xmlDxSpider

Description:

	XML Based Web Interface for DXSpider
	Juan J Lamas - EA1NK
	24 February 2014

Sample site: http://www.ed1zac.net/webdx/

1. Why XML Web Interface?

   The original DL5DI webcluster interface was only able to run in a local server, with no option to retrieve the spots but including an <IFRAME> on a external web page or complicated parsing.

   Using the modified scripts to output a XML document, one can retrieve the spots with a simple HTTP Request in Javascript, PHP or any other programming language. Not only for web display but also for webapps, native apps or any kind of software.

2. The XML document.

   The XML document is generated by webclusterXML.py Perl script. It is a populated list of spots, wcy, wwv and announces gathered from the files generated by DXSpider. More info on how it works can be found on DL5DI website. A sample.xml file is provided.

   The document can be retrieved on http://webserver_address/cgi-bin/webclusterXML

   The structure of the XML documents is:

   Header:

   Container for all the data: Container for all the spots: Single spot: Spot information:

   Container for all WCYs: Single WCY: WCY information:

   Container for all WWV: Single WWV: WWV information:

   Container for all announces: Single announce: Announce information:

3. The Web interface.

   The provided index.html file is a simple layout made in HTML5 and Javascript. The XML document is gathered via a HTTPRequest and parsed in Javascript. The tables are dinamically populated with the data in the XML file.

   No special features are required on the server side for the interface to run. Any modern web browser (> Internet Explorer 6, Chrome, Firefox, Safari) or device (iOS, Android) should render the interface correctly.

   All the style info is attached in the css files, so it is easy to modify.

   Data is gathered from the DXSpider server every 30 seconds.

4. Installation.

   Perl and Bash scripts:

    Copy webclusterXML to /usr/lib/cgi-bin directory or your cgi-bin path.
    chmod 755 /usr/lib/cgi-bin/webclusterXML
    Copy webclusterXML.pl to /usr/local/bin directory or your bin path.
    chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/webclusterXML
    Edit webclusterXML to point to webclusterXML.pl if not in default path.
    Copy dxcc.list to /spider/data/
   

   HTML interface

    Copy htmldocs content to the desired directory on the webserver.  
   

5. Troubleshooting:

   • Check that both webclusterXML and webclusterXML have executable attribute (chmod 755)
   • Make sure webserver user (apache for apache webserver) is member of spider group (usermod -a -G spider apache)
   • It is assumed that data files are at /spider/data. Edit webclusterXML.pl routes if needed to point to the correct directories.
   • Make sure web server perl modules are enabled and cgi-bin route configured.

73!