Topic: follow up on the webmin issue

[Arjay]

follow up from:
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=8780.msg32926#msg32926

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i read the whole forum and yet i cant find an answer on how make use of webmin for it to work with SME... so i emailed the author himself (jcameron@webmin.com) and his quite positive. maybe if the Mitel guys will work out something with him, maybe. just maybe, we could have webmin working with SME servers. please just try. webmin will be a great tool if it will work with e-smith.

please dont flame me. im just suggesting.


Arjay

[Arjay]

please read my post on:
http://www.e-smith.org/bboard//read.php?f=1&i=34615&t=34576

before flaming me. sorry i didnt notice that thread before i posted this.

[Michiel]

Arjay,

Webmin and SME work in fundamentally different ways, which just can't be reconciled. Webmin modifies the config files (/etc/...) directly, whereas SME compiles the config files from the templates and e-smith specific files (/home/e-smith/*). This means that any change made by webmin will be thrown away next time SME recompiles the config files.

This might look silly at first sight, but the templating system in fact makes it much easier to upgrade the server without losing an existing configuration. For example, a security upgrade requires a change to smb.conf. With webmin you would have to add the new parameters manually. With SME you get the update in the form of a template which you recompile with expand-template and all the old and new settings are nicely merged into the new smb.conf. This can be done with an rpm, so no knowledge what so ever is required.

If you don't like the look & feel of the server-manager, you can easily adapt it to your own tastes. Half a day to understand the concepts behind server-manager and to customize it would get you a long way.

Michiel

[Arjay]

Michiel wrote:
> If you don't like the look & feel of the server-manager, you
> can easily adapt it to your own tastes. Half a day to
> understand the concepts behind server-manager and to
> customize it would get you a long way.
>
> Michiel

im sorry but im still not good on how to customize the server-manager. do u have a how-to or even a tutorial for me to start with? im afraid i might trash my whole system.

[Michiel]

> im sorry but im still not good on how to customize the
> server-manager. do u have a how-to or even a tutorial for me
> to start with? im afraid i might trash my whole system.

I don't think there is a tutorial, at least not in the public domain. But you could start with making a copy of /etc/e-smith/web and look around a bit in the subfolders.

For instance /etc/e-smith/web/common/css contains the stylesheets and /etc/e-smith/web/common the graphics that are used in the server-manager. In the same directory you'll see a foot.tmpl and head.tmpl, which also can be customized if you know some perl.

Have fun with it

[Ray Mitchell]

Go to e-smith.org site and click on the links to "design and architecture"
see
http://www.e-smith.org/concepts/
http://www.e-smith.org/custom/
and others

and also these links in the documentation section
http://www.e-smith.org/docs/papers/
http://www.e-smith.org/docs/papers/templates.html

Regs
Ray