[Feature Request] Expanding functionality with adding new features (see description)

[mdziczkowski]

Requested features and functionalities

• full support of all existing DNS records
• full support of DDNS
• preset an initial administrative password
• internationalization (support for more languages). If You want then I could help with translations into Polish language ;-)

Additionally, it would be great if:

• the source code would be converted into a GNU compatible format, with would allow to create separate versions for different Operating Systems and platforms (aspecially that Windows is one of the lesss secure and mostly attacked one)

• unified and complete documentation with troughly would explain anything

Explanation

The current server is a great pice of software, however sue a slow development and missing support of modern features, lke montioned as an example on the begining, makes that it start to fall back behind the competition and become outdated, with in my modest opinion is a bad thing.

[ShreyasZare]

Thanks for the post. Most of the points have been discussed many times so I will just respond in short.

full support of all existing DNS records

Support for commonly used records is already done and support for other record types is implemented as and when there is a request for it. This is since there are too many records where most of them are not commonly used. There is already support to add "unknown" record type which can be used too when needed for uncommon type of records.

full support of DDNS

The DDNS standard (RFC 2136) is already fully supported.

preset an initial administrative password

This is already supported via environment variables.

internationalization (support for more languages). If You want then I could help with translations into Polish language ;-)

This is not currently planned since the admin panel is a web app and browser translation addons can be used to do the task. Using translation addon will be just as same as supporting the language natively since I will be using a translator tool to do the task anyways.

the source code would be converted into a GNU compatible format, with would allow to create separate versions for different Operating Systems and platforms (aspecially that Windows is one of the lesss secure and mostly attacked one)

The source code is in C# and is platform independent similar to how Java is. You can check the build instructions on how to build it on your platform.

unified and complete documentation with troughly would explain anything

Documentation is unfortunately not available due to time and resources constrains. If time is spent on documentation then the development work will get delayed significantly.

The current server is a great pice of software, however sue a slow development and missing support of modern features, lke montioned as an example on the begining, makes that it start to fall back behind the competition and become outdated, with in my modest opinion is a bad thing.

The reason for "slow development" is that the project is being developed by a single person (myself) after I get some time doing a full-time job. Most of the competition products have full fledged companies behind them.

[mdziczkowski]

Hello and thanks for the answer. I would like to refernce myself to Your messages.

Support for commonly used records is already done and support for other record types is implemented as and when there is a request for it. This is since there are too many records where most of them are not commonly used. There is already support to add "unknown" record type which can be used too when needed for uncommon type of records.

Not every one uses just so called "common records", with in many cases may not be fully sufficient if some one would like to use the server in an more advanced way.

I think that it provides a great administrative capabilities for administration of DNS server, in opposite to compentition, by with the records need to become wroten manually inside of an text (.zone) file. Thereof, possibility of selecting and creating records that excend over the so called "common records" would be a great adventage for the server over the competition.

The DDNS standard (RFC 2136) is already fully supported.

Strange... except DHCP, I haven't noticed such functionality in the Dashboard, aspecially when managing the DNS records 🤔

This is already supported via environment variables.

I know, but there is no mention in the file about the format of the value in with this password shold be. I tested it in various ones and I wasn't been able to login.

My proposal is to change that instead of setting the environment variable with the admin password (aspecially for docker container), it would be great if it would be in the code that by the first start the user would be asked for the administrative usename and password.

This is not currently planned since the admin panel is a web app and browser translation addons can be used to do the task. Using translation addon will be just as same as supporting the language natively since I will be using a translator tool to do the task anyways.

Any idea when the support of addons could become implemented in this case ?

Documentation is unfortunately not available due to time and resources constrains. If time is spent on documentation then the development work will get delayed significantly.

I could help You with creating one, but I would need all required informations to work with 😉

[ShreyasZare]

Thanks for the response.

Not every one uses just so called "common records", with in many cases may not be fully sufficient if some one would like to use the server in an more advanced way.

True, but due to limited time available, its not feasible to implement all available record types. Thus the approach to implement them as and when they are requested.

I think that it provides a great administrative capabilities for administration of DNS server, in opposite to compentition, by with the records need to become wroten manually inside of an text (.zone) file. Thereof, possibility of selecting and creating records that excend over the so called "common records" would be a great adventage for the server over the competition.

You can use the text zone file format via the Import Zone option. In there too only the supported records would parse and you will have to use the unknown record type text format specified in RFC 3597 to add an unsupported record type.

Strange... except DHCP, I haven't noticed such functionality in the Dashboard, aspecially when managing the DNS records 🤔

The Dynamic Updates options are available in the Zone Options for primary and Conditional Forwarder zones. The DHCP server can update the DNS records internally without need to use the DDNS protocol.

I know, but there is no mention in the file about the format of the value in with this password shold be. I tested it in various ones and I wasn't been able to login.

The env vars only work when the DNS server starts for the first time when there are no config files generated yet. The password file format is just a text file with password entered directly in it.

My proposal is to change that instead of setting the environment variable with the admin password (aspecially for docker container), it would be great if it would be in the code that by the first start the user would be asked for the administrative usename and password.

If you start the DNS server for the first time, it does ask to change the admin password. The GUI will always prompt for password change if it is able to login with the default password.

Any idea when the support of addons could become implemented in this case ?

There are general translation web browser addons already available like the ones listed here for Firefox.

I could help You with creating one, but I would need all required informations to work with 😉

Thanks for the offer. Documentation is tricky thing since the writer has to know how the feature works. Plus, it needs to be updated for every release due to new feature additions and changes in how the options work, etc. Its quite a time consuming task.

[mdziczkowski]

Hello.

There are general translation web browser addons already available like the ones listed here for Firefox.

I had meant thru my question the support of extensions (addons) in the web server itself and not in the web browser extensions 😉

Thanks for the offer. Documentation is tricky thing since the writer has to know how the feature works. Plus, it needs to be updated for every release due to new feature additions and changes in how the options work, etc. Its quite a time consuming task.

I have actually have a loot of free time. If you could gather all required informations, I could put them together in a user friendly and organized way, so you could focus on the part that you're good at 😉

[ShreyasZare]

Thanks for the response.

I had meant thru my question the support of extensions (addons) in the web server itself and not in the web browser extensions 😉

Addons are available only with browsers. There are no such options with web server.

I have actually have a loot of free time. If you could gather all required informations, I could put them together in a user friendly and organized way, so you could focus on the part that you're good at 😉

That's the tricky part. If I spend time to gather the info to share, I can as well just write the documentation.

[mdziczkowski]

Please take into consideration that you don't need to do anything alone 😉