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Saturday, 12 July, 2014

dim_STAT v.9.0-u14 Core Update is here!

I'm happy to present you the latest CoreUpdate-14 for dim_STAT v.9.0 !

This update includes many minor fixes and small improvements making life better (like few more options on CLI scripts, more smart logic on dim_STAT-Server start/stop, few more options in web interface, updated look & feel, etc. etc.) - well, all these changes are inspired by my own and many other users daily usage of this tool. So, indeed, it remains alive and still helpful ;-)

However, there is a completely new feature I'd present to you which is coming with CoreUpdate-14 - and it's calling "Snapshots" ;-)

What are Snapshots? - in fact this feature was inspired by a more and more often need to save somewhere all or most of the graphs I'm seeing right now, while analyzing collecting data, rather generate them later when the work is done and observed issue was solved.. ReportTool is great for the post-analyze work, or for a straight forward reporting, etc. (you know exactly the time intervals you want to see, stats to graph, and so on) -- while during a live performance analyze you may have many intermediate graphs you're looking on which are part of the whole story board during your investigation, and they are all important as well as the base of your step-by-step logic and your final conclusion..

So far, Snapshots :

  • at any time you see any PNG graphs on your dim_STAT web page you'll also a small [Snapshot] button on the bottom of the page
  • as soon as you click on [Snapshot] button a new Tab/Window will be opened within your web browser and containing all the graphs you're currently seeing + the 2 special fields: Title and Notes to allow you to add some annotations related to your graphs (as well you may select all the graphs or only a part of them)..
  • similar to ReportTool, the wiki-style syntax is allowed within Notes content, while HTML syntax is also allowed (see details from the dim_STAT UsersGuide)
  • once editing is finished, you click on [Save] and your given Snapshot is saved
  • each Snapshot has a [PermaLink] (a static URL link you may use to share your Snapshot page with any users having an access to your dim_STAT web server)
  • at any time you may re-edit your Snapshot once again, or duplicate it to make a different version (ex.: less graphs, shorter Notes, etc.)
  • you can delete Snapshots as well, but be careful - there is no restore ;-)
  • also, Snapshots data are partially saved within your database, so they are depending on it, and from one database you cannot access Snapshots of another one (except you're clicking on a [PremaLink], but this will just print you a static document, without any editing possibility)..

The Snapshots page is looking like that:


So, at any time you may select to see :
  • the latest N Screenshots
  • the Screenshots matching a Title pattern and ordered by Time or Title, Ascending or Descending..
  • link to [PermaLink] is pointing to a URL with a static page with Snapshot content
  • link to [tar.Z] is pointing to a compressed TAR archive containing the whole Snapshot data (so can be sent as it and then deployed on any other computer as an HTML document)..

Publishing Snapshots :
  • at any time one or several Snapshots may be selected for publishing
  • a published document is then no more depending on a database, has its own Title and Notes, and containing all the data from the selected Snapshots
  • once generated, a published document will have as well its own [PermaLink] and [tar.Z], but also a [PDF] link as sometimes sharing a PDF document may be more preferable ;-)
  • the published document may still be re-edited in place (then PDF and tar.Z will be re-generated on every Save)
  • keep in mind that all data of a published document are kept only locally within its own directory and nowhere else (nothing in database, etc.) - so, re-editing is really implemented in place and based on content files
  • saving a document under a different title will create a new document leaving the original as it
  • re-editing can be disabled for a given document if its directory contains a file with a name ".noedit"
  • re-editing of all published documents may be disabled globally if the "pub" (upper) directory contains ".noedit" file
  • there is no way to delete a published document via a web interface (and this is made intentionally, as all "published" is expected to remain forever) -- while of course you may delete it manually, all these documents are just simple files after all.. ;-))

Few comments about internals :
  • as soon as you're involving any Snapshot action, there will be created a missed dim_Snapshot table in your current database and additional directories on your dim_STAT web server (/apps/httpd/home/docs/Snapshots/*)
  • Snapshot path: /apps/httpd/home/docs/Snapshots/data/{DBNAME}/{Snapshot-ID}
  • Published Document path: /apps/httpd/home/docs/Snapshots/pub/{Title}

Well, it's much more fun to use Snapshots than speak about, so hope you'll adapt it very quickly and and enjoy as me ;-)

The upgrade process is as usual :
  • 1.) download the latest tgz (WebX_apps-v90-u14.tgz) file from the CoreUpdates repository: http://dimitrik.free.fr/Core_Updates/
  • 2.) backup your current apps scripts: $ cd /opt/WebX ; tar czf apps-bkp.tgz apps
  • 3.) deploy the CoreUpdate-14 scripts bundle: $ cd /opt/WebX; tar xzf /path/to/WebX_apps-v90-u14.tgz
  • 4.) enjoy ;-)

As usually, any feedback is welcome!


Posted by Dimitri at 1:32 - Comments...
Categories: dim_STAT