Re: [SR-Users] RFC: rating - ranking system for community

Perhaps a component-orientated view is not the correct one here. It almost sounds like what is being sought is a kind of "cookbook of Kamailio patterns"[1], if you like. This answers a lot of questions that also capture preferences about third-party FOSS componentry, such as: "Should I do HA failover with VRRP or Heartbeat?" "Is Kamailio + PostgreSQL a stable combination for a high-volume registrar?" "Are there pitfalls to DMQ dialog replication?"

"What is the best way to build a load balancer with failover and gateway monitoring?"

[1] We use the term "cookbook" differently in this project, but this usage is closer to the commonplace conventional one. On Thu, Mar 14, 2019 at 08:35:15AM -0400, Alex Balashov wrote: > Hi, > > A few off-the-cuff thoughts, in no particular order: > > 1. Kamailio does have hundreds of modules of all kinds, and some sort of > guide for which ones to use when, or some other schema which would serve > to provide some conceptual organisation for the modules, is probably a > desirable documentation objective. > > 2. I am nevertheless wary of any system which purports to "rank" or > "rate" components. > > One obvious reason is that popularity isn't a very good metric for > whether something is appropriate for or applicable to a particular > purpose. There is a reason the expression "degenerated into a popularity > contest" exists in our industry. This is all the more true given > (arguably) Kamailio's somewhat unique status as a "toolkit" or a > "framework" for building certain kinds of systems and services; it means > some of the most useful components in many scenarios might be either > obscure, or so broadly general that a highly fact-dependent / > situation-specific logic of its relationship to a given scenario is hard > to tease out. Would you "recommend" the TM module? Is it widely used? > > :-) > > This goes to another, more general problem with ranking components, and > that is that the module ecosystem is a wildly eclectic bag of things of > very different scope. Without a more rigid preconceived taxonomy to > create the right mental categories, meaningful comparisons between > modules are difficult to draw, as would be theoretically required for > some kind of ranking or any system which purports to raise the profile > of some components over others. > > Kamailio modules fall into at least a few identifiable categories--this > is just a half-hearted improvisational stab at it, and probably not very > nuanced: > > a. "Essential" / "core" - while these are technically modules, their > feature set is so universal and critical to most non-trivial Kamailio > implementations that they are substantially equivalent to "core" > functionality. Modules like 'rr', 'tm' and 'pv' clearly fall into this > category. One cannot really do anything worthy of remark with Kamailio > without them, excluding some exotic cases. > > b. Broad and holistic systems - complete categories of broad SIP server > functionality implemented in more or less one module (usrloc + > registrar, presence/pua, auth*, dispatcher, etc.); > > c. Dependencies of other higher-level modules - the relationship of > 'usrloc' to 'registrar' is suitably described by this; if you're using > 'usrloc', you're almost certainly using 'registrar', and there are > really no meaningful standalone uses of 'usrloc', nor does it expose any > route script functions. At the same time, the list of things one may > wish to interrogate via RPC/management interfaces are split between > 'usrloc' and 'registrar' in ways that make sense to a programmer but > which users might find arbitrary. In any case, do you give 'usrloc' a > "thumbs up"? What does that even mean? :-) > > Some modules are hybrids; they have some standalone functionality but > are most commonly inputs into a higher-level usage, such as 'xhttp' and > its relationship to 'jsonrpcs', or the various presence_* or pua_* > subcomponents, some of the auth_* components, ims_*, etc. > > d. Pure API dependencies of other modules - these expose internal APIs > used by other modules and provide no standalone functionality others. > One can debate whether 'usrloc' falls into this category, but certainly, > 'dmq' is a good example of this, as are the various 'db_*' connectors, > and maybe 'keepalive'. > > e. Niche programmatic functionality - 'htable', 'cfgutils', 'jansson', > 'async', etc. This category entails additional programmatic constructs > relevant to the "software engineering" aspect of writing config/route > script or how processing is done, but do not provide any external > services or interfaces as such. > > f. Broadly environmental - subtly alter the overall way that SIP > messages are processed, or add support for new kinds of transports, etc. > This would include 'tls', 'ws', 'outbound', and the 'topo{h,s}' modules. > > g. Language / API / interpreter connectors - 'app_*' modules. > > h. Highly specific functionality - most other modules fall into this. > But some of the functionality is fairly high-level, e.g. 'rtpengine', > while others are more low-level and closer to category E, such as > 'mqueue'. > > > Anyway, the point here is that I don't think a vehicle to provide > community guidance about which components to use, or which would purport > to rank them somehow, can be meaningfully separated from the equally > vital need to create some kind of taxonomy of modules or, more > generally, adequate categories of thought within which such > conversations should take place. Kamailio documentation lacks a clear > and distinct "metaphysics" in this sense. > > -- Alex > > On Thu, Mar 14, 2019 at 09:55:41AM +0100, Daniel-Constantin Mierla wrote: > > Hello, > > > > starting to continue the discussions here on mailing lists about some of > > the approached topics during the last IRC meeting -- there will be > > couple of them. > > > > The one now is about finding and deploying a ranking/rating system that > > could eventually help community members to make decisions easier in > > regard to what components to use in their voip systems. > > > > The need was exemplified by user verticelo with the dificulty to decide > > what KEMI scripting language to use. While maintaining all the app_xyz > > are expected to be easy, at least I know that for those I created, the > > arguments were also from the perspective of the community. Like what > > others are using, so one can expect good assistance, hints and share of > > knowledge via community forums. This can be also extended to related > > tools, like what people use for shared IP high availability of kamailio, > > preferred database servers, ... > > > > This email is to ask if those that didn't participate to IRC devel > > meeting find such system useful and, if there is a positive feedback, is > > anyone aware of some OSS that we can deploy on kamailio.org for such > > purpose? It should be something that allows posting a topic (title and > > short description) along with a list of answers/options (each can be > > again like a title and short description) and provide a way to rate the > > options (like, thumbs up, starts, ...), eventually allowing also > > comments for each option. I guess it sounds a bit like stackoverflow ... > > > > Being users related, the email is sent only to sr-users, let's keep the > > discussion on this mailing list.