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https://github.com/sylvainhalle/beepbeepconsole

Web browser front-end for the BeepBeep runtime monitor
https://github.com/sylvainhalle/beepbeepconsole

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Web browser front-end for the BeepBeep runtime monitor

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README 

        
BeepBeep Console: A Graphical Front-End for the BeepBeep Monitor

================================================================



(User Manual, version 2013-07-04)



**WARNING:** These instructions are still under construction!



Table of contents                                                    {#toc}

-----------------



- [Installation](#install)

- [Setting up a proxy](#proxy)

- [Starting BeepBeep](#start)



Installation                                                     {#install}

------------



First make sure you have the following installed:



- [BeepBeep](http://beepbeep.sourceforge.net), the runtime monitor whose

  present tool is a GUI front-end for. There is not much point in using

  BeepBeep Console if you don't have BeepBeep. Please refer to its own

  documentation for installation instructions and a tutorial on what is

  runtime monitoring.

- A web server. Any modern web server will do, although the present

  instructions will provide examples using [Apache](http://apache.org).

- A web browser with JavaScript enabled. The BeepBeep console should work

  without any trouble in most modern browsers, but has only been thoroughly

  tested with Mozilla Firefox.



Clone the repository; on the command line, this can be done by typing:



    git clone [email protected]:sylvainhalle/BeepBeepConsole.git



Move the contents of the `Source` folder into the folder of your choice

under the web server's home directory. If Apache is the web server, this

directory may be located at `/var/www`, or into some folder called `htdocs`.

Please refer to the documentation of your web server to know where its home

directory is. In the following, we assume that the files for BeepBeep

Console are located in a folder called `beepbeepconsole` under the server's

home directory.



You can then test that the console has been installed correctly by opening

a web browser and typing the following in the URL bar:



    http://localhost/beepbeepconsole



Replace `localhost` by the IP address (or domain name) of the web server, if

you are not connected to it directly.



Setting up a proxy                                                 {#proxy}

------------------



The previous installation steps correctly placed the console on the web

server, but the console is not yet ready to interact with a running instance

of the BeepBeep monitor. Because of browsers' [Same-Origin

Policy](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Same_origin_policy_for_JavaScript)

(SOP), a web application typically cannot send Ajax requests to a server

different from the one hosting the page where the script resides --or even

to the same server, but on a different port number. Therefore, even if the

BeepBeep console is hosted on `localhost`, and BeepBeep itself runs on

`localhost` listening to port 7778, the BeepBeep console *can't* communicate

with BeepBeep --the browser forbids it.



A nice workaround to this problem has been described on

[StackOverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2099728/how-do-i-send-an-ajax-request-on-a-different-port-with-jquery).

It consists of setting up a very simple reverse proxy (using `mod_proxy` if

you are on Apache). This would allow you to use relative paths in your Ajax

request, while the HTTP server would be acting as a proxy to any "remote"

location. To install the proxy functionality, one must enable the modules

`proxy` and `proxy_http` in the Apache configuration, which come with

default Apache installtions. This is relatively straightforward using the

`a2enmod` command:



    a2enmod proxy

    a2enmod proxy_http



The fundamental configuration directive to set up a reverse proxy in

mod_proxy is `ProxyPass`. You would typically use it as follows:



    ProxyPass     /beepbeep/     http://localhost:7778/



Adding this directive in the server's configuration file (such has

`.htaccess`) will make sure that any request of the form

`http://localhost/beepbeep/xyz` will be proxied to

`http://localhost:7778/xyz`, and the result transferred back to the

requestor. (Under Ubuntu, you may also add this directive to the file

`/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default`.) As a matter of fact, the BeepBeep

console's default settings expects BeepBeep's REST interface to be

accessible *exactly* at that location.



[Back to top](#toc)



Starting BeepBeep                                                  {#start}

-----------------



The console is now ready to communicate with an instance of the BeepBeep

runtime monitor. To do so, BeepBeep must be started by enabling the REST

interface, which can be done using the `--rest` command line switch and

providing the TCP port it should listen to.



In the directory where the BeepBeep .jar file is located, this is done by

typing a command that looks like this:



    java -jar BeepBeep.jar -p /tmp/beepbeep.pipe --rest 7778 formula.ltlfo



If the command is successful, BeepBeep should start and display a message

like



    REST interface started on port 7778



indicating it is now listening on that port for HTTP requests. (The reader

is referred to [BeepBeep's documentation](http://beepbeep.sourceforge.net/)

for detailed information about the meaning of command line parameters.)



From now on, many operations on that running instance of BeepBeep (adding

new monitors, resetting monitors, displaying each monitor's statistics) can

be done through the graphical user interface that the BeepBeep Console

provides you.



[Back to top](#toc)



(To be continued.)