[BlueOnyx:13958] Re: New GUI

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Michael,

> How will the new GUI affect packages written to work within the
> current system?

Sames as before. You can install PKGs through the GUI. Either from file,
from an URL or from NewLinQ.

However: BlueOnyx with that new GUI are entirely new "platforms".
Existing platforms so far are 5106R, 5107R and 5108R.

When BlueOnyx with the new GUI gets released, the existing list of
platforms gets expanded by the two new platforms 5207R and 5208R.

Which means that you can only install PKGs there that were developed for
the platform in question.

The old and the new GUI generally do things in the same way, but the PHP
GUI pages and the XML files for the menu structure are different and not
compatible. They're even residing in different directories, the URL
structure is different, there is no frameset, no JavaScripts that span
over multiple frames either. Input validation works different, register
globals is (finally!) turned off and a whole squeaky bit of nuts and
bolts has been replaced, polished up or been rewritten from scratch.

All in all this is a hell of a lot more than simple cosmetics. So far
around 1200 hours went into the new GUI project and it's only about 70%
done.

About one of the last obstacles I'll takle (once the GUI itself is done)
is to restructure our RPM and PKG building process. Long term goal is
that almost all of the BlueOnyx modules are universal. So they will work
anywhere and contain the GUI pages and menu XML files for both the old
and new platforms. That makes future code maintenance a lot easier.

This will then also allow us to create PKGs that contain GUI elements
for similar platforms. Therefore a lot of future PKGs will be for
5107R/5207R and 5108R/5208R at the same time, because they contain the
GUI elements for both.

If you have a PKG that's (so far) only for 5107R or 5108R, then it will
only install on these platforms, but not the new ones.

However: For those clients who have an ongoing maintenance agreement,
PKGs they had purchased in the past for the old platforms will be made
available for 5207R and 5208R as well.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber