Re: Webmin Framework

[Joe C. <jo...@sw...>]

Read the fine manual, Nick.  (Not the one I wrote...the developer docs 
written by Jamie.  They're linked right from the main Webmin page, and 
while they tend to lag one or two releases behind, they are a great 
source of information about general Webmin development and the routines 
you have at your disposal.)

I've found Webmin to be /very/ easy to customize...and I'm perl 
sub-literate (I can't read it and I can barely write it).

I'll conced that Webmin could be more modular (at the code level...not 
referring to allowing third party modules).  I have found that 
sometimes, rather than calling a routine from Jamies modules, I have to 
just rip it out and paste it into my own modules...

Having been involved with Webmin since the early .7x versions, I can say 
that it does seem to be getting more modular...more function oriented, 
rather than put all the code in the order that it happens.

But, all that being said, I have to say something about looking a gift 
horse in the mouth.  Webmin is the best thing going, by a long 
shot...ever tried writing a module for LinuxConf?

Anyway, I think the number of third party modules (and the number of 
proprietary products based on it) will attest to the fact that you are 
not in the majority in thinking it's hard to understand or modify. 
Maybe you just don't like Perl?  (And understandable position...I find 
it rather confusing, myself, but as Perl goes, Webmin is a great example 
of readable code.)

Nick Jennings wrote:

> Hello everyone,
> 
>  I have been looking at the webmin code for several days trying to grok
>  it. There is no documentation on it that I can find, the comments in the
>  code are sparse (to say the least), and even the variable and function
>  names are not at all "self-documenting".
> 
>  In a short amount of time I need to change, significantly, some core
>  things in webmin. Even so much as changing the way the HTML is printed
>  is a task that requires extensive code manipulation, and all of the HTML
>  is embedded in the code, rather thoroughly, and there are several function
>  calls to other pieces of code, from other files,that make up certain
>  parts of the HTML. None of this is documented and I can't figure out
>  what these functions are doing, why they are needed etc.
> 
>  Has anyone else attempted something like this and ran into these problems?
>  It seems like it is extremely difficult to reuse any code. Even within
>  themes entire cgi's have to be rewritten to behave differently and print
>  HTML out differently. 
> 
>  Are there any plans for an HTML Templating system? More flexible framework?
>  Is there any technical Documentation? Anyone have any words of wisdom?
>  
>  Any comments apprectiated.
> 
> 



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                      Joe Cooper <jo...@sw...>
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