Writeup:Servers module
From NeoWiki
By: Steve Bularca
This module is for reporting up-to-date status of the servers contained within the IRC network. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to append your ideas to this page.
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[edit] Model design
We will have a database table associated with this module. Each row in the table represents a different server. Columns will be defined as follows:
- Server name
- net-reachable hostname
- ports listening for IRC connections
- Geographical location
- Administrator
- Status
- Last updated
[edit] Controller design
The CakePHP controller will fetch this information from the model, to be displayed on our website.
Due to limited CakePHP skills, I am not yet sure how to incorporate the server list on the homepage. Perhaps creating a separate function within the Servers controller will be able to handle this task.
[edit] Obtaining status information
There are probably several methods about doing this.
- Have a cron job run a script which checks each server's status one by one (allowing for a 10-15 second timeout), and then record the resulting information in the database, along with a current timestamp. This can be implemented with a simple command line PHP script.
- Use a service already available to us (like trevorj's StatServ) to report the information. The only problem with this would be in the event that his server goes down.
- This seems to be the best method so far, and can easily be implemented with RSS feeds.
- Invent some crazy way of integrating this directly into CakePHP (who knows?)
[edit] Things to consider
- How frequently should we poll for updated information?
- Could tools such as CakePHP Shells help us in any way?
- $this->requestAction('controller/action');
- call a function residing in a different controller?
- can be used to show server list on homepage (calling a function in 'servers' controller from 'pages' controller)
