WISP in a Box Development

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Developer Guide

WISP in a Box development is organized as an Open-Source or Libré software project.

In order to understand what this means and be able to work together in this way we need to agree on the definitions of the following five words:

• Upstream - We use the term Upstream to refer to projects which our project makes use of. For example net-snmp and afrimesh are both upstream projects of the WispBox.

• Downstream - Downstream are projects who use our code. For example, if someone were to create a linux distribution which focused on adding VOIP services to a WISP and which used WispBox as a dependency then that project would be considered to be downstream from our project.

• Users - We live and breathe for these special individuals as, without them, none of us would have paying jobs. Their contributions to the project usually take the form of running the software, reporting bugs on the mailing list and requesting features.

• Contributors - Contributors are usually also users but they have both the ability and desire to contribute code patches, documentation and their expertise to project development discussions. Often, future developers on a project are drawn from the pool of contributors. Contributors are a necessary condition to the long-term sustainability of any Libré project. For this reason all new developers are first required to spend some time as a contributor to the project before they are "handed the keys to the house" and gain full access to the project infrastructure.

• Developers - Developers perform the bulk of the development work and have full access to the project source repositories, servers and other infrastructure.

The Libré Software Development Cycle

Upstream Projects

WISP in a Box has many upstream dependencies. The following list are the ones you will see referred to most commonly:

• Afrimesh - the WispBox component integration toolkit and the core management dashboard.
• Ubuntu Customization Kit - A set of scripts used by our build system to generate the WispBox livecd images.

Setup Checklist

Task	Description
Development Workstation	x86 FreeBSD or Ubuntu 1x ??? USB WiFi network card
WISP Server	AMD ION 1GB RAM 80GB Hard Drive D-Link USB Ethernet
Development Mesh Node	D-Link DIR-300
Deployment Mesh Node	HPN
Subscribe to mailing lists	TODO
Join IRC	Install an IRC client and configure it for irc.freenode.net, #afrimesh (ask George if you need help)
Configure WispBox Development Environment	Read: http://code.google.com/p/wispinabox/wiki/DevelopmentEnvironment
Configure Afrimesh Development Environment	Read: http://code.google.com/p/afrimesh/wiki/DevelopmentEnvironment

Core Project Infrastructure

Resource	URL	Description
Mailing List - User Support	TO COME	Users, Contributors and Developers should subscribe to and follow this list.
Mailing List - Development	TO COME	Contributors and Developers should subscribe to and follow this list.
Issue tracker	http://code.google.com/p/wispinabox/issues/list	Bug reports and feature requests submitted to the Issue tracker are more likely to receive attention!
IRC	http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=afrimesh	For IRC client configuration, use: irc.freenode.net, #afrimesh
Wiki - Main	http://wirelessafrica.meraka.org.za/wiki/index.php?title=WISP_in_a_Box_Development
Wiki - WispBox	http://code.google.com/p/wispinabox/w	Content hosted here still needs to be migrated to the main wiki
Wiki - Afrimesh	http://code.google.com/p/afrimesh/w	Afrimesh services multiple projects and as such maintains a separate wiki
Version Control - WispBox	http://code.google.com/p/wispinabox/source/checkout
Version Control - Afrimesh	http://code.google.com/p/afrimesh/source/checkout
Package Repository	https://launchpad.net/~wispinabox
Build Server	TO COME

Resources

• Community Building : Barriers to Entry - Neary Consulting [1]

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