
The Lire Roadmap

March 2002

Joost van Baal

   Copyright  2001, 2002 Stichting LogReport Foundation
   Revision History
   Revision 20020313 $Date: 2002/01/31 19:07:11 $
   $Id: roadmap.dbx,v 1.5 2002/01/31 19:07:11 vanbaal Exp $
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   Table of Contents

   Introduction
   Tasks and dates

Introduction

   This document gives a roadmap for the development of the LogReport
   software, and its role. It serves as a reference point when working on
   the software and states the current ideas and plans of the LogReport
   developers.

Tasks and dates

   Mid february 2002, we ship a Lire release. In march 2002, we could be
   ready to ship Lire 1.0. If everything works out as planned, major
   improvements and features are added at that time, to justify a 1.0
   version. We list the tasks, roughly in order of priority and expected
   completion time.

   add services
          squid (Joost, code supplied by Joost Bekkers) service is to be
          added, as well as MS Proxy, in a proxy superservice. The socks
          support should be resurrected. The WELF convertor should be
          splitted in a welf_packet and welf_proxy part, since it offers
          two kinds of functionality. Bugs in the firewall superservice
          should be fixed. This superservice is not robust yet. Should be
          finished february 14, 2002.

   reusable filters
          It should be possible to reuse filters in report
          specifications. This makes it much easier to create and extend
          reports. See the December 23 mail of Francis to the LogReport
          Development List for details. This should be finished february
          14.

   developers documentation
          The xml-ified backend should be properly documented, so that
          it's easy for developers to write their own hooks. Should be
          finished february 14, 2002.

   build binary packages
          Francis will build an RPM for RedHat, Mandrake and SuSE. Joost
          will build a Debian package from the February 2002 release.

   merging and splitting
          It should be possible to merge and split log files and reports.
          The data could be stored in some database backend, though this
          is not absolutely needed: the interface to access this data
          could be build with a poor-man's backend, initially. Later we
          could e.g. use ODBC databases (like MySQL). Should be shipped
          with the 1.0 release in march. We'll try to get some of the
          tasks below done too, before the 1.0 release.

   display
          User configuration hooks should be added to tweak various
          display settings, the overall sexyness of the output should be
          improved. A first shot was made for the december 2001 release.
          This could go in the 1.0 release.

   jade
          All jade dependencies should be removed, including the depency
          on jade to produce PDF output.

   and even more services
          We plan to create a new messagestore superservice, for POP and
          IMAP servers. Furthermore, LDAP log file support, and support
          for extra email services (iPlanet and Netscape Messaging
          Server) is planned.

   online responder
          The online responder we offer on our website should be able to
          produce HTML output. Addresses like
          <log-html@combined.logreport.org> should get advertised. The
          HTTP upload interface should be completed. Email attachment
          handling should get improved. Installation of a responder from
          tarball should be better documented and should be easier.

   configuration interface
          There should be a better configuration interface than the
          lr_config script we offer now. The CGI interface should get
          completed. A GUI interface should get added.

   internationalisation
          Lire should support other languages in its error messages and
          other output. This is a long-term task.

   log file recognisition
          We could use tools like bison and flex, the GPL implementations
          of yacc and lex, to describe formally the log files, and deal
          with any input automatically. This is a long term (and very
          ambitious) task.
