Questions and problems

[Gayland Gump <gumpg@pacifier.com>]

I have recently downloaded and installed NorthStar.  Thus far I have
managed to get it working after a fashion but have encountered a variety
of problems.  I am writing to get a sense of how many users are actually
using this software and it's reliability and level of community support.

The documentation appears to be somewhat out of step with the
application as the download did not appear to match the installation
instructions accurately though close enough that I was able to get it
running.

Currently I am unable to add network addresses to the system.  My
examination of the NorthStar.postgresql.sql file suggest that there is a
mismatch in the number of arguments expected and the number of arguments
supplied in the line that initializes the networks table.  The symptom
of this was a false error for a pg_atoi conversion error on one of the
timestamp variables when I manually executed the initialization line
from within psql.

Furthermore, the author may have changed the type for the network
variable from CIDR to a Numeric(40,0) type recently, yet the default
initialization entry for the network table, is in CIDR format and
presents as "ERROR:  Bad numeric input format '0.0.0.0/0'" when the
initialization sql is presented via psql.

I am concerned that further efforts to get this software running may
lead to further revelations and ultimately prove to be a significant
obstacle to useful use of the software.

My application also requires significant additional information be
tracked.  I have attempted to use the software to add templates and
define additional fields.  The documentation indicates that I should be
able to edit these field definitions, (they are not yet populated with
any data) but the documented edit buttons appear to be missing.    I am
curious as to if anyone has modified the system through the addition of
additional tables to the database.  It is not entirely clear to me yet
if I can actually sufficiently extend the software to fulfill my needs
using the mechanisms available.

I am praying and hoping for a speedy response to my questions and
perhaps an opportunity to dialog with anyone regarding thier experience
with the NorthStar software.

Thanks in advance,

Gayland Gump
ggump@pacifier.net
gumpg@pacifier.com