What’s new in GNU Bayonne: Jan. 6, 2002

11

Author: JT Smith

David Sugar sends this along: What’s new in GNU Bayonne (January 6, 2002)
See http://www.gnu.org/software/bayonne for general information.

1. A definition of terms
2. New releases everywhere
3. GNU Bayonne for the S/390
4. Next 0.7.x GNU Bayonne release
5. The new server admin interface
6. OSDL reorg for 1.0 development
7. New project documentation

A definition of terms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the 1.0 release of GNU Bayonne, we are changing our terminology a bit. In the past “GNU Bayonne” referred to the package as a whole and the server it creates. This is no longer true with the new 1.0 distribution.

“GNU Bayonne” will continue to refer to the package as a whole. However, there are three services built from GNU Bayonne, and these, individually, will be referred to as “Bayonne” (the telephony interface application server), “Olorin” (the softswitch application server), and “Babylon” (the pbx integration server). Hence, “Bayonne” is part of “GNU Bayonne” and not an interchangeable term for the latter, as has been the case in the past.

New releases everywhere
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have distributed a new set of releases for GNU Common C++, GNU ccScript, GNU ccrtp, and GNU ccaudio. These have changes I found necessary for development of GNU Bayonne 1.0. In particular, I have added symbol dumping in GNU ccScript so that I can complete the GNU Bayonne tcp admin interface and offer direct support for XMLRPC in GNU Common C++. The latter will help in creating GNU Bayonne application scripts that can invoke foreign services thru XMLRPC.

XMLRPC is becoming standard in GNUCOMM as well as in other packages. In fact, XMLRPC will get used as an alternate option to TGI based external service integration in GNU Bayonne application servers. XMLRPC support is somewhat limited in GNU Bayonne because GNU ccScript cannot easily represent some of the data structures one may use in XMLRPC, but it should be sufficient for most useful services.

GNU Bayonne for the S/390
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I recently received a note that the Debian project has had problems building a S/390 target from the current GNU Bayonne (0.7.x) release set. At first, I found the notion that this was a serious bug to be highly amusing. In this respect it is a strange issue, since, technically, there is no telephony hardware to interface a Bayonne server to on an S/390!

However, In the upcoming 1.0 release series, it actually will be of some real practical value to build for a S/390 target. While the Bayonne server may not have a useful role on a S/390, certainly Olorin, which is a pure network application server, could operate there, and perhaps there even could be a useful role for Babylon.

If anyone has some expertise in building S/390 targets and would like to supply a patch for building on it, I would be happy to take it in for the next release.

Next 0.7.x GNU Bayonne release
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am going to continue supplying patches, updates, and small improvements in the current 0.7.x distribution of GNU Bayonne. These will continue even during the 0.9/0.99 releases. With the full 1.0 release, around May, the current 0.7.x tree will be retired.

I am looking at back-porting some things from the 1.0 tree into the 0.7.x tree. If people wish to continue supplying patches for 0.7.x, please do so, they will be taken in for at least a few more months.

The new server admin interface
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have added a tcp monitoring interface to the GNU Bayonne 1.0 source tree. This will help to monitor and manipulate live running servers either from interactive or front end system monitoring tools.

The tcp session can be driven thru a simple telnet interface and uses a simple protocol for organizing command and response messages for ease of machine parsing as well as for interactive use. The interface provides a login facility in conjunction with PAM authentication and individual users that have telephony services being hosted thru a GNU Bayonne server will be able to manipulate their own environments.

Globally, an admin user will be able to perform a number of administrative chores thru the tcp interface, as well as directly manipulate and control the entire environment of a running GNU Bayonne application server. Things like dumping and changing global symbols in a live running system will become possible, as well as inspecting running call sessions live.

I am thinking of making the tcp interface bi-model, so that it can also process HTTP requests and possibly XMLRPC requests directly in addition to the simple telnet commands it supports already.

OSDL reorg for 1.0 development
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am working or re-organizing our resources at OSDL (Open Source Development Labs, “http://www.osdl.org”) so that GNU Bayonne 1.0 development can be carried out there effectively. I am going to be updating the OSDL Bayonne servers with the most current releases of related libraries for next week. I expect to carry out a lot of 1.0 related development at OSDL over the next few months.

If there is some special project or development that anyone wishes to conduct which requires OSDL resources, please let me know. It should be fairly easy to have additional people using OSDL for Bayonne related development since the equipment and servers are already in place.

New Project Documentation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have started drawing up new project documentation. This new documentation is being created in docbook. The GNU Bayonne manual will be based on the original manual Anders created last year. I am looking to add significantly to this, including better supporting sections on how to configure telephony devices. I also wish to incorporate things from the howto directly into the new manual.

Having a single, authoritative, and comprehensive reference document is perhaps the most important goal for the 1.0 release of GNU Bayonne. I am looking to create a single manual that covers all of GNU Bayonne in full rather than create a separate admin, programming, and reference manual. Perhaps supporting manuals with specific focus will be drawn out later from the primary.

If anyone wishes to contribute to the GNU Bayonne documentation effort, the help will be more than welcome.