Deferring to post-1.0.

cPAddon scripts are a completely different packaging method for new installs and upgrades. And to distribute addons, we'd need to set up a cPanel Sync Server.

Other points to consider:

1. What are the benefits to Piwik?
2. What is CPanel's current exposure? (No. of users etc...)
3. Need to understand CPanel API, standards, pre-reqs and guidelines etc...
4. Design/Dev/Test stage (Skills and resources required)
5. Market CPAddon to CPanel community.
6. As we progress inform Piwik/CPanel community via Piwik Blog.
7. Once complete update Piwik main website.
8. Technical documentation.

one of the requirement (if possible) would be to keep such integration as automated as possible. I have not researched what steps need to be taken after the initial checkin, but when we release a new Piwik version, ideally there would be no manual work necessary to get the new version compatible with cPanel (assuming of course that the cPanel API doesn't change in between)

I'm happy to make contact and liaise with Jeff from Heavenlyhostnet.net to make this happen but would definitely require some technical assistance with the scripting/coding side of things and of course an initial evaluation whether Matt's requirement for automation is possible.

Thank you guys for taking this one on. I am not a scripter or coder but can certainly ask some friends to help out. I put my own servers at your disposal for any testing that would need to be done.

Jeff

(Disclaimer: Brain dump ahead.)

How tightly do/can we integrate with cPanel?

• Can we add Piwik to the cPanel screen (next to all the log file analyzers)?
• Can we set it up so clicking on the icon would auto-login into Piwik (ala SSO)?
• When adding domains/subdomains in cPanel, can it call Piwik's SitesManager API (addSite)?
• Can we set-up an alias such that the user's domains/subdomains share a single Piwik installation?

Do we (want to) bypass Piwik's installer? Doing so means:

• moving DDL into a separate file
• no system/database check
• coming up with sane defaults for the superuser account and first web site

At minimum, the addon script could take care of:

• creating the database; saving the database connection info to a file
• creating folders and setting permissions appropriately (eg for phpsuexec php-cgi, writable directories would be 0700)

Other:

• For updates, do we repackage DML SQL into external files?
• Do we need to setup a cPanel sync server? What are the requirements, effort, costs to do so?

Some more brain dump coming...

• @vipsoft... all good points!
• to proceed with Piwik/CPanel integration we need both Piwik and CPanel technical skills involved.
• obviously we have the Piwik skills within the team but not so with CPanel.
• the question then arises: do we pickup CPanel skills oursleves or do we find someone with the required skill set to help out?
• if we decide to recruit some help then: do we try and engage an existing volunteer from within the Piwik community or advertise externally - eg: Marketing and Community Coordinator role.
• perhaps we might like to start a "job board" - to engage specific skill sets from within the Piwik community or even from outside.
• this "job board" could come under the current "Contribute" page/section of the site.
• and of course we blog/tweet when advertising.

end of brain dump =

Robert, do you think you can ask cPanel or research their online documentation to find as many answers as possible to Anthon's questions? Once we have more info, we can maybe see if we need specific skills or if we can handle it ourselves. Maybe contacting cPanel would be useful?

The questions... a bit too technical for me. Although I've been around for a few years - remember guys that website dev and backend stuff is relatively new to me - learning as I go so to speak.
Anthon - any chance of helping out?

Not sure if this will help or not but cpanel actually encourages the developement of 3rd party software and plugins. I have copied a bit of text from their site for you.

You want to automate or customize cPanel, what should you do?

Before beginning your project, I recommend that you ask for guidance. Our Developer Discussions forum is located at http://forums.cpanel.net/developer-discussions.html. Here, you can learn from the experience of others who have written similar applications and apply their insight to your project.

However, we understand you may be bound by non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and may not want to discuss your project publicly. In such cases, you can contact our technical analysts by visiting http://tickets.cPanel.net/submit.

Talking to us for a few hours can save your team days or even weeks of development time. We can pinpoint the exact documentation you need to reference to accomplish your task. Utilizing our resources allow you to learn how to perform the task in a way that will work through many cPanel updates and upgrades.

Our staff understands the atmosphere of non-disclosure agreements and information sensitivity. However, the more you can tell us about what you wish to accomplish (even in vague terms), the better we can assist you. We love helping people and we strongly encourage you to come to us for assistance.

I sent an email to cpanel. Hopefully they will reply and follow up!