Re: [Asterisk-java-users] OT: Asterisk billing development (Thameem Ansari)

[Peter H. <pe...@ra...>]

Dear Thameem!

I somewhat follow the asterisk-java mailing list from afar, but do some
Java programming. Unfortunately I couldn't help with development at the
moment, as I am busy with other projects. However, a little comment:

I think it's a good idea to develop a billing package which provides
many features. However, when I read the long list of libraries you
intend to use for the project I thought "HELP!". I think (and pls
forgive me if I come over the wrong way) that with so many libraries you
may well run into big problems in the future:

* You are likely to create a big dependency mess.  Now that may be fine
for you - but it would create difficulties for other people who may like
to use your software or work on it.

* You not only need the libraries you mentioned, but also those they
depend upon. As result your application may not work unless you have
several tens or more than hundred different jar files installed. It can
make installation a real pain (several hours or days of research on the
internet to find the files and to install them). I have had unpleasant
experiences in the past where I tried one library and needed a few
others. I cannot begin to imagine the kind of problems I would get with
11 big libraries! You may even find that two or more libraries share
depend on different versions of one other library.

* Your product will be very difficult to maintain (fragile). For
example, what if you need a new feature that requires another set of
libraries? How will they work together with the libraries that are
already there? What if someone finds a security hole which needs fixing?
You may find that you may have to upgrade your dependencies for any
future developments. Again, maybe not big trouble for you, but woe
betide the other users of your software...

It's generally a good idea to draw upon ready made libraries, but - in
moderation and where needed. To ascertain this takes a some skill. The
list of libraries gives me the impression that you are developing the
software for a specialized context (like a particular environment you
are working with). But that may be very different from the context used
by other people. As result you may find that not many people can use
your software because it is near impossible to maintain for them. At the
end nobody uses the software because it's too complicated. And that
would be a great pity.

In other words, use less code. With 'less code' I mean: Less of the
amount of code needed overall, i.e. your own code plus the code of all
the dependencies. So, it's not just 'My 200 lines of code', but 'my 200
lines of code plus the 2000000 lines of code that my code depends on =>
2000200 lines'. In light of that isn't it better to arrive at 'my 2000
lines of code plus the 5000 lines of dependency code (= 7000 lines)'?
You will find that less dependencies will make your code much more
portable, maintainable -> usable.

So try to re-evaluate your dependencies. Do you _really_ need hibernate?
Can't you implement a simpler serialization mechanism? Do you _really_
need sitemesh? Is it not possible to write some simple code that
generates some web pages using println statements? What about struts?
Isn't it possible to implement web application flow in a simpler way? Or
why is quartz really needed? Is it not possible to implement a threaded
scheduling mechanism that runs each job in its own thread? I would have
thought that such a job could be done with maybe ten classes.

Pls dont get me wrong - I don't say: Don't use hibernate, quartz, struts
etc. - all I mean is: Evaluate carefully which extra library you
_really_ cannot do without (as it's too time intensive to develop
otherwise) and to implement everything else yourself.

Sorry if I sound too negative, pls forgive me if I did. I think
developing a comprehensive billing application in Java is a great idea.
All I recommend is that you try to be a bit more conservative with your
dependencies. I hope it's ok for me to recommend that to you. You are
likely to get a much more robust software that way!

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Now - get a cup of coffee to wash the
shock away... :) It's all Java, after all!

Peter


> 
> Hello All,
> 
> Sorry for sending mail to this list but I find that the people
> participating in this list would be appropriate to ask.
> 
> I am planning to develop an billing application for asterisk based on
> asterisk-java. This would be a full fledged routing, billing and
> calling card platform. Many people may ask why the heck i need to
> build a new one if there are many open source softwares available.
> The reason are many. I evaluated almost all the opensource/commercial
> products written in many different languages (non so far in
> java)...but they lag of different things...nothing is fully
> functionaly or to my expectation..for example,
> 
> A2billing .. Not a very good design though..will not handle
> simultaneous calls from an account, will not have a good calling card
> platform, no callback service, etc.
> 
> MORCC -  its a simple and nice calling card app but no way for
> provisioning users, prepaid or post paid options
> 
> AstBill - need drupal (which i hate it), not a true calling card app
> and having problem with simultaneous call billing calculation..
> 
> So, here is my request.. I would like to find out is there any more
> people available to give me hand on developing that product. I
> already have one in production which is working so far good but i
> want to rewrite the whole thing again and fix the bottlenecks i
> found. Here are the technologies i am planning to use... Struts
> 2.0.1, tomcat 5.5, asterisk-java, hibernate, postgres 8.x, Jreports
> or Jasper Reports, sitemesh, quartz and integration with paypal using
> paypal apis, etc... I have a rough design and plan and need people
> and inputs...
> 
> Please let me know your thoughts...we can start this as sourceforge
> project.. Stefan - I need your thoughts on this...
> 
> Take care, Thameem