Shortcomings of SYDI

I like SYDI a lot and love the feedback I’m getting. There are some issues that stop it from being really useful, a big one is the ability to update the documentation. There’s been an open feature request for this since September 2004 so it’s about time this gets addressed.

The problem is when you create a Word document from SYDI-Server and then change the document, as you should to complete the documentation, you are not able to run SYDI again and keep the changes you made. In a way this limits SYDI to being more of an inventory tool compared to one which helps you with documentation.

I have started coding on SYDI-Server 2.0 where I hope to solve this in a way which might not be perfect but it should serve its purpose.

The idea I have now is that you create an XML file from SYDI-Server, use the XML file in combination with another XML file where you have the written part of the documentation.

The syntax will be something like this:

cscript.exe sydi-[coolname].vbs –xServer1.xml –sServer1_docs.xml –llang-english.xml –oServer1.doc

So in addition to being able to update the documentation you will also be able to convert the SYDI-Server XML files to DOC files which is useful in scenarios where you are not able to create the DOC files from the beginning.

As you might have noticed I’m also going to add a –l option for a language file. So provided that I get help with translation you will be able to get a DOC file in your native language. I don’t know if those offers are still valid but I have been offered help for a German and Polish translation, and I’ll probably do the Swedish one myself.

I will also try to include reporting for IIS, though this will only be for Windows Server 2003. There are a lot of new Windows Components in R2 which needs to be added to SYDI. Other than that I will add more hardware reporting and members of local groups.

[tags]sydi, network documentation, system administration, software, inventory[/tags]