asterisk users - Jun 2004 - Grandstream CFG file generator

I've just finished a general purpose configuration utility for the GS 
phones:

	1) Generates files from scratch (using MAC), from HTML config listing, 
or by directly downloading from the phone.
	2) Does multiple simulteneous edits.
	3) Can reboot as many or as few phones at a time as you like.

I would like to offer it to the list, but there are 2 issues:

	1) I want to GPL it first, if possible. Problem is I am not sure 
exactly how to go about this.

	2) I don't have any means to distribute the files (other than e-mail, 
which I really don't want to to.

So, if someone could brief me on the GPL issue, and (perhaps someone 
else) offer a distribution point, it's free for the asking, VB sources 
and all.

Stephen R. Besch

From: "Stephen R. Besch" <sbesch@acsu.buffalo.edu>
To: <asterisk-users@lists.digium.com>
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2004 10:13 PM
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Grandstream CFG file generator

> I've just finished a general purpose configuration utility for the GS 
> phones:
> 
> 1) Generates files from scratch (using MAC), from HTML config listing, 
> or by directly downloading from the phone.
> 2) Does multiple simulteneous edits.
> 3) Can reboot as many or as few phones at a time as you like.
> 
> I would like to offer it to the list, but there are 2 issues:
> 
> 1) I want to GPL it first, if possible. Problem is I am not sure 
> exactly how to go about this.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html
 
> 2) I don't have any means to distribute the files (other than e-mail, 
> which I really don't want to to.
If you seek hosting, I can do that for you at my site.
 
> So, if someone could brief me on the GPL issue, and (perhaps someone 
> else) offer a distribution point, it's free for the asking, VB sources 
> and all.
> 
> Stephen R. Besch

Regards
Mats

On Sat, 2004-06-19 at 06:13, Stephen R. Besch wrote:
> So, if someone could brief me on the GPL issue, and (perhaps someone 
> else) offer a distribution point, it's free for the asking, VB sources 
> and all.
> 
> Stephen R. Besch
Alright, I've waited a long time before offering this. Anyway, the short
note is, if you want a central website for *anyone* to be able to upload
a file to share with other users, etc etc.. specifically for Asterisk
related (but perhaps off-topic for this list files) then visit
http://www.websitemanagers.com.au/asterisk/

Some people might be interested in what this all is, so here is some
more details.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a quasi GPL product
called Big Brother (http://www.bb4.com -> http://www.bb4.org) which
allowed a network/system admin to easily monitor their network/systems
and alert themselves of problems. I happened to be in a position where I
needed that, and liked this product the most (out of the ones available
at the time). After getting it to work, and participating in the mailing
list quite a bit, I started to realise there was a major thing missing.
The whole point of BB is that it is easy to write a simple shell script
(or any other language) to monitor 'something' and integrate it into BB.
The problem was that everyone wrote really neat scripts, but the only
way to share them was via the mailing list. Eventually I setup a public
FTP archive for people to share these add-ons/scripts/etc
(ftp.deadcat.net) (Probably some time around 1995, I can't remember
exactly). After a few years, I moved the site to use a nicer web
interface (The archive was growing too big). So, http://www.deadcat.net/
was born. A while ago (maybe a year ago) I re-vamped the whole system
and created the current version that is there.

About a month or two ago, I decided to just copy it all across and setup
the same thing for Asterisk, but then eventually decided not to announce
it just yet. Now I think it really could be useful. We have a lot of
patches/tools/scripts/etc which are quite neat, but we don't have a
central place to go and find them. The wiki is kind of good, but not
quite 100% designed for file sharing, it is much better at documentation
(which is why I also host the BB wiki).

So, I reckon the site could be useful, and I'm willing to throw some
time and money at making it work, but either way, it is up to the
community to decide if they want to use it. All I can say in
encouragement is that today, most people who ask "Can I do xyz in BB"
get the answer of "See www.deadcat.net" (and most things are there).
The
reason being that if exactly xyz isn't there, it should be pretty simple
to modify the script that does xy to do z as well.

Oh, suggestions, comments, etc, on the website (such as new categories
wanted) are most welcome, when sent off-list to
asterisk@websitemanagers.com.au

BTW, I own and operate http://www.websitemanagers.com.au/ and the site
is sponsored by me. I have my mail client to remove my .sig for this
mailing list, but I include it below in this email only.

Oh dear, one more thing, to upload files, you need to register,
registration requires a valid email address. I have never used the email
addresses of any contributor to www.deadcat.net in any way (other than
specific emails to a contributor to pass on patches/comments/etc from
another user. I promise to do the same for the asterisk system. ie, the
email address is only for authentication/password remind me and very
rare administrivia.

I like asterisk, I use it, I try to contribute where I can.

OK, I'll shut up now.

-- 
Adam Goryachev
Website Managers
Ph:  +61 2 9345 4395                        adam@websitemanagers.com.au
Fax: +61 2 9345 4396                        www.websitemanagers.com.au

Sounds really good, and seems to be something very usable.

Have you considered using sourceforge.net for hosting the project?

Stephen R. Besch wrote:
> I've just finished a general purpose configuration utility for the GS 
> phones:
> 
>     1) Generates files from scratch (using MAC), from HTML config 
> listing, or by directly downloading from the phone.
>     2) Does multiple simulteneous edits.
>     3) Can reboot as many or as few phones at a time as you like.
> 
> I would like to offer it to the list, but there are 2 issues:
> 
>     1) I want to GPL it first, if possible. Problem is I am not sure 
> exactly how to go about this.
> 
>     2) I don't have any means to distribute the files (other than 
> e-mail, which I really don't want to to.
> 
> So, if someone could brief me on the GPL issue, and (perhaps someone 
> else) offer a distribution point, it's free for the asking, VB sources 
> and all.
> 
> Stephen R. Besch
> _______________________________________________
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>

Stephen R. Besch wrote:
> I've just finished a general purpose configuration utility for the GS 
> phones:
> 
>     1) Generates files from scratch (using MAC), from HTML config 
> listing, or by directly downloading from the phone.
>     2) Does multiple simulteneous edits.
>     3) Can reboot as many or as few phones at a time as you like.
> 
The zipped install package can be downloaded from:

http://asterisk.4gurus.org/

I have updated the readme to clarify some issues with the install 
process, but the updated text will not be in the zip file just yet. For 
this reason, I have included the body of the readme below

Stephen R. Besch

=====================================================================
readme.txt:

This is the install package for the program. Running setup will install 
the program into Program Files\SachsLab\GSConfigure and put a shortcut 
in the start menu under "Phones". The sources are installed to the 
application directory in a folder named "Source".  If you have never 
installed a VB6 setup package, then wyou will very likely get the 
following message:

"Setup cannot continue because some system files are out of date on your 
system. Click OK if you would like setup to update these files for you 
now. You will need to restart Windows before you can run setup again. 
Click cancel to exit setup without updating these system files."

You can safely click "OK" to update these files.  Also, during the 
install process, if any of the files already on your system are newer 
than those in the package (you will be notified), you should opt to keep 
the ones already on your system. If by chance you happen to already have 
Bruce McKinney's Windows type library on your machine, then you should 
install the one that comes with this package, since it includes some 
constant definitions that are not in the original. If, in the extremely 
unlikely event that you have your owm custiomized version of the type 
library, then you should contact me off list if you want to play with 
the sources.

Stephen R. Besch

sbesch@acsu.buffalo.edu