EPSIAE » eneraptor

h1. Human Machine Interface

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h2. 1 Basic concept

h3. 1.1 Hardware

p. The HMI will will be realised as a website. It will run on an Apache Tomcat http server, which will not run on the same device as Eneraptor's logic. Instead it will run on an independent proxy server.

p=. !HMI_website_overall.png!

p. The intended server-side html generating aplication is Tomcat's Jasper, making JSP the intended website programming language.

h3. 1.2 Functions specifications

p. The actual website functions depend on what functions do the _logic_ and _archive and statistics_ modules offer. The website will require some authentication for users to access it. Two permission types are planned - _admin_ and _viewer_. Users with viewer permission will be able to review certain information, but will not be able to execute any commands that would change how the _logic_ and _archive and statistics_ modules work.

p. The planned website functions are:

p=. !HMI_website_functions.png!

_Functions marked with (?) need to be discussed._

h3. 1.3 Development steps

# Installing and configuring Apache Tomcat on a computer

# Building custom framework for the HMI website

# Using the framework to build and design the website

# Connecting the website's functions with logic's functions

h2. 2 Installing and configuring Apache Tomcat on a computer

h3. 2.1 Java and Tomcat setup

In this step we need to set up a computer, that we will use as our proxy server, which will run the Eneraptor's HMI web application. During development of the HMI web application, this was used:

| _Requirement_                     | _Used version_       |

| Server machine architecture       | Virtual x86          |

| Operating System                  | Ubuntu Server 10.10  |

| Java development kit              | openJDK-6-jdk        |

| Servlet container and http server | Apache Tomcat 6.0.29 |

In order to use Eneraptor's HMI, you will need software mentioned above. If you need some help installing Java and Tomcat, check:

[[Installing Java and Tomcat]]

After the installation, these files need to be configured:

* conf/tomcat-users.xml

h2. 3 Web application architecture (from user's point of view)

The HMI web application will look and feel much like well known Cisco Linksys home router's administration web page(attachment:Linksys_admin_page.jpg). The conceptual look of the HMI is:

!Eneraptor_GUI.png!

The functions and data on the image above are just dummies (for now). The image shows the basic application's levels:

| _Level_ | _Level name_ | _Component name_ | _Description_ |

|       1 | Sections     | Section          | The top and main menu (eg. Status, Log, Statistics, ...) |

|       2 | SubSections  | SubSection       | Every level 1 Section has it's own level 2 menu (eg. level 1 Setup has level 2 Subsections like Basic Setup, Security, ...) |

|       3 | Topics       | Topic            | Every level 2 SubSection is divided by different number of Topics (represented by black-boxed text in the left part of the image above) A Topic is a group of SubTopics |

|       4 | SubTopics    | SubTopic         | A SubTopic is a group of Tools that are dependent on each other. |

|       5 | Tools        | Tool             | Every Tool is either a text fiels, button, input box, radio button, graph, etc. It represents a single control or view object which is highly dependent on othre Tools in the same SubTopic |

To get the better feeling how the web application is structured, observe the example image above and the tree structure shown below. The tree structure shows, how a user has to navigate, in order to turn the Logic Unit's power on.

!Level_hierarchy.png!

-To achieve this, an independent open source framework is being currently built. This framework will then be used to create Eneraptor's web application.

Why use a framework?

Once we have a working framework, web application building speeds up rapidly. Patching web application and adding new features become very easy.

Why create a new Framework?

There are really many frameworks, that would be useful for our project, but they are very powerful. We want a really lightweight framework, that will be able of doing, what we need, and nothing else. And since there are many projects, that would need such a framework, we will develop it and license it as open source.

The framework's conceptual name for the time of it's development is Flat framework.-

_14. 12. 2010 update: The custom open source framework development has ben dropped. The Eneraptor's HCI is and will be simple enough, that realizing a full framework for it would require relatively too much additional time. Insted, the HMI will implement the same hierarchy described above, not a framework. Creating a custom framework could be a future project._

h2. References

# Chopra, Vivek, et al., _Professional Apache Tomcat 6_, Wrox - Wiley, 2007

# Basham, Bryan, et al., _Head First Servlets and JSP™_, O’Reilly, 2008

h2. Attachments