Building a specific module

This chapter has discussed many theoretical and operational aspects of modules, but you are yet to gain an insight into the process of writing modules. For this purpose, the rest of this chapter will have you create an example module step by step.

It should be stressed again that for the most part, you will want to find general purpose modules from the Forge. The number of available modules is ever growing, so the odds are good that there is something already there to help you with what you need to do.

Assume that you want to add Cacti to your network, an RRD tool-based trend monitor and graphing server, including a web interface. If you would check the Forge first, you would indeed find some modules. However, let's further assume that none of them speak to you, because either the feature set or the implementation is not to your liking. If even the respective interfaces don't meet your requirements, it doesn't make much sense to base your own module on an existing...