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https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swish

SWI-Prolog for SHaring: a SWI-Prolog web IDE
https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swish

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SWI-Prolog for SHaring: a SWI-Prolog web IDE

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README 

        
# SWISH: A web based SWI-Prolog environment



There are three ways to use SWISH, which we list in increasing order of

complexity:



  1. [Use the online version](#online-versions)

  2. [Deploy the Docker image](#docker-image)

  3. [Install locally](#local-installation)



## Online versions



SWISH can be used to access [SWI-Prolog](http://www.swi-prolog.org) at

the address below. We try to keep this server continuously online. You

can use these servers for playing, courses or sharing and discussing

ideas.



  - https://swish.swi-prolog.org/ (plain Prolog and R)

  - http://cplint.ml.unife.it/ (probabilistic and machine learning

    extensions)

  - http://lpsdemo.interprolog.com/example/FirstStepswithLPS.swinb

    (Logic Production Systems)



We have not yet dealt with scalable hosting nor with really reliable and

scalable storage for saved programs. We hope to keep all your programs

online for at least multiple years.



## Docker image



We maintain [Docker](https://hub.docker.com) images at the [swipl

organization at Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com/u/swipl/).  A

bluffer's guide to run SWISH with R if you have Docker installed

is as simple as this:



    docker run -d --net=none --name=rserve swipl/rserve

    docker run -d -p 3050:3050 --volumes-from rserve -v $(pwd):/data swipl/swish



There are many configuration options for SWISH, notably for

authentication, email notifications and extension plugins. See the

[docker-swish](https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/docker-swish) repo for

details.



## Local installation



### Get submodules



`cd` to your swish root directory and run



    git submodule update --init



If you have `make` installed you  can   configure  the  desired packs by

editing the `PACKS` variable and run the  following to download them and

configure those that need to be configured.



    make packs



### Get JavaScript requirements



#### Using Yarn



Install [Yarn](https://yarnpkg.com) for your platform.   On Ubuntu, this

implies getting `node` and `npm` by installing two packages and next use

`npm` to install `yarn` (some older  Linux versions need `nodejs-legacy`

instead of `nodejs`):



    sudo apt install npm nodejs

    sudo npm i yarn -g



Once you have `yarn`, run the following from the toplevel of `swish` to

get the dependencies:



    yarn

    make src



#### Download as zip



As installing node and yarn is not a pleasure on all operating systems,

you can also download  the  dependencies  as   a  single  zip  file from

http://www.swi-prolog.org/download/swish/swish-node-modules.zip.

Unpack the zip file, maintaining the directory structure, from the swish

root directory to create the directory web/node_modules. If you have

`make` installed you can install the above `.zip` file using



    make yarn-zip



Last updated: Dec 16, 2019: upgraded dependencies, new archive name



### Get the latest SWI-Prolog



Install the latest  [SWI-Prolog](http://www.swi-prolog.org) _development

version_. As SWISH is very  much  in   flux  and  depends  on the recent

SWI-Prolog pengines and sandboxing libraries, it   is  quite common that

you            need            the             [nightly            build

(Windows)](http://www.swi-prolog.org/download/daily/bin/) or build   the

system    from    the     current      git     development    repository

[swipl-devel.git](https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel).



Apr 25, 2019: Works for a quite large range of SWI-Prolog versions.

The current swipl-devel.git snapshot fixes an issue in CSV downloading,

emitting CORS and cache control HTTP headers near the end of the CSV

output.



### Other dependencies



Rendering Prolog terms [as

graphs](https://swish.swi-prolog.org/example/render_graphviz.swinb)

requires [Graphviz](https://www.graphviz.org/). The avatar system

requires the `convert` utility from

[ImageMagic](https://www.imagemagick.org). These are available as

packages for virtually any Linux system, e.g., on Debian based systems

do



    sudo apt-get install imagemagick

    sudo apt-get install graphviz



## Running SWISH



With a sufficiently recent Prolog installed, start the system by opening

`run.pl` either by running `swipl  run.pl`   (Unix)  or opening `run.pl`

from the Windows explorer.



Now direct your browser to http://localhost:3050/



If you want  to  know  what  the   latest  version  looks  like,  go  to

https://swish.swi-prolog.org/



### Configuring SWISH



There is a lot that can be configured in SWISH.  Roughly:



  - Make additional libraries available, e.g., RDF support, database

    connections, link to R, etc.



  - Configure authentication and authorization.  The default is not

    to demand and run commands sandboxed.  At the other extreme you

    can configure the system to demand login for all access and provide

    full access to Prolog.



Configuration is done  by  reading  `*.pl`   files  from  the  directory

`config-enabled`. The directory `config-available`   contains  templates

that can be copied and optionally edited to create a configuration.



See [README.md in

config-available](https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/swish/tree/master/config-available)

for details.



### Running SWISH without sandbox limitations



By default, SWISH does not require the user   to  login but lets you run

only _safe_ commands.  If  you  want   to  use  SWISH  for  unrestricted

development, enable the config file `auth_http_always.pl`:



    mkdir -p config-enabled

    (cd config-enabled && ln -s ../config-available/auth_http_always.pl)



Next, for first usage, you need  to   create  a user. The authentication

module defines swish_add_user/0, which asks for   details about the user

to be created and updates or  creates   a  file  called `passwd`. At the

moment _Group_ and _E-Mail_ are stored, but not used.



    ?- swish_add_user.

    % Password file: /home/jan/src/prolog/swish/passwd (update)

    User name: bob

    Real name: Bob Hacker

    Group:     user

    E-Mail:    [email protected]

    Password:

    (again):

    true.



If you now try to run a command in  SWISH, it will prompt for a user and

password. After authentication you can run any Prolog predicate.



**NOTE** Authentication uses HTTP _digest   authentication_  by default.

This authentication method uses a   challenge-response  method to verify

the password and ensures the credentials  change with every request such

that old credentials cannot be re-used   by  an attacker. Unfortunately,

the server stores the password as the   SHA1 hash created from the user,

password and _realm_.  This  is   relatively  vulnerable  to brute-force

attacks for anyone who gains access to the  password file due to the low

computational overhead of SHA1 and the   lack of a user-specific _salt_.

Also note that the exchanged  commands   and  replies are not encrypted.

Secure servers should use HTTPS.



### Optional login



Instead of using `auth_http_always.pl` you can use `auth_http.pl`, which

allows for unauthenticated -sandboxed- usage as   well  as logging in to

the server and get unrestricted  access.   In  addition, several _social

login_ modules are provided to login  using Google, etc. Currently these

provide no additional rights. A more   fine grained authorization scheme

is planned.



## Running as a service



The script daemon.pl is provided to run SWISH  as a service or daemon on

Unix systems. Run this to get an overview of the options.



    ./daemon.pl --help



This script can be used to start  SWISH   as  a  daemon from the command

line, start SWISH from service managers   such as `upstart` or `systemd`

and    simplifies    running    as     an      HTTPS     server.     See

https://github.com/triska/letswicrypt.



## Running SWISH as additional local IDE



You can run SWISH alongside your   normal  Prolog development tools. The

cleanest way to do so is by using  `myswish.pl` and install this in your

local Prolog library. See `myswish.pl` for details   on  how to set this

up.



## Design



Most of the application is realised  using client-side JavaScript, which

can be found  in  the  directory   `web/js`.  The  JavaScript  files use

[RequireJS](http://requirejs.org/)   for   dependency     tracking   and

[jQuery](https://jquery.com/) for structuring the   JavaScript  as jQuery

plugins. The accompanying CSS is in   `web/css`.  More details about the

organization of the JavaScript is in `web/js/README.md`



There are two overal pages. `web/swish.html`  provides a static page and

`lib/page.pl` provides a Prolog frontend to  generate the overal page or

parts thereof dynamically. The latter   facilitates smoothless embedding

in SWI-Prolog web applications.



## Development and debugging



No building is needed  to  run  the   system  from  sources.  For public

installations you probably want to create   the  minified JavaScript and

CSS files to reduce network traffic and startup time. You need some more

tools for that:



    % sudo npm install -g jsdoc

    % sudo npm install -g requirejs

    % sudo npm install -g clean-css-cli

    % sudo npm install -g uglify-js



You also need GNU make installed as   `make`  and SWI-Prolog as `swipl`.

With all that in  place,  the   following  command  creates the minified

versions:



    % make min



The default main page (`/`)  is   generated  from `lib/page.pl`. It uses

minified    JavaScript    and    CSS      from     `web/js/swish-min.js`

`web/css/swish-min.css` when available. If the   minified  files are not

present,  the  server  automatically  includes   the  full  source.  The

generated files may be removed using



    make clean



Alternatively, use of the minified  files   can  be  disable from Prolog

using this command and reloading the page:



    ?- debug(nominified).



## Documentation



The JavaScript is documented   using  [JsDoc](http://usejsdoc.org/). The

generated documentation is available in `web/js/doc/index.html`.