Plugin Update Notification

[Voiper99]

Hi all, as far as I know the only way to find out if a plugin has been updated/patched is to check Cacti's forum, Cacti's wiki, cactiuser.org or the plugins' own website (please correct me if I'm wrong?)

If this is true, I was thinking of setting up some sort of e-mail notification system so that people can be notified when an updated version or patch has been released for the plugins that they use. Basically they would select the plugins that they are interested in and give me their e-mail address and I would send them an e-mail when an update has been released.

This would ideally work with the cooperation of the plugin writers (so that they could notify me when they have released new code) as well as Cacti users themselves (in case some plugin writers are not familiar with my proposed system), so that I would be able to send the e-mails ASAP.

If anyone is interested in this, please let me know and I will get on to it as soon as I can. Or, if a similar such service already exists, please let me know

[bmarofsky]

Have you tried the Update Plugin?

http://cactiusers.org/wiki/UpdateDocs

It works fairly well except it keeps telling me my Aggregate plugin has an update when it does not.

[Voiper99]

Have you tried the Update Plugin?

I have though I thought it was not working as I do not believe it has been updated for a while now.

Are you running it on your 8.7g / PIA 2.8 box??

[TheWitness]

I don't run update any more. Really need a new version of that plugin.

TheWitness

[Voiper99]

Yeah it would be nice to have a updated version (pun intended!), lol.

Seeing all of the great Cacti plugins has re ignited my passion for coding (especially PHP) so I'd love to spend some time learning more about it, but I fear with all of the other things I am working on I won't get very far

It is great though being able to look at the plugin's code and try to learn what each command does. It'd be a lot of fun learning enough so that I am able to submit bug fixes/enhancemnets/updates, though I'm sure becoming a PHP pro is not easily done.

[TheWitness]

It's like throwing a football, but you often times forget the rules.... www.php.net is the bomb!

TheWitness

[Voiper99]

hehe yes I love php.net but the one thing that worries me about coding is knowing all there is about vulerabilties/secure coding. How does one stay on top of it/keep their knowledge up to date if coding is something they only do in their spare time? That is the one huge thing that holds me back from even trying to get in to it... I don't want to release (or even use) code that is poorly written and vulnerable.

[TheWitness]

Just look up a function you don't know about and read the examples. There is so much reference code. You never feel alone.

TheWitness

[Voiper99]

You never feel alone.

hehe excellent But things like "SQL injections" and "buffer overflows" etc worry me.

What I have always wanted to do as a first time little project is create a simple website that allows users to sign up with a username and password and then get sent to a successful "logged in" screen, as well as have the ability to change their password, but as per my above concerns, I just feel that my code will never be as good/secure as it should be.

There is so much reference code.

Do you think there is enough there to make my concerns invalid? I mean I know it is impossible to write uncrackable code but I just don't want to write code that is so insecure it is laughable.

[TheWitness]

We use techniques in UI development in 0.8.7 to limit SQL Injection and XSS vulnerabilities. With 0.8.8, we introduce a class library to reduce the amount of code to something almost too trivial.

TheWitness

[Voiper99]

Ah ok, that sounds re assuring.

At the end of the day I guess my code will only be as good as my knowledge, so I will read up on it as much as I can before I get started. Also, with all of the coding forums out there (and of course, all of the coders on this forum), I'm sure if there are any errors/holes in my code it will be picked up quickly.

Thanks Witness.

[Voiper99]

OK so now you've got me addicted to PHP, I hope your happy I am spending more time reading up on it than I do on Cacti at the moment, which isn't good because I'm still not 100% with Cacti. Having said that, I think I can work out a balance between the two

The first thing I'd like to do is perhaps work on a little mod on a plugin you may be familiar with. It is called Thold However, my idea is too complex for me at this moment so I will have to shelve it for a while until I am actually able to code

But just to give you an overview of it (in case you have any better suggestions), this morning when I got in to work I found that 13 printers had gone down over night (thanks to Thold), but in order to find out which switches these printers were connected to, I had to look at an Excel spreadsheet. However, this would not be possible if I were on the road and did not have my laptop with me.

What I'd like to do is have the notification e-mail say "Host Error: xyz-host is DOWN (Switch 45, port fa0/13).

At first I did not know how I would retreive this information, but now that I think about it, it could be done if I were able to display the arp cache of the layer 3 device (switch or router), grab the IP address of the device(s) and then take the corresponding MAC address(es), then show the MAC table for the specified MAC addresses which will show the layer 2 "next hop", then show the MAC address table of that switch and and so on, until I reach the the last switch which will give me the port that the device is connected to.

Now, after having explained this all, it makes me wonder if your "MAC Track" plugin does something similar to this? I'd read the documentation on it, but I don't think your evil twin has allowed you to write it yet

[TheWitness]

I think a 'critical port' feature for MacTrack would be more appropirate and not do this in THold. THold is a bit of a mess at the moment and the dev has gone quiet.

TheWitness

[bmarofsky]

Have you tried the Update Plugin?

I have though I thought it was not working as I do not believe it has been updated for a while now.

Are you running it on your 8.7g / PIA 2.8 box??

Yes.