Addons and the future!

[Yil]

I've been encouraged by a few things recently:

ioTOOLS WILL return in the new year :)

nxMyDB v0.4.0 ... possibly release candidate. [a very welcome module for some people]

Coming Soon - nxTools v1.1


For reference, in upcoming versions... [signs of life?]

ioNiNJA ALPHA released [with multiple updates no less!]

Those are just some current posts I saw, but others scripts like FTPServerTools I believe are still alive as well.

Feel free to comment with other scripts / addons that are actively being developed or maintained and whether source is public.

I'm also HIGHLY interested in coming up with a common configuration file for the various scripts for all the common features. I'm thinking a TCL file with things like incomplete tags options, what to do with bad uploaded files, etc. It wouldn't even be necessary to modify existing scripts if people wrote a translator of these common options into the script specific configuration files...

If the script writers get together I'll fully get behind this and work with you guys to develop a new .vfs file format say .vfx (extended-vfs) or something that would enable all sorts of things to be defined in one place. Almost every bot and script ends up having the vfs file redefined somewhere to get sections names, or parses the .vfs file themselves. I'm thinking at the minimum ioFTPD should include a bunch of new builtin functions to provide this info and if someone proposes an interface I'll implement the features. Heck, I'll even come up with the interface if I get commitments from scripters to use it in a public release.

Anyway, just tossing some stuff out there.

[FTPServerTools]

Of course my scripts are still alive. It made sense to make my scripts for multiple ftp servers, and I am glad I did that. There is no reason whatsoever to drop ioftpd support from the tools. A new vfs format would be cool but then we'd go off the standard ioftpd, which is not so bad but you'd have yet another version. I'd love the latest source code tho, I'm somewhat behind in the io source code. In fact I wanted to make a version without tcl but with another scripting language, like lua or active scripting (talk about easy..).

[o_dog]

i kinda like to keep the scripts seperate from the server itself.
It's just that I can't really see any advantage with it.

But then again i might be wrong

[Yil]

Heyas FTP. Right now I'm trying to put each minor release source online so for instance you can grab 6.3.0 now if you want to play as it's on site. If you do poke around and actually decide to work on it, I'll be happy to provide the latest version or setup shop on sourceforge or something.

As for lua, etc the script module system can very easily be expanded to provide support for additional languages. It wouldn't be that large of a task.

o_dog: Actually there were two things that I was hoping to achieve. The first is to make adding and switching between scripts easier. I've setup or helped debug lots of sites now and configuring sections witha variety of zipscripts can be annoying. But FAR more annoying is when someone changes the VFS but forgets to update the script AND/or sitebot and then things start breaking...

It's bad enough ioFTPD doesn't have a graphical configuration tool, but zipscript and sitebot maintenance really should be something we try to solve and some uniformity would be really nice...

[FTPServerTools]

O yes this sounds great. I already dug in the older code and made some changes. There are some things I didnt like and wanted to change anyway (yes it is the vfs stuff). There are indeed many zipscripts out there but I think it is also up to the script writer to make it more easy or more extensive. My stuff just runs in io fairly easily because it detects it is running as a suib process from ioftpd.

[o_dog]

i just don't see it, why it would be easier to change things? I mean configing a script takes up like 10min.
And you would still have to have separate config files for the scripts since there is a lot that separate them.
This feature would be Ok if everything could go by a standard but it can't.
All you would do is to split the config into 2 different locations. And that doesn't make things simpler.
Not to mention that most of the scripters are long gone and wont change their scripts.


But on another note i would like to see lua supported.

[tuff]

i converted iosfv to lua ages ago, but unfortunately lua didnt have everything that was needed, it missed basic file system stuff among other bits and bobs

[FTPServerTools]

True file.read and file.write are not nicely c/pascal like functions.
I just dont like tcl myself so I wanted to add something better. Heck I even have a c interpreter that I could use. But active scripting was on my list anyways, and that is fairly simple to do. Like making active script events, including pre events and post events. Similar to how guildftpd for example handles things (or gene6). I am playng around with it. And adding a simple sqlite3 support isnt hard either, it would give io more possbilities to store data and it could remove the need for vfs files completely. Anyway I do have ideas enough.. But he, I know you, you are full of ideas too. :) That is what we are coders for..

[c0d3.us]

hmm, i like the idea io providing common info to all scripts, so as like u say, it keeps all scripts updated via one config. but then u need the ability to add custom fields for new scripts implementing 'new standards' - will this get messy?

perl module? ;) fast regexp, file access, etc.

bleh... longtime since i been round these parts ... :P

[whocarez2k5]

I like the idea to have 1 interface for add-ons but a standard is needed then.
Just a simple thing is for example default location. Some scripts don't use default ioftpd location (c:\ioFTPD) but pointing to E:\, not a big deal but it's anoying to walk true all files to correct file path.

More i like to have all functions/add-ons added as default in io but i guess that isn't an option as not every 1 likes the same scripts

[Zer0Racer]

I'm a bit worried about where ioFTPD is heading. One of ioFTPD's real strengths is the script support. And as the old ioFTPD veteran I am I like to keep many things in it as neat as possible and just add the features/scripts that I want to use. Imho some of the additions that have been made could've just as easily been managed by scripts.

It seems Yil is also stepping closer and closer to the role of a scripter, but instead of making awesome scripts that extend ioFTPD's horizon, everything is coded into the source. In my opinion Yil should try to make scripts too (or even modules) that add functionality beyond the regular stable source. Why not try to make eg. a solid zipscript the way you think it should be? This way you can test alot of new ideas and also see what is not so easy to do in the script(s) and think about which additions that can be made to io's source to make the scripting easier. No?

But don't get me wrong, Yil's work on the source is awesome making ioFTPD better than it has ever been with bugs fixed and (some) useful new features.