equip-users — EQUIP, EQUIP2 and ECT user discussion & announcements

[Equip-users] announcing EQUIP2 on sourceforge

[Chris G. <cm...@Cs...>]

I have now migrated EQUIP2 from the MRL to the EQUIP sourceforge project.
The source is now in the EQUIP CVS (modules equip2, equip2webapp and 
javatrans); there is currently one source tarball on the file downloads; 
I have added an "EQUIP general" category to the bugs and RFE trackers.
enjoy!
cheers
chris


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[Equip-users] new worldwind ect component

[Jan H. <jc...@cs...>]

Checked into CVS a new ECT component for interfacing with the windows 
version of the NASA WorldWind client ...
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

It is currently a simple hack, using explorer to redirect a worldwind 
url to the client.  It only manages urls of type worldwind://goto

According to the NASA dev roadmap for WorldWind a proper Java 
implementation should be available in the summer.  Until then, this is it.

To build:
ant worldwind
ant install

To use:
Change the property values in the 'settings' field, and set 'update' to 
true.

Cheers,

Jan

-- 
-----------------------------------
Jan Humble
E-mail: hu...@si...
	jc...@cs...
URL:    http://www.sics.se/~humble
ICQ:    25307249
-----------------------------------

[Equip-users] new release of ECT

[Stefan R. E. <sr...@Cs...>]

ECT version 0.3 is now up on the web-site 
(http://www.equator.ac.uk/technology/ect).

Compared to version 0.2, version 0.3 includes enhancements to component 
naming and to the display editor. Users can now give components multiple 
names, of which one is designated as the active name. This allows a 
component to be used as both a source and a sink in the display editor 
(the decision about which half of the display editor a component icon 
should be placed in depends upon the names that have been given to the 
component). The display editor tutorial on the web-site has therefore 
been updated. This release also includes significant improvements to the 
SMS component (allows SMS to be sent and received through a number of 
GSM devices) and minor improvements to some other components.

New javadocs have also been uploaded to the website.

Stef

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[Equip-users] new ect bluetooth proxy component

[Jan H. <jc...@cs...>]

I checked in a new bluetooth proxy for bluetooth enabled devices 
intended for simple in/out messaging. This uses the Bluecove project 
libraries.  This is an alternative to the bluetooth PART version 
previously introduced.  It should work with various midlet examples of 
Mobile Processing (http://mobile.processing.org/).

This is first attempt, so if it proves to be useful then perhaps a 
factory version and improved reliability will be introduced.

ant bluetoothdeviceproxy

Jan

-- 
-----------------------------------
Jan Humble
E-mail: hu...@si...
	jc...@cs...
URL:    http://www.sics.se/~humble
ICQ:    25307249
-----------------------------------

[Equip-users] new ect filewriter component

[Jan H. <jc...@Cs...>]

A new FileWriter component checked into CVS, it allows append or 
overwrite string input values to a specified file. Useful for logging 
outputs to a file.
To build ...
ant filewriter

Jan

-- 
-----------------------------------
Jan Humble
E-mail: hu...@si...
	jc...@cs...
URL:    http://www.sics.se/~humble
ICQ:    25307249
-----------------------------------

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[Equip-users] Re: Component not appearing in Capability Browser

[Chris G. <cm...@Cs...>]

in principle you shouldn't need to do anything else.

likelihood is (a) container (exporter gui) didn't recognise the 
component (e.g. incorrect manifest/no bean info class) or (b) an error 
occured while doing this (e.g. missing a dependent library) - need to 
check the container console output.

if it is a library dependency that is being missed you need (a) for 
webstart to make sure it is in the common (or common/ext) directory and 
(b) for runExporterGUI make sure it is also in the explicit classpath in 
that batch file.

to make life easier you could delete/move away all of the other 
component jars from the components directory to just get stuff about 
yours and see what it says (compare with ones that work, although expect 
some differences between jars with and without manifests).

cheers
chris

Justin wrote:

> Hello Chris,
>
> Thanks again for your help in getting us started. Weve come a long 
> way in the past week, and are now ready for our component to be run in 
> ECT for the first time, but weve run into an issue that we cant seem 
> to find any documentation on. In your ECT how to add a new component 
> guide, under the Running ECT with your component section, you 
> mention something about needing to export capabilities from the Java 
> container window. We cannot seem to find where this export button is, 
> or if we still need to do this. In addition, our module does indeed 
> appear in that Container window, but when we run Graph editor, the 
> component does not appear in the capabilities window. How do we 
> export capabilities for our component? Is there anything else we 
> need to do to get our module running in ECT? Thanks for any more help 
> you can provide, or documents you can point us to.
>
> Thanks again!
>
> -Andrew Stock
>
> -Justin Dellamore
>
> -Adam Zalewski
>


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[Equip-users] RTP / audio capture

[Mark P. <mc...@cs...>]

Hi,

I'm having a look at RTP and audio stuff at the moment.  Can anyone 
provide any assistance on the use of RTPChannel and RTPStation Componets?

Is there a way to capture audio through windows recording mixer or from 
an mp3 and route it through components?

Cheers,
Mark

[Equip-users] replaced rssdisplay ect component

[Jan H. <jc...@Cs...>]

replaced 'rssdisplay' component with 'rssclient'. Mainly a more accurate 
name change and some minor improvements to http proxy configuration.

Jan

-- 
-----------------------------------
Jan Humble
E-mail: hu...@si...
	jc...@cs...
URL:    http://www.sics.se/~humble
ICQ:    25307249
-----------------------------------

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[Equip-users] new websearch ect component

[Jan H. <jc...@Cs...>]

WebSearch does a google search returning the specified max number of
results, in order of relevancy by google priori.  Returns a hashtable
key-value array of results, including information such as ...
link, summary, snippet, etc.

You will need a client key to use the underlying webservice of the
google api.  I created a default one for ect-domestic, but you should
consider acquiring your own.

Cheers,

Jan

-- 
-----------------------------------
Jan Humble
E-mail: hu...@si...
	jc...@cs...
URL:    http://www.sics.se/~humble
ICQ:    25307249
-----------------------------------



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[Equip-users] ect: more improvements to graph editor

[Chris G. <cm...@Cs...>]

the latest version of the graph editor now in cvs (expect to wait a few 
hours to get access as anonymous) should successfully save, load and 
merge combined component configurations and graph editor layouts...

in other words - at last - it should be possible to develop multiple 
configurations easily, and also to share configurations.

when developing, just use "save..." to store both the graph and 
configuration state; load it back in with "load...".

To send someone a configuration of yours just send them the saved X.ect 
and X.ect.state files; the first time they should /import.../ these 
(load will just give lots of warnings about unknown things). Once it is 
imported the first time you can save from the graph editor, which will 
then be tailored to your installation and load should work ok for that.

it is also possible to save (and subsequently import) just a selected 
component, e.g. a dynamic bean shell configured with certain inputs, 
outputs and scripts, which could form the basis of a library of 
preconfigured components.

it would be good to start collecting some tutorial examples and other 
useful samples; for those with cvs write access the current place for 
these is ect/java/resources/configurations

cheers
chris

p.s. at the moment the only unimplemented thing i am aware of is 
importing virtual components (they are ignored at present), but i guess 
these are not being used much at the moment. if you find other things 
don't work then raise a bug report/rfe.



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[Equip-users] ect component classification

[Chris G. <cm...@cs...>]

i have now added a hierarchical classification facility to ect - used in 
the graph editor's capability browser;
i have initially classified all current components.
component developers can refer to ECT_Component_Guidelines.html & 
ECT_Component_Classification.html for how to specificy component 
classification and initial classifications in use.
cheers
chris

[Equip-users] merged configuration manager into graph editor

[Chris G. <cm...@cs...>]

so that load/save will also load/save dataspace state.
i'll document this more later, but hopefully easier to develop now ...?!
cheers
chris

[Equip-users] new ect components propertymapper + simplemediaviewer

[Jan H. <jc...@Cs...>]

Two new components in ect cvs.

PropertyMapper
--------------
Does simple key->value string mappings.  Mappings format is of the form:
key1=value1
key2=value2
...
keyN=valueN
Can be defined in the mappings property in this format or also be loaded 
from a file in the same format.  May introduce a better XML file format 
for more complex key/value content.

SimpleMediaViewer
-----------------
A pure java replacement for DynamoMediaViewer.  Currently supports HTML 
pages, images and a limited set of format of audio clips. Includes a 
slightly buggy but functional history mechanism.

Note: The RSSDisplay includes a variant of this browser for RSS content 
links, so I might commit a new version of RSSDisplay, removing it, but 
instead having the option to launch links on the default system web 
browser.

Jan


-- 
-----------------------------------
Jan Humble
E-mail: hu...@si...
	jc...@cs...
URL:    http://www.sics.se/~humble
ICQ:    25307249
-----------------------------------

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[Equip-users] new ect rss display component

[Jan H. <jc...@cs...>]

RSS display component checked in to CVS.

Should work with most RSS feeds, and does some rudimentary formatting to
convert the feed into a linkable webpage. Also includes a rudimentary
html browser to view links from the feed, but could be used as an HTML
viewer as well.

Currently based on rsslib4j (rsslib4j.sourceforge.net)

ant rssdisplay

Jan

PS.  This post is originally from 20050723, but repost to sourceforge 
list to be included in archives.

-- 
-----------------------------------
Jan Humble
E-mail: hu...@si...
	jc...@cs...
URL:    http://www.sics.se/~humble
ICQ:    25307249
-----------------------------------

[Equip-users] dynamic bean shell change/fix

[Chris G. <cm...@Cs...>]

has just been changed so that it will receive property values more like 
before; for the last ~week it has been receiving values in "boxed" ect 
types, and so many old scripts will not have worked. these should now be 
unboxed by default, and hopefully old scripts will work again.

in general, because bean shell properties have no explicit type, you may 
need to explicitly use ECT type conversion framework, e.g.

   String s = (String)equip.ect.Coerce.toClass(somevariable, String.class)

shows how to make sure somevariable is converted to a String value. 
Similar for Float, etc.

as usual allow ~6 hours for changes to reach anonymous CVS

ps also a bug fix in handling of dynamic properties in ect itself.

cheers
chris


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[Equip-users] ECT and phidgets again

[Chris G. <cm...@Cs...>]

I have checked in new phidget components (PhidgetRFID, PhidgetServo and 
PhidgetInterfaceKit, the later based in part on the version from sussex 
- thanks). currently there is not a factory, but this will probably be 
added at some point, so for now just make an instance of each thing you 
want to interface to.

i have taken the old phidgquip component out of the default build 
target(s) (but left it in CVS), but unless you ant clean you will need 
to remove the component explicitly from you 
installation/install/components directory.

if you are using >1 of any board type then you will need to set 
configSerialNumber for each before setting configured; otherwise just 
set configured to true and you should be away.

as usual there will probably be ~6 hours until you can get this via 
anonymous CVS

cheers
chris


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[Equip-users] added to ect: complex type support and direct dataspace pub/sub component

[Chris G. <cm...@Cs...>]

i have added support for structured types, specifically 
equip.data.DictionaryImpl, which is comparable to a java Hashtable or 
lingo property list. NB not all plausible coercions have been tested so 
shout if you find things that you don't expect (and see 
ect/java/docs/ECT_Component_Guidelines.html#Structured_types for more info)

This can be used for communicated structured information or values with 
associated metadata within ECT.

This is supported by the new dictionarymerge and dictionaryarraymerge 
components; the first combines two dictionary values into one (combining 
properties), e.g. to associated metadata with a value; the second 
combines any number of arrays into a single combined array - just make 
multiple links to the (only) value property. This also demonstrates the 
new facility to create (currently component-specific) merge properties 
using the new equip.ect.IActiveComponent interface.

I have also added a dataspaceinterface component which provides a simple 
way to put properties (dictionary values) directly into the dataspace 
and get them out by the usual dataspace pattern matching. This is a 
possible strategy for more abstract or loosely coupled communication 
between components.

some of this is reflected in updates to 
ect/java/docs/ECT_Component_Guidelines.html

cheers
chris


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[Equip-users] new option to connect a processing applet directly to ECT from the processing IDE

[Chris G. <cm...@Cs...>]

using equip.ect.ProcessingHandler; see (updated) 
ect/java/docs/Using_Processing_with_ECT.html
(excuse cross-posting)
cheers
chris


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[Equip-users] new ect arrayplayer component

[Jan H. <jc...@Cs...>]

arrayplayer component which extracts ("plays") back one element of the 
array at a time, similar to a playlist.  Options for loop, random, 
sequential, etc play.

'ant arrayplayer' to compile.

Jan

-- 
-----------------------------------
Jan Humble
E-mail: hu...@si...
	jc...@cs...
URL:    http://www.sics.se/~humble
ICQ:    25307249
-----------------------------------

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[Equip-users] new webripper ect component

[Jan H. <jc...@cs...>]

New webripper component checked into CVS.

It extracts URL raw data for parsing.  Uses regular expressions for 
pattern matching ...

Reference for allowed expressions:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html

A quick intro to reg exp:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/extra/regex/index.html
http://www.amk.ca/python/howto/regex/

Perhaps, should introduce a stand-alone reg exp filter component as well.

Jan

-- 
-----------------------------------
Jan Humble
E-mail: hu...@si...
	jc...@cs...
URL:    http://www.sics.se/~humble
ICQ:    25307249
-----------------------------------

[Equip-users] long strings problem with equip.data.StringBox

[Jan H. <jc...@cs...>]

Hi.

I am testing a web-ripping component for ect.  It potentially may 
retrieve very large chunks of web data.  On some tests I stumbled upon 
an upper limit for what seems to be writing UTF.

My guess is that there is a 64k limit, and chunks need to be divided up.

Jan


Trace (VM 1.5.0_03) ...

WARNING: ConnectionSapTcp::writeObject failed in writeObject: 
java.io.UTFDataFormatException: encoded string too long: 98160 bytes
DataDelegatePeerTCP::outputThread write object exception (terminate): 
java.io.UT
FDataFormatException: encoded string too long: 98160 bytes
java.io.UTFDataFormatException: encoded string too long: 98160 bytes
         at java.io.DataOutputStream.writeUTF(Unknown Source)
         at java.io.DataOutputStream.writeUTF(Unknown Source)
         at equip.runtime.ObjectOutputStream.writeString(Unknown Source)
         at equip.data.StringBox.writeObject(Unknown Source)
         at equip.runtime.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject(Unknown Source)
         at equip.data.Tuple.writeObject(Unknown Source)
         at equip.runtime.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject(Unknown Source)
         at equip.data.UpdateEvent.writeObject(Unknown Source)
         at equip.runtime.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject(Unknown Source)
         at equip.net.ConnectionSapTcp.writeObjectLocked(Unknown Source)
         at equip.net.ConnectionSap.writeObject(Unknown Source)
         at equip.data.DataDelegatePeerTCP.run(Unknown Source)
         at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
WARNING: ConnectionSapTcp::readObject failed in readObject: 
java.net.SocketExcep
tion: Software caused connection abort: recv failed
-- 
-----------------------------------
Jan Humble
E-mail: hu...@si...
	jc...@cs...
URL:    http://www.sics.se/~humble
ICQ:    25307249
-----------------------------------