The EMobDa frontend

The EMobDa frontend is dedicated to the user interface. It sends request to the backend and handles its answer.

Ther are 2 types of frontend.

The first one uses XULRunner and offers a native interface. Therefore it needs to installed locally.

The second one¹⁾ offers a WEB interface, takes the shape of a CGI, and is accessed through a Internet browser, so no local installation is needed.

Both frontend can access to the local or the remote backend, and shares the same locales file and project file.

• Last release (on 09/10/2009) : 0.1.0
• Changelog.

You can give a project file name as argument, or open one through the Open menu of the frontend.

The project file is in XML format. The Epeios XML preprocessor tags are handled, (like you would apply the expp tool (http://zeusw.org/intl/expp) to the project file). The project defines at least one backend, and one (and only one) database (this is not required, but is usually the case).

This is the general aspect of a project file :

<Projects>
	...
	<Project target="TARGET" Name="NAME">
		PROJECT
	</Project>
	...
</Projects>

Two values are possible for TARGET :

• emobdacom if the frontend is the XULRunner (native) one,
• emobdacgi if the frontend is the CGI (Web) one.

NAME is required and used by the software to distinguish one project from another.

<Parameters>
	PARAMETERS
</Parameters>
<Profiles>
	PROFILES
</Profiles>

PARAMETERS and PROFILES sections will be detailed below.

<Backend Type="TYPE">
	<Location>LOCATION</Location>
</Backend>
<Database>
	<Path>PATH</Path>
</Database>

TYPE gives the type of the backend. It can have two values :

• daemon : to specify that the backend is the daemon one (emobdadmn).
• library : to specify that the backend is the library one (emobdalib).

LOCATION gives the location of the backend. It can be of two typers :

• if TYPE is daemon, than LOCATION must be the IP and port of the daemon (in IP:port format).
• if TYPE is library, than LOCATION must be the path of the library.

The Database section is optional. It defines the database opened by default. PATH is the path of the database, and will be given as is to the backend.

<Profile name="NAME">
	<Table>TABLE</Table>
</Profile>
<User>USER<User>

The Profiles section can contain one or more Profile sections, in which a default table to open can be defined. Which Profile is used is defined by given its name to a User section. In a future version of the software, you will be able to switch between profiles through the interface.

NAME is the profile name chosen by the user. It can be used in the USER section.

TABLE is the id. of the table which would be open by default.

USER is the name of a profile (as defined in the Name attribute of a Profile tag). This is the profile used when the user launch the software. Its content will be overridden by user actions. If the user switch to another table as the one defined in the user profile, this table will be considered as the one defined for this profile, i.e. the one that will be open by default the next time the software is launched.

As an example of project file, the one I use :

<Projects>
	<Project target="emobdacom" Name="Essai">
		<Parameters>
			<Backend Type="daemon">
				<Location>192.168.56.1:1234</Location>
			</Backend>
			<Database>
				<Path>MdP</Path>
			</Database>
		</Parameters>
		<Profiles>
			<Profile name="Default">
				<Table>2</Table>
			</Profile>
			<User>Default</User>
		</Profiles>
	</Project>
</Projects>

This is the the name of package, which can be found at http://zeusw.org/download/emobdagecko/, for the native frontend, which runs under XULRunner. You will need XULRunner 1.9 or Firefox 3(.5 ?) to launch it.

There is a directory named XPCOM in the emobdagecko package. It contains all the sources of the XULRunner component, and the component already build for Windows (emobdacom.dll).

For Linux, you have to build it, by using the Makefile provided with the package, which generates a file named emobdacom.so. For this, you need the XULRunner SDK, and there is also a line beginning with i686-sdk in the Makefile file that you need to change so that it will contain the directory where you installed the XULRunner SDK.

emobdcom.dll (under Windows) or emobdcom.so (under Linux), and the provided iemobda.xpt file, have both to be placed in the components directory of your XULRunner or Firefox installation. All the provided files suffixed by .xlc have to be placed in the root directory of your XULRunner or Firefox installation (they contain the translations of the messages used by the program).

The application is launched by providing to the Firefox or XULRunner executable, as argument of the --app option, the file named application.ini and located in the XUL directory of the package. You can also give a project file as described above by appending its name as additional argument to the XULRunner or Firefox executable.

If you have trouble by using the already build component for Windows, take a look at this page (http://zeusw.org/intl/windows_redist).