For expandability and to promote more/better GUIs for zoneminder why not make it easier to get data like # of cams ,events, and cams status. Only because I have seen most GUIs need mysql port open witch is kinda a hazard to open up or cumbersome to tunnle via ssh.
XML I suggest because it seems to be relatively easy to use.
XML Data Grab
Maybe take it just a bit further with xml-rpc. I have thought about this many times, just have to many projects gong at the moment to give it a go my self.
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/XML-RPC-HOWTO.html
http://xmlrpc-c.sourceforge.net/
and for James:
http://www.xml-rpc.net/
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/XML-RPC-HOWTO.html
http://xmlrpc-c.sourceforge.net/
and for James:
http://www.xml-rpc.net/