What features do you want to see in an IRLP web console?

[NoseyNick]

irlp-web-console is not going to be a direct clone of IRLPvCON.

Imagine you could write a brand new IRLP web console from scratch - an easy-to-use web-based remote-control for IRLP nodes - that's what we are here for! Let us know what features you would like. Let us know what features your would not like. "Discuss"!

NOT trying to rewrite IRLP itself. Some other ideas are simply not going to be practical either, but for now, go wild! If everything was possible, and no ideas too outrageous, what would you like to see in an irlp web console?

Let's try lots of posts, 1 idea per post. Note the difference between:

• Reactions to upvote 👍 / 👎 downvote a specific feature
• "Write a reply" underneath a specific thread - EG in this case, specific IRLP web console feature
• "Write a comment" for a new thread in the same discussion- EG a new feature
• "New discussion" for something completely new - EG not about irlp-web-console features

You may (or may not) also want to ":eye: Watch" up at the :arrow_upper_right: top-right next to the :star: Star / Fork drop-downs.

[NoseyNick]

Implied feature taken from other post(s): Drop calls at the click of a mouse

[NoseyNick]

Implied feature taken from other post(s): control ops that should not have root access to a node and cannot navigate the system

Feel free to 👍 / 👎 to upvote/downvote, or elaborate in replies - I'm not clear what this means

[NoseyNick]

Implied feature taken from other post(s): dial a present node or code to [...] control the irlp or echolink node

[NoseyNick]

Dial nodes/codes... from a pre-configured "address book" / list of favourite nodes / reflectors, vs freeform "dial ABCD" vs... different dialing options for different (groups of) users? "discuss" 😀

[NoseyNick]

Implied feature taken from other post(s): read the log file without being able to do any damage to the system

[NoseyNick]

possibly log files (plural)? Syslogs as well as IRLP (/echolink) logs?

[NoseyNick]

Feature I have already written separately, outside of irlp-web-console, should be easy to move in-project: A "heat map", kinda a bit like a timeline, but showing visually when a node has been most/least used (TX and RX)

[NoseyNick]

I have seen quite a few repeaters periodically broadcast their Lat/Lon/Freq(s)/Status into APRS (scripts from https://github.com/lonney9/ and a bunch of other hand-written ones, with varying levels of actual APRS protocol validity, many of them just making up their own non-standard standard 😢 ). I've written several other APRS and IRLP projects, and was semi-seriously considering combining them a bit... Possibly for all IRLP nodes so may not belong in irlp-web-console, vs a separate project.

👍 / 👎 / comments / thoughts?

[NoseyNick]

Would people want / expect an irlp-web-console to be able to edit config files? All of it, or just parts of it? Which particular parts of it? As a plain web text editor, or "form" style with dropdowns and checkboxes and stuff?

How important would this feature be? Critical, or just "nice to have"? 👍 / 👎 / "discuss"

[NoseyNick]

What sort of user / group access controls would people expect?

This is presumably more of a discussion thread rather than an up 👍 / 👎 downvote at this point - please "Write a reply" with ideas

[NoseyNick]

Implied feature taken from other post(s): Send DTMF from irlp-web-console to control repeater functions.
Not the same as sending DTMF to the IRLP node to control IRLP (/web console)

👍 / 👎 / reply with some good examples?

[NoseyNick]

Schedule periodic pre-recorded (or voice-synthesized) announcements? 👍 / 👎 / discuss

[ke6pcv]

would be nice to be able to turn off/on the built in PTT and COS time out timers for NETS or playing newsline.

[NoseyNick]

Out of curiosity, how would you do this over SSH on the CLI? Do you mean editing REFLECT_TIMEOUT_VALUE in custom/environment or the contents of custom/timeoutvalue or something else? Does it require restarting irlpd or anything?

[ke6pcv]

For what I understand the PTT and COS timers are hard coded into the DTMF process that runs for IRLP. So the DTMF process would have to be shut off to disable the PTT and COS timers. Then re-enables afterwords. Without the DTMF process running you can not control the node via DTMF.

[NoseyNick]

Eeek. 'K, sounds like this will probably require a bit of experimentation. Which is fine, that's what this hobby is FOR 😜

[NoseyNick]

Moving @ke6pcv 's reply here 'cos github messed it up:

Dave Cameron told me I would need to add some sort of script to kill the dtmf process when I wanted it not to timeout on the COS and PTT, and then re-enable it afterwards.
As user repeater, killall dtmf will kill it.
Then to start it again, /home/irlp/bin/dtmf > /dev/null 2>&1

[NoseyNick]

IRLPvCON appears to create/delete a 0-byte file ~repeater/local/timeout, but does not appear to kill/restart dtmf.
Disclaimer: I have not checked the IRLPvCON source code, just watched the process lists and creation/deletion of files whilst using it. Nor have I checked whether IRLPvCON's approach actually works reliably 😆

[ke6pcv]

Real-time dtmf decode on webpage console

[ke6pcv]

COS and PTT status of the IRLP node.

[NoseyNick]

Hey here's a thought - I was intending to develop/test on raspberry pi, Raspbian 10 buster, optional EchoIRLP. In particular, I can do COS/PTT/DTMF detection better, faster, more reliably if I know I can assume PI GPIO pins and not have to support ye olde parallel ports etc.

If anyone needs irlp-web-console to support any other hardware / distros, please upvote this, and reply with what other hardware / OS support you need. No promises, especially if I need to borrow obscure hardware to test against.

[W5CSM]

I am running Debian 11 (bullseye) if you want another OS to test upon.

[NoseyNick]

Oh hi @W5CSM! Thanks for joining us! ... this being partly your fault 😜
Hadn't realised Debian 11 was supported for IRLP yet. Would love to upgrade, but suspect I should stick with Debian 10 for now - then, with your help, I can hope test on both 😀
Raspberry Pi? Raspbian? Or PC with parallel port hardware? or what?

[NoseyNick]

Github has put reply in wrong place again. Moving @W5CSM 's reply here:

I have been known to cause chaos... and thus progress. Yes, I
recommend staying at Debian 10. I might have jumped the gun a bit on the
upgrade. I will test anything thrown at me. I am running Raspbian.
THANKS for leveling your skills at this challenge.

[W5CSM]

Sorry Nick, that was my fault Not Github. Knowing to log in before trying to reply to a post is now a lesson learned. (sheesh) Please know that I AM trainable.

Dave - W5CSM

[NoseyNick]

😀 Oh in THAT case I think it's the difference between "Write a reply" vs "write a comment" vs "new discussion". I'll add some notes to the top of this discussion #3 to clarify for others.

You may (or may not) also want to ":eye: Watch", waaaaaaay up at the :arrow_double_up: :arrow_upper_right: top-right next to ":star: Star" and "Fork" drop-downs

[NoseyNick]

Presumably should present itself as a nice "home page for your node" even for unauthenticated users. Any thoughts as to which features should be visible / usable unauthenticated? "Discuss"

[W5CSM]

General Location
Status
contact information (same as irlp.net)

[NoseyNick]

Could it / should it slurp location info from irlp.net itself? IRLPvCON seems to ask for it to be re-entered, and I worry a bit that people could trivially end up with 4 or more different locations (or frequencies/tones/etc) on irlp.net, echolink.org, APRS beacons, irlp-web-console, etc.
Perhaps slurp them all up, display them nicely on a homepage and/or map, warn about differences, and link to where to fix them?

[NoseyNick]

Autoconfigure as much as possible - Ingest from existing IRLP+Echolink config files, and from status.irlp.net etc. IRLPvCON seems to ask for lat/lon/freq/PL even though these are quite discoverable.

[NoseyNick]

Previous IRLPvCON users: "Favorite Button Setup" vs "Function Button Setup" - what do you feel the difference is, or what should the difference be in your "ideal-world" irlp-web-console?

[NoseyNick]

UTC time
Local time
Up/downvote with 👍 👎

[W5CSM]

UTC only please

[NoseyNick]

I suspect I'm going to end up with the ability to assemble a whole bunch of optional widgets (with a few pre-canned examples for ease of use, but ability to edit into the control/monitoring panel of your choice). Timezones Are Hard ™️ but UTC is easy, browser-local is easy (it does it for you), repeater-local is a bit harder but do-able, other local timezones would be the nightmare in the vid. I'll probably offer UTC/repeater/browser time as options but "UTC only" can certainly be among those options.

[NoseyNick]

Does anybody use IRLPvCON's "Remote Call" functionality? This is not the same as DTMF dialling to connect to other IRLP/EchoLink nodes. You need to run "SpeakFreely" on a public IP, and provide that IP to IRLPvCON. Would love to skip this one if nobody wants/uses it.
Up/downvote with 👍 / 👎

[W5CSM]

I never got advanced enough to try this feature.

[NoseyNick]

Does anybody want/need/like IRLPvCON's "Map" screen? It shows the local node, any connected node, and a yellow dot on the transmitting node. Up/downvote with 👍 / 👎

[NoseyNick]

IRLPvMON and IRLPvMAP can be quite proudly embedded into other web pages (See p16 and 17 of the PDF). As IFRAMEs (blargh) but in any case... I think this feature (and smaller web widgets even) may happen naturally as a consequence of the way I was intending to write irlp-web-console, but if this feature is important to you, feel free to +1 this

[W5CSM]

Nick,

If I understand this properly... It would be nice if I could place a basic status page into the HTML of QRZ or other web sites.

73,
Dave - W5CSM

[NoseyNick]

I can't remember whether QRZ allows you to insert raw HTML or not, but if so, then yes... and certainly some "other web sites", EG I would expect the kwarc.org club website to want a status widget for the VE3RBM club IRLP node.

[W5CSM]

Yes, it does, (QRZ insert raw HTML) I used it to add a "Flag Counter" for web site visits.

[NoseyNick]

Hey who actually uses the "Toggle Aux" functionality? 👍 / 👎 or better still, "Write a reply" describing HOW you use them, I'm curious 😀

[W5CSM]

I never used it.

[NoseyNick]

Does anybody understand what IRLPvCON's "Last Call Waiting" thingy does? Do you use it? If so, could you "Write a reply" explaining what it does and how you use it? Otherwise upvote 👍 if you think this is important, or downvote 👎 if you don't care.

[NoseyNick]

Touch-compatibility: IRLPvCON has been criticised for relying a bit too much on "mouseover" effects which are not very "touch-compatible" on tablets or smartphones.
A: I"m not entirely sure this concern is justified. The AUX toggles are slightly awkward but I think everything else works OK? but
B: presumably we should avoid over-use of mouseover effects, to dodge the same criticism.
C: Simple highlights may be OK(?) but should not be "less usable" on a touchscreen browser
👍 / 👎 / "Write a reply" to discuss

[NoseyNick]

Related to the above tablet/touchscreen compatibility point, and also reflecting a current preference for "mobile first" web app design...
IRLP-web-console should presumably make good use of modern responsive web design techniques to work nicely on screens of various different sizes, resolutions, and aspect ratios.
IRLPvCON has a very VERY fixed layout and does not scale well or re-arrange content at all for different screen sizes. 😢
Note that this may increase testing requirements. "Responsive Design" done right is awesome, but done wrong will frequently overlap things and "overflow" in awkward ways
As per "widgets and layouts" proposed over at #6, it ought to also be possible to publish various different "more mobile friendly" / "more tablet friendly" layouts in the catalogue. Most layouts should work on most screens, but some layouts might still be "better optimised" for phone vs tablet vs 4k desktop vs VR headset or whatever.