Last modified: 2013-08-29 20:07:57 UTC
Create some basic webbased control panel to let authorized start/stop/restart bots. Not sure how authorization would work. Could be restricted to users who have LDAP access to the bots project and then only the bots running under their account. Or alternatively let the bot developer running it crowd-source basic control, by creating an ad-hoc login system in this web-app (admins can create commands, user groups and users. And commands added to groups. And users added to groups. When user loggs in, he can execute the listed commands). Commands would be either: * raw shell commands inserted by the admin through the web interface, given a symbolic name * or, better yet, the shell user offers .sh files following a certain format (/home/*/controlpanel/foobar.sh), and the admin can choose one of them and give them a symbolic name and add it to a group (the web app would scan the user homes for these scripts).
Should it be located in labs console or separate site
I was thinking at bots.wmflabs.org
Could this be a candidate for http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Possible_projects ?
I am giving up on this (I don't even know why it was assigned to me) I am not going to work anything like web interface to control system services / tasks I don't even like the idea of having another cpan like utility running on labs
I don't think it's a good idea to do this, even in principle. Various tools have different requirements for being started or stopped properly, and any interface providing sufficient flexibility for this is essentially equivalent to allowing arbitrary shell commands to be executed from a web interface. Additionally, the creation/management of tool level authentication is discouraged as it has privacy implications. Tools that require a web interface should provide it themselves, and should (ideally) authenticate with OpenID once that is made generally available (soon).
