jan. 30th, 2015kit seminar, paul scherrer institute, switzerland the electronic logbook elog and its...

Jan. 30th, 2015KIT Seminar,

Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland

The electronic logbook ELOG and its utilization for accelerator operations

Stefan Ritt

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• Part 1• Quick demo• Design principles of ELOG• Advanced features: Automatic

entries, Checklists, Mirroring• Part 2• ELOG @ PSI for accelerator

operation

Agenda


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• MIDAS DAQ system developed in 1996-• Originally for PIBETA experiment @ PSI• First system with web interface

• Need for electronic logbook• Searchable• Easy to copy/distribute• Remote access

• Birth of ELOG• First was integral part of MIDAS system• Standalone version in 2001• 83 Releases 1.0.0 – 3.0.0 (current)

(elog/doc/ChangeLog)

A bit of history


Version 1.8.3, released August 8, 2001--------------------------------------

- Fixed problems occurring under Red Hat 7.1- modified mserver.c to run under xinetd- put xinetd configuration info into INSTALL file- added /Custom tree in ODB for mhttpd to display user-specific pages- standalone elogd program included for offline logbook display- added mail notification in elog in mhttpd

OPEN SOURCE PACKAGE

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• Web access• Reachable from any computer with Web Browser• Monolithic C(++) program

• Faster than interpreted languages• Needs less memory, runs nicely on Raspberry PI• Does not depend on Web servers• No dependency of external libraries

(except SSL and Kerberos)• Simple to compile and install

• Recent extensions in JavaScript

• “Designed by user”• Only contains features that are needed• (Most) needed features are contained

• Configurable• Can be electronic logbook, discussion forum, bug tracker, …• Huge number of configuration options• Some will be covered in this seminar

Basic principles of ELOG


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• Simple text database• Relational databases (mySQL) were not available or were

“heavy” back in 2001• Database cannot get corrupt• Database can be edited with ASCII editor (by “experts”)• Many people use scripting tools to analyze or modify ELOG

databases• Attachments as files

• Data storage with one file per day YYMMDDa.log• Can make easy backups $ cp 14????a.log /backup• Recent change with one

subdirectory per year

2013/13*a.log2014/14*a.log…

ELOG Database


$@MID@$: 1Date: Thu Nov 08 18:37:57 2001Author: Stefan RittType: RoutineCategory: GeneralSubject: WelcomeAttachment: Encoding: ELCode========================================[B]Congratulations for installing ELOG sucessfully![/B]

This is a demo entry to ensure the elogd server is working correctly. Click [I]"New"[/I] to add new pages and [I]"Delete"[/I] to delete this page.

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Different “faces”


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• Configuration via single text file, editable through web browser• Total of 149 settings and 41 flags• Documented on one huge page:

http://midas.psi.ch/elog/config.html

Configuration Concepts


[global]port = 8080

[demo]Theme = defaultComment = General Linux Tips & TricksAttributes = Author, Type, Category, SubjectOptions Type = Routine, Problem Fixed, Configuration, OtherOptions Category = General, Hardware, Software, Network, OtherRequired Attributes = Author, TypeQuick filter = Date, TypeReverse sort = 1. . .

Server options valid for all logbooks

Logbook

Attributes

Flag

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• Attributes are values common to all entries in a logbook, like “columns” in a relational database

• Defined via Attributes = Author, Type, Category

• Stored in header of text files• Attribute sets are extendable

Attributes


$@MID@$: 1Date: Thu Nov 08 18:37:57 2001Author: Stefan RittType: RoutineCategory: GeneralSubject: WelcomeAttachment: Encoding: ELCode========================================[B]Congratulations for installing ELOG sucessfully![/B]

This is a demo entry to ensure the elogd server is working correctly. Click [I]"New"[/I] to add new pages and [I]"Delete"[/I] to delete this page.

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• Settings can depend on the value of an attribute

• Hide certain attributes on condition, different tooltips, logical or of conditions, …

• “Merge” different logbooks into one

Conditional attributes


Attributes = PC Name, Operating System, VersionOptions Operating System = Linux{1}, Windows{2}{1} Options Version = 2.2, 2.4, 2.6{2} Options Version = NT, XP, W7, W8

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• Enable/Disable almost all features• Default presets for most dialog boxes• Select language (17 languages available)

Flags


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• Email notifications for certain processes• New entry, modified entry• Email to registered user(s) or external email addresses• Attributes have certain values

(like new entry with system=DAQ & category=Error)• Email can contain summary, full entry, with/without

attachments

Email notifications


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• Simple access control via read & write passwords (obsolete)

• User accounts with central password database (XML) and optional guest access

• Auto-logout, self register [with admin approval]• Kerberos & LDAP support

Access control


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?><list> <user> <name>stefan</name> <password encoding="SHA256">GbnPpEbx9tFFQ/iUW3mU8Cmi/a.JXVwdmVk74jFt56C</password> <full_name>Stefan Ritt</full_name> <email>[email protected]</email> <last_logout>Thu Oct 23 09:37:45 2014</last_logout> <last_activity>Thu Oct 23 11:43:28 2014</last_activity> <email_notify> <logbook>Online</logbook> <logbook>DAQ</logbook> </email_notify> </user></list>

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Themes


CSS = <file.css>

/* default formatting */body { margin:3px; color:black; background-color:white; font-family:verdana,tahoma,sans-serif; /* background-image:url(elog.gif); */}

/* standard link colors and decorations */a:link { color:#0000FF; text-decoration:none }a:visited { color:#800080; text-decoration:none }a:hover { color:#0000FF; text-decoration:underline }a:active { color:#0000FF; text-decoration:underline }a:focus { color:#0000FF; text-decoration:underline }

td { color:black; font-size:12px;}

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• Keep two or more logbooks in sync• Synchronization works both ways• Implementation using MD5 hash values

Mirroring


ID 3 MD5

ID 2 MD5

ID 1 MD5

ID 3 MD5

ID 2 MD5

ID 1 MD5

Logbook 1 Logbook 2

ID 3 MD5

ID 2 MD5

ID 1 MD5

ID 3 MD5

ID 2’ MD5

ID 1 MD5

ID 4 MD5

ID 3 MD5

MD5

ID 1 MD5

ID 3 MD5

ID 2’ MD5

ID 1 MD5

ID 4 MD5

ID 2’

ID 4 MD5

Mirror server = <URL-list>Mirror config = 0 | 1Mirror cron = 0 3 * * * // every night at 3:00

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elog -h <hostname> Host name of elog server [-p port] Port number, default 80 -l logbook Name of logbook -s Use SSL for communication [-v] For verbose output [-w password] Write password defined on server [-u username password] User name and password [-f <attachment>] Up to 50 attachments -a <attribute>=<value> Up to 50 attributes [-r <id>] Reply to existing message [-q] Quote original text on reply [-e <id>] Edit existing message [-x] Suppress email notification [-n 0|1|2] Encoding: 0:ELcode,1:plain,2:HTML -m <textfile>] | <text> Entry body

“elog” utility


• Command line utility to commit ELOG entries• Scriptable “cat text | elog –h … -l …”• Automatic entries e.g. accelerator status → next talk

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• Completely custom HTML hand crafted forms as input forms for logbooks

• Perfect for shift checks with tablet computers

Shift Checklist


https://midas.psi.ch/elogs/Forum/66909

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Check list table


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Search engine in Browser


• Most browsers allow definition of custom search engines• Define ELOG as a search engine with custom search string

http://midas.psi.ch/elogs/Forum/?subtext=%s

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• Recent extension (Dario Milicic) allows Rich Editing, Drag & Drop of images and smartphone photo upload

CKEditor


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• http://midas.psi.ch/elog/download.html• Public GIT repository

• “make”• “sudo make install”• “sudo /etc/init.d/elogd start”• “launchctl” under OSX

• Source code TAR ball• Windows Binaries• Linux Binaries (RPS)• Debian Package

Installation


http://midas.psi.ch/elog/download.html

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• Use since 2001 for three large experiments with ~30 logbooks

• Reliable, easy to use• “monit” tool to restart crashed server (couple of

times per year on public server)• In spite of vast usage (~10 labs, all LHC

experiments) I get only ~few issues per month• Logbook size fine to ~few 100’000 entries, search

can get slow

Personal experience with ELOG


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In case of questions …


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How to match existing functionality to accelerator operation needs?

ELOG for accelerator operation


CSS

Bookmarks

ConditionalFormatting

Kerberos

Mirror Servers

Access Rules

Email

elogCommand

Forms

Export

StructuredInformation

Logbook Groups

Calculated Fields Actions

→ Andreas Lüdeke

jan. 30th, 2015kit seminar, paul scherrer institute, switzerland the electronic logbook elog and its...

Documents

electronic logbook elog

kit seminar

mhttpd slide

elog databases attachments

stefan ritt type

offline logbook display

remote access birth

mhttpd version