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At 09:52 AM 7/27/2001 +1000, Markus Buchhorn wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite cite>Well, if we're adding wishes to this list...
:-)<br>
<br>
Allow this control application to run over the network, so that one
operator can manage multiple nodes, or a remote operator can manage a
given node.</blockquote><br>
Oh definitely -- so that I can also control the node from my laptop while
sitting on the couch :-)<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite cite>At first blush, a web browser would make a
very nice harness for this. Perhaps implement as Apache modules?
(apologies to Jay ;-) ). Save you having to develop at both ends of the
network pipe (as with e.g. a Java applet).</blockquote><br>
I'm thinking the architectecture would have some number of agents
connected to the actual devices (gentner, PTZ camera, remote-controllable
apps) that speak a common interface (XMLRPC maybe) via some published
API. The API would include mechanisms for authorization and
authentication so that control would be exported only to those a site
wanted to allow control.<br>
<br>
Given that web servers then can speak XMLRPC (there exist client libs for
PHP & perl/mod_perl...) an apache backend could speak to those. A
custom client could also be built, speaking to the same XMLRPC
agents.<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite cite>We could also pick up some of the hacks that
allow you to drive the various PTZ cameras through a web page. It could
also hook into monitoring/logging systems...</blockquote><br>
Yup. The LBL folks already have a daemon that will run the Canon &
Sony ptz cameras. It doesn't speak XMLRPC, but it could be modified to do
so or a translation agent built.<br>
<br>
--bob</html>