Re: Apache James necessary documents seem to be hidden

Hello Huy,

On 06/03/2023 00:50, Huy Van wrote:
> Hi everyone at open source Apache James,
>
> This is to notify that James is similar to a closed source project.
> Necessary documents at
> https://james.staged.apache.org/james-distributed-app/3.7.3/operate/ are
> currently not found (404). Documents on James website are outdated with the
> latest build.

We are using a multi-repository build with Antora and it seems there is 
a mis-functionning that causes this build to sometime not include 
distributed resources.

I was aware of this bug for some time now but did not have the time to 
investigate it. I created 
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/JAMES-3894 for it and might plan 
it in my team backlog.

Contributions on this topic are of course welcome too.

In the meantime the doc is still on github: 
https://github.com/apache/james-project/tree/master/server/apps/distributed-app/docs/modules/ROOT/pages/operate

>
> Configuring James now for new users requires to look into source code,
> logic, which is a crazy idea.

James is a technical piece of architecture that mostly addresses 
enterprise needs.

There was the topic of having a simpler set up for individual/small 
business which eases its configuration, but we really received few 
contributions on the topic. Hence no real progress was made.

Please note that documentation is a collective effort and, might you 
want to help us improve it, we would very happily accept those 
contributions.
>   Yes, it's always easier with technical
> services behind James, but how to be sure that there are no "unexpected"
> errors occur during operation in the future, when valuable data going huge.
> I concern this because james's been contributed & maintain mostly by
> companies providing technical services on James.
Free software is free as in free speech, not as in free beer.

Having companies doing business is by the way a sign of good health of 
an OpenSource community.

James community itself have several actors proposing services.

> If any companies are not at Google, Microsoft, etc level, it's better to
> build own distributed business-logical mail system based on postfix,
> dovecot, familiar db shard & replication, etc. It's peace of mind and
> faster building than current document-hidden Apache James.
I feel offended by such a declaration and of course it depends on your 
use cases.

James has a real value for injecting components at the heart of the mail 
server, for scaling, for the JMAP protocol.

I agree it might not fit everyone use case.
>
> It's not too difficult unless you want. Hope James project is great in the
> future.
Thanks ;-)

Best regards,

Benoit
>
> Regards,
> Huy Van
>