[VoiceOps] [LIKELY JUNK] Acme: EMS or CLI?

[Alex Balashov]

anorexicpoodle wrote:

> Have you looked at all into the ACP-XML api? I have an old doc from 4.1 
> on it but haven't seen much since. Seems like it would be a great way to 
> integrate larger scale Acme provisioning and management with a home 
> grown system.

Unless the API is so complicated[1] that it's easier to write an 
automated CLI-based provisioning wrapper for a narrow class of tasks.  :-)

I have encountered this a lot.  Say I need a little tool to add a few 
routes to some piece of infrastructure.  It is unlikely that the scope 
of the tool will substantially expand, and at any rate, it is certain 
that evolution toward a fuller OSS/BSS framework can be categorically 
ruled out.  I can either spend half a day building a little wrapper 
with Net::Telnet + Expect, or I can sit there for a week trying to 
decipher some vastly overcomplicated enterprise-strength B2B/B2C 24/7 
five-9s N+1 high-ROI clicks-and-mortar turn-key-convergent 
mission-critical service-impacting world-historic 
culture-transformative spiritually-transfigurative SOAP and/or WSDL 
monstrosity that requires maddeningly various client-side libraries, 
executes like an 800 lb. donkey stuck in a tar pit.

There is real value to doing things the "right" way and diving into 
the latter.  But the Byzantine thought patterns underlying the design 
philosophies of these things often weigh against it economically.

-- Alex

[1]  I haven't seen this API, so, to be perfectly fair, I don't know.

-- 
Alex Balashov - Principal
Evariste Systems
Web     : http://www.evaristesys.com/
Tel     : (+1) (678) 954-0670
Direct  : (+1) (678) 954-0671