Re: [hylafax-users] Hylafax web interface

[Lee Howard <faxguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nicola Murino wrote:

> I see a patch for hylafax 4.1.5 on list archives,


I'm not sure to what you refer.  hylalog?  I've never used it.  To-date 
I've not had a customer approach me about needing MySQL integration with 
HylaFAX.  (I do support many installations of open-source HylaFAX for 
businesses, so I don't think that every enterprise needs this feature.)

> if isn't a commercial question and if as you say is simple to add 
> Mysql calls to hylafax code why you don't include db support in main 
> hylafax tree?


Again, for my part I've just never had a customer approach me about 
doing that work, and it really hasn't been something that I've been 
desireous to pursue in my hobby-time, instead having devoted most of 
that time to getting Class 1 protocol rock-solid and adding protocol 
features that do benefit my customer base.

> I think db make more simple query and search. Database support make 
> also more simple build web interfaces. I think this features can 
> improve hylafax, however this is only my opinion.


I do not disagree.

> I search on the web and I find also some patch from gofax to add ldap 
> support to hylafax. So also gofax guys think some sort of db supportis 
> important for hylafax.


You'd have to provide me the reference to say for certain, but I think 
that the LDAP support was for client authentication purposes.  We've 
since accomodated LDAP authentication via PAM.  Again, I do not disagree 
that this things are important.

> In my company I install hylafax, however we use only for send (via the 
> web interface I wrote). To subsitute traditional fax we need 
> somenthing that help to archive received fax and make easy to search 
> among fax. Maybe I can modify hylafax script as someone done for 
> hylafax version 4.1.5 but if you don't include the patch in main tree 
> is diffucult to keep updated with future hylafax versions.


Yes, this is very true.  It's one of many reasons why it's in the best 
interests of those developers to see to it that their developments are 
contributed and committed to the main source tree.

> I don't equate enterprise with pricetag


That's good.  :-)

> my sentence was a way to say "you wan't include db support in hylafax 
> because you sell a commercial version with this feature"


As I'm not affiliated with iFAX, I can't speak for them, but I believe 
that iFAX's implementation uses a commercial SQL library, not MySQL 
libraries, so they're not at liberty to contribute that work to the main 
source tree (or, if they did it would serve no purpose to anyone without 
those commercial SQL libraries).

However, I do agree with your point that there could potentially be a 
conflict of interest in development due to a commercialized version.  
The HylaFAX licensing allows commercialization, and I think that this 
licensing has served HylaFAX well - perhaps not so much in getting 
contributions back from the community as it has served HylaFAX in 
getting an amount of exposure that would not have been possible with 
other licenses.  However, I think that in the long-run people who do not 
contribute their developments back must either repeatedly re-port their 
changes to new versions of HylaFAX, or they have to continually port 
changes in new versions back to their version, or their version ends up 
stale.  Whatever the case, I expect that those developers have their 
reasons.

> however according your answer maybe I'm wrong and you don't include db 
> support in hylafax because you think ins't necessary,


I do think that database integration would be beneficial for some.

> I'm not agree and I would like to see mysql support in future hylafax 
> release so I can use only hylafax to send and receive fax (for example 
> using a web interface to search and downloading incoming fax, to see 
> sended fax, errors and so on),


Understood.

Lee.


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