User guide
De MorfeoWiki
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User Authentication and changing users
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To access the EzWeb Platform, open a web browser (preferably FireFox) and enter the URL of its location (e.g. http://host:port). You will have configured the URL during the installation process (see Installation) however, if you cannot remember the URL, check your Apache configuration or enter a valid URL in the Django Server (see Starting the Django Web Server), depending on which Web Server you are using. For more information, contact your system administrator.
You should be directed to the authentication page, as shown in the image above. To log into to the EzWeb Platform, you can use the default username and password; admin and admin, respectively, alternatively, you may choose to create your own EzWeb account. To do this, go to the admin page (which can be accessed by adding admin to the URL, e.g. http://host:port/admin/), click the ‘add’ button next to users and enter the desired username and password combination ensuring that you select staff and superuser permissions.
Description of the User Interface
The My Gadgets screen will be displayed when you have successfully logged into the EzWeb Platform. This is the operational environment where gadgets will be displayed - at first, this screen will be empty. This manual provides a step-by-step guide detailing how to build your own fully functional operational environment.
The EzWeb platform is split into three main sections: Add Gadgets, Connect Gadgets and Operational Environment. Each of these sections can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate tab located at the top right hand corner of the screen. These tabs are always visible, making it easy to switch between the three key sections.
As well as the three tabs, the platform also contains other useful links, such as links to change the default language of the platform (there are currently three language choices: Spanish, English and Portuguese) and a logout link, to end the current session.
My Gadgets
This section is displayed as the main screen after a successful login. As mentioned previously, it is the operational environment where gadgets will be added, creating the interface of the system.
It is here where, after you have established the connections between gadgets, you will be able to see how events produced by one gadget affect other gadgets, within the same operational environment.
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How to Position Gadgets
The EzWeb Platform provides flexibility when positioning gadgets in the operational environment. You can change the position of gadgets to suit your specific needs, whether you want to make the most of the space available or group certain gadgets together, for example.
To move a specific gadget to a new location, simply click the gadgets title bar and drag it to the desired location.
Gadget Properties
Each gadget displayed in the operational environment has a title bar which contains the following three basic operations:
- Minimize the gadget
- Establish user properties (if it has any)
- Delete the gadget from the operational environment
The user properties appear in a box within the relevant gadget when the button (p) is clicked, as shown in the image below.
To establish the value of a property simply enter the new value in the text box provided, then press the Save button. There is also an option available to set default values, which can be applied using the Set Defaults button.
My Catalog
My Catalog contains all gadgets that can be added to your operational environment. The catalog includes an auto-paginated feature which spreads gadgets out across several pages, if there are too many to fit on just one page. If this is the case, links will be provided towards the top of the screen to allow navigation between pages.
Searching
To search for a specific gadget or to simply limit the number of gadgets displayed, you can filter the number of results by using the basic search engine provided at the top of the screen. The platform also provides the functionality to carry out a more advanced search. Simply click the Advanced Search link and enter the necessary criteria, such as the gadget name, tags, events generated by the gadget, etc, to search for a specific gadget.
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Accessing Gadget Information
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Each gadget appears in an individual “box” containing a descriptive image and a button to add the gadget to your operational environment. Each “box” also contains a title bar which has three buttons:
- (D) – Displays a brief description of the gadget
- (W) – Opens the wiki containing a detailed gadget description
- (T) - Displays the contents of the gadgets template
Each “box” also contains a number of tags, associated with the gadget, which can also been viewed in the form of a cloud by clicking the (>) button. Clicking one of the tags starts a search, which will display a list of all gadgets containing the same tag. The same search result will be provided if the tag name is entered into the basic search engine, as described in the Searching section, above.
Adding new Gadgets to the catalog
You can add new gadgets to the catalog; these could be gadgets found on the internet or gadgets that you have developed yourself. To do this, simply enter the route of the gadget into the Template URL text box, displayed at the top left hand side of the screen, and click the Create Resource button.
Make sure that the route entered points to the template of the gadget so that the code associated with the gadget can be accessed. Often, people make the mistake of entering the location of the gadgets actual code instead. If the process goes well and the gadget is valid, it will automatically be added to the start of the catalog. If the gadget does not appear here, it is possible that the template contains some kind of error or that it is not compatible with the EzWeb Platform (ensure that the template complies with the format as described in the Gadget Development Guide).
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My Wires
This section allows you to manage the connections between different instantiated gadgets (gadgets you have added to your operational environment).
Connections are based on channels of information which are associated to certain data (e.g. the user’s address, model of car selected, etc.) and never to the gadgets themselves.
The channels use Event and Slot variables as data entry and exit points, respectively. A list of instantiated gadgets is displayed on the left hand side of the screen along with their Event variables. A similar list, showing gadgets with their Slot variables, is displayed on the right hand side of the screen. Both of these lists allow you to select the entry and exit points to connect to the channel.
Creating and connecting channels
The channel manager can be found in the middle of the My Wires Screen. To create a channel, simply enter its name into the text box provided and click the button next to it. Once created, the channel will appear, along with its value, in the middle of the screen, below the text box. At first it will appear as undefined.
To connect a channel to its corresponding variables, simply click the required channel, select the Event that you want to connect to, from the list on the left, and then select the Slot from the list on the right. As you will see, when the cursor hovers over the Event, the platform will suggest a corresponding Slot by highlighting it in a different color.
Publishing and Sharing
Once your workspace is created, EzWeb offer you two different ways to distribute your work. Both accessible thought the WorkSpace menu with the caption Publish WorkSpace" and "Share Workspace".
- Publish Workspace: this option allow you to make your workspace available in the Ezweb catalogue. To do so some information related to the workspace must be provided by the creator:
- Mashup Name (Required)
- Vendor (Required)
- Version (Required)
- Author
- eMail (Required)
- Description
- Image URL
- Wiki URL
- Organization
- After that a new eligible element will appear in the catalogue of any user of your organization.
- When a workspace is selected by a user two options arise. Select "New Workspace" if you want to create a new workspace from the chosen element. Select "Current Workspace" if you prefer to merge it into you current workspace.
- Share Workspace: This option will make the workspace accessible as a web resource (well to everybody, well to a selected group). EzWeb will provide an URL identifying the Workspace, so it can be used and exploited by any user of application. Embedable code is shown also. Any change made by the owner of the shared workspace will be reflected in any shared Workspace.
- Final users of the shared workspace will have access to an EzWeb lite platform in order to interoperate with the workspace.
Case Study: Building my own operational environment
In three simple steps, this case study will demonstrate how you can easily build your own environment consisting of a series of different gadgets.
Step 1: Adding Gadgets to the operational environment
To start with, the operational environment will be empty. To add gadgets to it, simply go to the My Catalog screen and select the required gadget by clicking the Add Instance button provided. You will be automatically redirected to the My Gadgets screen each time a gadget is added; this is to ensure that each gadget has been correctly added to the operational environment.
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N.B: It is possible to add several instances of the same gadget to the operational environment.
Step 2: Establishing the connections
Once you have added all the required gadgets to your operational environment, you will need to establish the communication channels between them. To do this, go to the My Wires screen and, in the middle of the screen, create the necessary channels by entering the name of the channel into the text box provided then click the button next to it.
You then need to connect the channels. To do this, click on the required channel, select the Event that you want to connect to, from the list on the left, and then select the corresponding Slot from the list on the right.
As you will see, when the cursor hovers over an Event or a Slot, the platform will suggest a corresponding Slot or Event by highlighting it in a different color.
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N.B: A channel can be connected simultaneously to several ''Events'' and ''Slots''.
Step 3: Ready!
Once you have established the communication between gadgets, you will be ready to use your operational environment. Click the My Gadgets tab to start working with your new environment.
To test that everything works as it should, try to make one gadget interact with another using the propagation of an event in one of the gadgets; select an element in one gadget (e.g. select one of the videos available from the list of videos of the YouTube gadget) and you should see that another gadget reacts to this selection (e.g. the YouTube video gadget plays the selected video).
