[Serusers] Configuration examples

[SIP]

Indeed, a coordination of these two efforts would be ideal.  The OnSIP 
Getting Started documentation was(is) well documented and shows 
essentially a large configuration example with added options and 
detailed information about the options themselves.

More than once, I found myself referring to it for both debugging what I 
might have done wrong, and for an understanding of what configurations 
options do what. The module documentation is one thing, but more often 
than not, a lot more is needed than just a simple function definition in 
order to truly understand how a function behaves and should be implemented.




Greger V. Teigre wrote:
> Hi Nils,
> Good initiative!
> I think we need to coordinate our efforts so we avoid duplicate work. 
> ONsip.org and iptel.org merged partly because we wanted to align the 
> SER - Getting Started configuration files with the development of SER. 
> As you probably have seen on the lists, the intention is to add the 
> document and the config files to the cvs (SER 2.0).
> Most beginners of SER (and many OpenSER beginners) start out with the 
> SER - Getting Started document and configs. From what I have seen, 
> there are now many, many production configs out there using the basic 
> structure from the getting started files.
>
> We have learned quite a lot about maintaining example configuration 
> files:
> 1. People need small pieces in order to understand how each feature is 
> implemented
> 2. Without an expert pre-integrating configs/features, many/most? 
> people struggle to integrate a feature into another config
> 3. Maintaining many config files quickly becomes an impossible task
>
> We started out with a focus on the "getting started" and thus created 
> a document with commented config files.  We made the config files 
> available standalone (ready to be run) and subsequently focused more 
> and more on maintaining the configuration files and add more features 
> and then let the comments/document come afterwards.  Keeping 
> everything in sync was a problem.  We had early decided to keep 
> everything in one common structure and let each config build on each 
> other (to incrementally add functionality). This helped us in making 
> sure everything worked and people didn't have to integrate small 
> examples into one big themselves.
>
> Our biggest problem was to keep adding features and making sure that 
> we updated configs to new SER versions.
>
> Based on these experiences, we have done the following:
> - Migrated the document to docbook
> - Created the m4 build system 
> (http://www.iptel.org/ser/doc/buildsystem) which keeps the 
> configuration files WITH comments and allows auto-generation of the 
> commented config ready for inclusion in SER - Getting Started document
>
> In creating the build system, I put emphasize on the capability to 
> maintain different configuration sets (called feature packages, ex. 
> gettingstarted) composed of different feature sets (helloworld, auth, 
> natrtpproxy etc),  each consisting of a set of features (natdetection, 
> natmangling, etc). The configuration files are easier to maintain and 
> as added value, people can automatically generate their config file 
> based on an example with correct IP address, port etc. (BTW, I work on 
> allowing people to generate their config files directly from from 
> iptel.org)
>
> This may sound complicated, but I believe a quick look at the doc 
> (http://www.iptel.org/ser/doc/buildsystem) will quickly give you the 
> idea.
>
> Currently, the helloworld version of SER - Getting Started has been 
> migrated to SER 2.0 and Alfred Heggestad and Ladislav have merged the 
> current ser.cfg config with the optimized NAT example, and we will try 
> to use that config as a starting point for a new NAT SER - Getting 
> Started configuration file.
>
> I don't think everything should go into the SER - Getting Started 
> feature package (though we should at least avoid creating two versions 
> of exactly the same functionality), but I hope you will spend some 
> minutes to see how a new feature package in the build system can help 
> your goals. I will of course be happy to assist you (as I have waited 
> to see interest before documenting creating new feature packages).
> g-)
>
>
> Nils Ohlmeier wrote:
>> Hello everybody,
>>
>> as we want to provide more examples for the configuration the 
>> following the question came up:
>> Do you prefer
>> - one big example configuration
>>   - probably harder to understand
>>   - easier to maintain for us
>> - one example config file per "feature"
>>   - probably easier to understand your desired "feature"
>>   - you might have problems to integrate all your desired "features" 
>> into one config without breaking anything
>>   - harder to maintain for us, as we have to update several files :-)
>>
>> As the configuration examples are indented to be for the community, I 
>> would like to know what you prefer or if you see other options.
>>
>> Thanks
>>   Nils
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>>
>>   
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