indiweb 0.2.0

A simple web application to manage INDI server

INDI Web Manager

INDI Web Manager is a simple Web Application to manage INDI Server.

It supports multiple driver profiles along with optional custom remote drivers. It can be used to start INDI server locally, and also to connect or chain to remote INDI servers.

The Web Application is based on Bottle Py micro-framework. It has a built-in webserver and by default listens on port 8624.

Installation

Before installing the indiweb package, make sure the INDI library is installed on the target system.

You can install the indiweb Python package using pip:

$ pip install indiweb

You may want to install it system-wide, only in your user account or even into a virtual environment (if you are a developer).

If you want to install it system-wide, you will have to invoke pip with superuser rights:

$ sudo pip install indiweb

Usage

After installing the indiweb package, the command indi-web will be available in your sytem PATH.

You can obtain help about the indi-web command by invoking:

$ indi-web -h

The INDI Web Manager runs as a standalone web server. It can be started manually by invoking:

$ indi-web -v

Then using your favorite web browser, go to http://localhost:8624 if the INDI Web Manager is running locally. If the INDI Web Manager is installed on a remote system, simply replace localhost with the hostname or IP address of the remote system.

Auto Start

If you selected any profile as Auto Start then the INDI server shall be automatically started when the service is executed at start up.

Auto Connect

Similary to Auto Start, Auto Connect would connect all the drivers after the server is up and running.

Start vs. Connect

What is the difference between starting a driver and connecting a driver?

• Start: The INDI server executes the driver. The driver starts up and provide a list of properties. It does not establish connection with the physical device.
• Connect: Establish connection to the physical device.

Systemd configuration

The provided file indiwebmanager.service is an example systemd service file that can be used to run indi-web at startup as pi user. If your username is different please edit the file and change the username first.

Indiwebmanager must be installed system-wide:

sudo pip install indiweb

Copy your preferred service file to /etc/systemd/system:

sudo cp indiwebmanager.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/indiwebmanager.service

Now configure systemd to load the service file during boot:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable indiwebmanager.service

Finally, reboot the system for your changes to take effect:

sudo reboot

After startup, check the status of the INDI Web Manager service:

sudo systemctl status indiwebmanager.service

If all appears OK, you can start using the Web Application using any browser.

Profiles

The Web Application provides a default profile to run simulator drivers. To use a new profile, add the profile name and then click the plus button. Next, select which drivers to run under this particular profile. After selecting the drivers, click the Save icon to save all your changes. To enable automatic startup of INDI server for a particular profile when the device boots up or when invoked manually via the systemctl command, check the Auto Start checkbox.

API

INDI Web Manager provides a RESTful API to control all aspects of the application. Data communication is via JSON messages. All URLs are appended to the hostname:port running the INDI Web Manager.

INDI Server Methods

Get Server Status

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/server/status	GET	INDI server status (running or not)	{'server': bool, 'active_profile': profile_name}

Example: curl http://localhost:8624/api/server/status Reply: [{"status": "False"}, {"active_profile": ""}]

Start Server

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/server/<name>/start	POST	None	[]

Where name is the equipment profile name to start.

Example: curl -X POST http://localhost:8624/api/server/start/Simulators Reply: None

Stop Server

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/server/stop	POST	None	[]

Get running drivers list

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/server/drivers	GET	Returns an array for all the locally running drivers

The format is as following:

• Name: Driver name. If no label is specified, the driver uses this default name.
• Label: If specified, set the driver name to this label.
• Skeleton: XML Skeleton path which is used by some drivers (e.g. EQMod)
• Version: Driver version.
• Binary: Executable driver binary
• Family: Category of driver (Telescopes, CCDs, Domes..etc)
• Custom: True if the driver is custom, false otherwise

Example: curl http://localhost:8624/api/server/drivers Reply: [{"name": "Telescope Simulator", "label": "Telescope Simulator", "skeleton": null, "version": "1.0", "binary": "indi_simulator_telescope", "family": "Telescopes", "custom": false}, {"name": "CCD Simulator", "label": "CCD Simulator", "skeleton": null, "version": "1.0", "binary": "indi_simulator_ccd", "family": "CCDs", "custom": false}, {"name": "Focuser Simulator", "label": "Focuser Simulator", "skeleton": null, "version": "1.0", "binary": "indi_simulator_focus", "family": "Focusers", "custom": false}]

Profiles

Add new profile

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/profiles/<name>	POST	None	None

To add a profile named foo:

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST http://localhost:8624/api/profiles/foo

Delete profile

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/profiles/<name>	DELETE	None	None

To delete a profile named foo:

curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8624/api/profiles/foo

Get All Profiles

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/profiles	GET	Returns all profiles	[{"port": number, "id": ID, "autostart": number, "name": profile_name}, ...]

Example: curl http://localhost:8624/api/profiles Reply: [{"port": 7624, "id": 1, "autostart": 0, "autoconnect": 0, "name": "Simulators"}, {"port": 7624, "id": 2, "autostart": 0, "name": "EQ5"}]

Get One Profile

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/profiles/<name>	GET	Returns one Profile

Example: curl http://localhost:8624/api/profiles/Simulators Reply: {"id": 1, "name": "Simulators", "port": 7624, "autostart": 0, "autoconnect": 0}

Update One Profile

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/profiles/<name>	PUT	Update profile info (port, autostar, autoconnect)

Example: curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -X PUT -d '{"port":9000,"autostart":1,"autoconnect":0}' http://localhost:8624/api/profiles/Simulators Reply: None

Save drivers to profile

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/profiles/<name>/drivers	POST	Save local and remote drivers to a profile.

If profile does not exist, it is created. It expects an array of drivers.

• Local drivers must define the label attribute.
• Remote drivers must define the remote attribute.

For example: [{"label":"Pegasus UPB"},{"remote":"[e-mail]"}]

To add the drivers above to a profile named My Obs, we call the following. Example: curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -X POST -d '[{"label":"Pegasus UPB"},{"remote":"[e-mail]"}]' http://localhost:8624/api/profiles/My%20Obs/drivers Reply: None

Drivers

List all Groups

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/drivers/groups	GET	Get the driver categories

Example: curl http://localhost:8624/api/drivers/groups Reply: ["Adaptive Optics", "Agent", "Auxiliary", "CCDs", "Detectors", "Domes", "Filter Wheels", "Focusers", "Spectrographs", "Telescopes", "Weather"]

List all drivers

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/drivers	GET	Get all the drivers information

Example: curl http://localhost:8624/api/drivers Reply: [{"name": "AAG Cloud Watcher", "label": "AAG Cloud Watcher", "skeleton": null, "version": "1.4", "binary": "indi_aagcloudwatcher", "family": "Weather", "custom": false}, {"name": "ASI EFW", "label": "ASI EFW", "skeleton": null, "version": "0.9", "binary": "indi_asi_wheel", "family": "Filter Wheels", "custom": false}.....]

Start specific driver

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/drivers/start/<label>	POST	Start a specific driver if INDI server is already running.

All spaces must be encoded with %20 as per URI standards.

Example: http://localhost:8624/api/drivers/start/Pegasus%20UPB Reply: None

Stop specific driver

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/drivers/stop/<label>	POST	Stop a specific driver if INDI server is already running.

All spaces must be encoded with %20 as per URI standards.

Example: http://localhost:8624/api/drivers/stop/Pegasus%20UPB Reply: None

Restart specific driver

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/drivers/restart/<label>	POST	Restart a specific driver if INDI server is already running.

All spaces must be encoded with %20 as per URI standards.

Example: http://localhost:8624/api/drivers/restart/Pegasus%20UPB Reply: None

System Commands

Reboot the system

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/system/reboot	POST	Reboot the system on which the INDI server is running.

The driver and indi server are closed.

Example: http://localhost:8624/api/system/reboot Reply: None

Poweroff the system

URL	Method	Return	Format
/api/system/poweroff	POST	powers off the system on which the INDI server is running.

The driver and indi server are closed.

Example: http://localhost:8624/api/system/poweroff Reply: None

Development

To run indiweb directly from the source directory make sure prerequisits are installed and use:

python3 -m indiweb.main

Authors

Jasem Mutlaq ([e-mail])

Juan Menendez ([e-mail])