I've submitted my first draft =)

[riskable]

It isn't done yet (it is a draft after all =) but earlier today I submitted my entry into the contest. I must say, even if I'm not a finalist it feels great--what a cool idea the Ubiquiti folks had.

I have a two-year-old, my wife is 20-weeks pregnant, and we have a guest staying with us yet somehow I've managed to build a powerful embedded equivalent to Webmin (in Python) over the past three months. I've written it in such a way that it can literally be a drop-in replacement for Webmin on any Linux computer--not just OpenWRT.

Once I included 3rd party module dependencies, the total size of my package amounts to 716k. I can reduce that further I'm sure (loads of redundant/functionally equivalent code) but a bigger obstacle is the size of python and libopenssl on OpenWRT. Once I finish the required features that's going to be my next task.

Speaking of required features, I totally ROCKED the Internationalization requirement :D. In my submission I included a full French translation (full gettext support), hehe. If I make the list of finalists I've got two months to finish what's missing:

Firewall editing (unless direct edit of /etc/user.firewall counts =). I've already got a SWEET real-time view of iptables along with spreadsheet export of said view (I've had too many bosses that were spreadsheet junkies).
ebtables equivalent to the previous feature.
dnsmasq and quagga interfaces.
Chillispot interface.
Interface(s) for the various PtP protocols (servers--I've already got the client config down).
snmpd agent interface (pfft, whatever).
QoS scripts interface
Some sort of web proxy interface
NTP interface + clock control
Log view interface (and I need to actually turn on logging in my tool =)
Pretty much all the utilities (should be pretty quick though)
A nice real-time status interface (I've got big plans and small plans for this--big plans if I have time, small plans if I don't hehe).
Firmware upgrade (I actually have a fun framework in place for this already =).
NTP/Clock interface.

...and that's pretty much it (LOL)! I actually don't foresee time issues unless I'm *not* a finalist in which case I'm going to take my sweet time implementing that stuff :).

If the Ubiquiti folks don't mind I'd love to post a screencast demonstrating my interface.

Wish me luck!

[riskable]

I made a screencast (without audio due to some microphone issues) demonstrating my contest entry here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH5_zvWASww
(make sure to watch it in HD)

Also, here's some screenshots with descriptions:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18175109@N00/tags/pyci/

[riskable]

Since I had the time I've uploaded a new "first draft" entry. I noticed and fixed some bugs when I was working on the screencast.

Also, it seems that at some point recently I broke the login screen on Internet Explorer 6/7/8. It is a hard thing to notice when you don't use Windows!

Seriously though: All my pages are XHTML 1.0 Transitional (and STRICT) and XHTML 1.1 compliant. XHTML 1.0 has been around since January of 2000 and Microsoft STILL hasn't fixed their browser (9 years!). Internet Explorer is poison.

It works fine in Firefox, Konqueror and Opera... Annoying.

[samcamfilms]

Since I had the time I've uploaded a new "first draft" entry. I noticed and fixed some bugs when I was working on the screencast.

Also, it seems that at some point recently I broke the login screen on Internet Explorer 6/7/8. It is a hard thing to notice when you don't use Windows!

Seriously though: All my pages are XHTML 1.0 Transitional (and STRICT) and XHTML 1.1 compliant. XHTML 1.0 has been around since January of 2000 and Microsoft STILL hasn't fixed their browser (9 years!). Internet Explorer is poison.

It works fine in Firefox, Konqueror and Opera... Annoying.

Looking good!

[adrianatkins]

Me too ! (yesterday ish)

That's TWO Challengers !

Woooohooo. The odds are looking good - for you.

My offering is a bit half-arsed, and isn't sexy-looking (yet).

Still, i've focussed on the modularity, cross-browser thing, and actually making it work, and make money.

I got a bit distracted and tried it on a load of other hardware platforms, cos i happen to have quite a few lying around.

So far it works on the Ubiquiti RS Board (naturally), Mikrotik 1xx, ALIX, WRAP, Mikrotik 4xx, UBNT NS2/NS5, Askey RT210W, a Linksys WsomethingG wifi router and *almost* on a Netgear DG834G v2 - it didn't like it much, and i didn't like it much so i got bored and went on to do other stuff. I blame ADAM2.

What amazes me is that people actually *buy* GUI-fronted OpenWRT when OpenwWRT is actually free !

It's just a GUI so the idle people can click buttons in browsers, and learn nothing, yet make money. Hats off to Brainslayer. Nicely spotted market gap.

What's *more* impressive is the sheer number of WiFi and networking 'experts' that i've come across that actually know, well, not enough - to say the least.

Now i'm even more amazed that this Internet thingy works at all !

[adrianatkins]

Cor riskable !

I just looked at the screen shots.

It looks like a sexy beast !

[adrianatkins]

riskable : add some humour while you got the chance.

e.g. my Reboot module ends with a link that says :-


"Click Here Repeatedly in the hope that you can get back in"


That's more like the fun fun fun life of WiFi guys.

[riskable]

riskable : add some humour while you got the chance.

e.g. my Reboot module ends with a link that says :-

"Click Here Repeatedly in the hope that you can get back in"

That's more like the fun fun fun life of WiFi guys.

LOL! This actually had me thinking: I should probably put an upper limit to the number of times the function tries connecting so that it doesn't sit there indefinitely stuck on a broken router. A 5-minute timeout with an error message, "Have you updated your resume lately?" might be appropriate.

[riskable]

I've uploaded a new screencast with audio. Since this one was longer than 10 minutes I couldn't use Youtube:

http://blip.tv/file/2248700/

It is a lot longer but has detailed commentary.

[pwnies]

Keep it up man, it's looking good. Excited for the next screencast.

[riskable]

Keep it up man, it's looking good. Excited for the next screencast.

I'll be recording a screencast tonight showing off the progress since my last post. I'll also be starting a new topic with screenshots of some recent additions.

[masked]

EDIT: Sorry I noticed you do plan to implement quagga, yet my post isn't entirely irrelevant still! haha :D


PyCI looks nice on the youtube video.

I have had too many things on to even start my entry and now have found today that the first Draft was due already!

Yes, you are missing that list of functionality above, all of which are important, but I would consider preliminary, it's nothing that you can't do already. I will argue however PyCI is much more elegant that the haserl and luci frontends.

Given that I'm out of the comp now due to many things, but I will accept procrastination as one of those valid reasons, I'll share with you some of the things that have crossed my mind.

The Routerstation is NOT a home (or even soho) router. Although the first tihngs on my list were things like jquery, so well done there, that 'Web 2.0' Interactiveness needs to be exploited tramendiously I believe.

I don't see any mentions of routing protocols on your list.

A successful entry in my eyes would have to have OSPF, BGP, RIP as bare essentials. It would be crazy not to implement the new Layer-2 B.A.T.M.A.N., regular layer 3 batman and OLSR. Something 802.11s compliant. Even to go as far as (this is a half-baked though) intuitive scripts to make building an automated mesh, automated. Or something more simple based on assumptions, like Bridge or Router mode in AirOS as it is, but more plentiful.

And 802.11s doesn't have to be Ad-Hoc, nor share one channel exclusively or just be 2.4ghz omni's like Freifunk. They can be a single routerboard, with 3 2.4ghz cards, 3 120 sectors, 3 different channels, same ssid, ethernet to another routerstation with 3 5ghz ptp links to other nodes utilizing wds where nessesary. an automated self-healing protocol is great, but a a automated self-configuring router would in my eyes, be tops! Regardless, the functionality needs to be there! This is a Firmware challenge, not just a UI! We all know what OpenWRT can do, but where it fails, others succeed!

I'm going to leave it at that for now, there are still plenty of other things I can think of that need covering.. Infact with what was going to be my entry, I was solely organising the workings and pulling the data to and from the UI and had a web designer to do the fancy jquery stuff!

Anyways I hope I haven't rubbed anyone up the wrong way, it's good to see you out there giving it a go, and I wish you all luck!

I'm also willing to discuss this any further and bounce ideas, I'll try and remember to keep coming back!

Over and Out.