusioninventory-devel] FuisionInventory Agent GUI

[Guillaume Rousse]

Le 25/05/2011 11:09, Amir Pakdel a écrit :
>> So, I don't have objection (that's your time after all), but I don't
>> think the added value is worth the development effort. Agent
>> configuration and deploiement could be made easier, indeed, but I don't
>> think fancy GUIs (especially in native code) will help very much here.
>>
> Of course if you think that the added value is not worth the development
> effort, I would rather spend my time on a more useful thing :)
> Anyway, this GUI is not targeted to users like you and me: I use
> something like the scp/ssh command you have mentioned.
My point is: does that target users really exist ? Are they really
people unable to use ssh on command line, in charge of managing a set of
machines ? Keep in mind we're not dealing with a funny game for your
grandma, but clearly an enterprise-level application here.

And if this kind of people exists (which is an unprovable assertion
anyway)), are you really going to help them with an application they'll
probably have to compile and install themselves ? Just imagine how
difficult it will be to build a native application for someone unable to
use an ssh client.

My fear is that you'll end up explaining them how to build, install and
use this application, supposed to help them, rather than explaining them
how to deploy the agent...

Considering ideas to leverage agent deploiement, here are some quick
propositions which seems more useful for me:

1) decoupling of agent deploiement (putting code on target hosts) from
agent configuration (putting agent configuration on target hosts). In
particular, embedded wizards inside system-specific installers such as
the windows installer are not portable.

2) using a similar installation tree for all standalone installations
(including their own perl runtime, such as windows, macos, and
'prebuilt' unix ones): the macos one, for instance, with custom shell
wrappers, is a nightmare to use.

3) provide a windows package (meaning: .msi file) for using large scale
windows package deploiement system, instead of handling
upgrade/downgrade logic into custom vbs  scripts wrapping a windows
installer.
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