Web front-end

[Rick Martin]

I know this has been asked before, as I’ve read previous postings.  I’m looking into creating a web front-end to allow our operations group to monitor status and start/stop processes and threads.

We are on a Windows platform.  Can someone who’s done this give some pointers on where to start?  The programming of the web pages isn’t an issue; it’s how to connect up to the engine for information and commands/responses.  It would be much easier if there was a programmable API into the engine.

Thanks! Rick

Topic

[James Cobane]

Rick,

Take a look at the ‘msi’ extensions available to you within Cloverleaf.

[Anonymous]

We have developed a front end for our operations group.  We included functionality to stop/start threads, and view log files.  We are also using this web page to support interfaces remotely.

Not to brag, but it’s pretty slick, so I’m sure you can do the same.

[Rick Martin]

Hi all,

So are most people using hcitcl as the CGI provider?  If so, how do you get the environment variables setup?  If I make hcitcl the CGI provider, I get “Environment var ‘HCISITEDIR’ missing.

Thanks, Rick

[John Harvey]

Ok, this stuff sounds interesting.  I’m pretty new to TCl, 6 months into Quovadx,  and I’m starting to educate myself with ASP.NET, so where would one such as myself even BEGIN to start?

[Anonymous]

Well, first of all, you have to have a web server on your Cloverleaf box.  There may be some way to do it with a separate web server, but I couldn’t tell you how to do it.

I could not for the life of me figure out how to get tcl to act as the server-side scripting of the web server, so as a work around I am calling .cgi scripts from the web page, then tcl from the cgi.  Does that make sense?  That’s how we’re doing it.

I use a combination of msi, hciconnstatus, hcicmd, and probably some others to do everything we’re doing.  We have also implemented a “port tracker” into the web page that let’s us see what ports are on what threads, it’ll get the next available port, stuff like that.

If I had the time, I would really like to do a redesign – I think I could do better, but then again, there are lots of things I wish I had time to do.

[Jonathan Hamilton]

The best option I have found over the last 6 years is to run a remote web server that supports Tcl based cgi scripting.  Currently, I use Apache for both Windows and Unix installations since the code is very similar for the two (you only change the language declaration at the top).  I have in the past used IIS on Windows Servers but didn’t care for the painful setup that was required for non-standard cgi scripting languages (i.e. Tcl).

On the Cloverleaf servers I use a Tcl thin client that is triggered by inetd on a specified port.  The cgi-scripts in the web server can then communicate with any number of Cloverleaf servers using simple socket communications.

The typical cycle I use goes like this:

   user requests cgi url through web server.

   cgi script runs in Tcl and opens socket to inetd service on Cloverleaf server.

   Inetd service executes Tcl thin client.

   cgi script writes a command string to the socket.

   Tcl thin client reads command string from the socket, interprets, then executes the command.

   Tcl thin client writes command result(s) to socket and waits for next command.

   cgi script reads socket and sends next command (incl. quit or exit to terminate the session)

   cgi script processes results and writes HTML output to the browser.

This is easily done in Perl as well.  While it is possible to do it in ASP.NET it was a real pain when I attempted it.

The nice part about using a Tcl thin client on the Cloverleaf server is you can use other applications besides cgi to interact with the information.  For example, I display Cloverleaf server states in my Outlook Today window.

Regardless of how you run the script, the most important thing to know is the MSI extensions in hcitcl.  These will allow you to get the statistical information from the shared memory.  Make sure you use a catch on the msiAttach, ‘catch {msiAttach}’, when you connect to the shared memory.  From there its just list and keyed list processing.

Here’s a little headstart:

catch {msiAttach}

netconfig load

set processList [netcfgGetProcList]

set threadStats [msiGetStatSample $thread]

set threadDef [netcfgGetConnData $thread]

if {![keylget threadStats ALIVE tStatus]} {set tStatus 0}

if {![keylget threadStats PSTATUS pStatus]} {set pStatus “dead”}

…

Here is a link to another thread with a screen shot of what we currently use at HCA for 9 Cloverleaf servers and ~430 sites.  http://clovertech.infor.com/viewtopic.php?t=361&highlight=

[Charlie Bursell]

FWIW, one of the sessions I will be doing at the UG this year is on this subject.

In it, I will tell you how to use Tcl with Apache or IE.  I also cover other aspects of interfacing Cloverleaf to a Web Server.

This session does not get into Cloverleaf as a cliet, i.e., http, etc but mostly into interfacing Cloverleaf with the server using TCP/IP and/or Fileset/Local.

Maybe its a good reason for you to come?

[Rick Martin]

Hi Charlie,

Is it possible for you to share your presentation for this session with those of us that were unable to attend this years UG?

Thanks, Rick

[Charlie Bursell]

I don’t know Rick.  Would it be fair to those that paid for it?

I try not to get into the bean counting side of things but I don’t want to do anything wrong either.  I would rather not post stuff like this in the public domain.  Maybe one of the attendees could publish it.

Check with your Account Manager.  Maybe they can get you a copy.

[Rick Martin]

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for the reply.  Of course it would be fair.  The folks that were able to attend the conference paid to attend, interact and experience things first hand, not for the exclusive rights to the material presented.  Other large corporate user groups (like Microsoft) typically publish material for the general public after their conferences are complete.

Publishing the UG presentations for Clovertechers is not publishing them to the public domain – the folks here have purchased the product and are paying maintenance on them.

I will check with our Account Manager, but I think the entire UG content should be made readily available to the Clovertech community.

Thanks, Rick

[Brian Goad]

I agree Rick. I also would like to see the UG presentations.

Brian

[Author]

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