Current status of new river system software features (15 March 2022 Onwards)

[hamishmb]

Thanks for the reminder

Okay, we have the ability to view probe levels and valve positions, and so on, so that aspect is already done, but the engineer GUI doesn't have the ability to enable and disable pumps or solenoids.

Due to the limitations of the NAS box that the engineer GUI runs on, I think Terry's idea of writing a new Flask web interface for manual control. We could make the manual control features quite simplistic, in that any manual action is overridden the next time the control logic runs - it doesn't have to be complicated at all.

The new GUI could completely replace the engineer GUI if it includes the existing features of the engineer GUI for viewing status. I think this would be a good idea because Flask is more popular and maintainable than PHP, which is what the engineer GUI is written in. Would you be happy to make this GUI in due course, Terry?

[TerryJC]

The new GUI could completely replace the engineer GUI if it includes the existing features of the engineer GUI for viewing status. I think this would be a good idea because Flask is more popular and maintainable than PHP, which is what the engineer GUI is written in. Would you be happy to make this GUI in due course, Terry?

Yes.

[hamishmb]

Okay, I will now amend the list above to reflect this information.

EDIT: List amended.

[hamishmb]

Note this list of features I was implementing for the engineer GUI: viewtopic.php?p=4635#p4635

Now that it's being replaced, there's probably little point in continuing that work, but the list may be useful going into the requirements discussion for the new GUI.

[hamishmb]

Terry,

I have added the feature we discussed yesterday about stopping all the pumps and closing all the valves before tearing down the river control system to the bottom of the list as a nice-to-have, together with the potential problems with implementing such a feature.

[hamishmb]

I have a question about what to do about a feature we're not currently using. There's a "SocketsMonitor" class that allows devices and probes to be monitored over a network socket. However, this has been completely supplanted by the database, and we don't use SocketsMonitors any more.

Should I remove this feature, or keep it around and just add a note in the documentation to show that it's not used any more, in case we want to use them later?

[TerryJC]

I have a question about what to do about a feature we're not currently using. There's a "SocketsMonitor" class that allows devices and probes to be monitored over a network socket. However, this has been completely supplanted by the database, and we don't use SocketsMonitors any more.

Should I remove this feature, or keep it around and just add a note in the documentation to show that it's not used any more, in case we want to use them later?

I'm not a fan of leaving redundant code in a production system, so I would suggest that you remove it. In reality, the code won't be lost, because it will be retained in the git history, so I would suggest a note in the documentation mentioning that, so that it can be resurrected later. A brief description of what the code was for and why it was taken out should suffice, especially if you label it with the git timestamp that refers to it.

[hamishmb]

Okay, will do.

[hamishmb]

Related to the above is our old thread about handling database failure at: viewtopic.php?t=265&start=10.

As per the recent discussions there, it has been decided that that feature is probably not worth the time and effort involved to implement it, especially as we plan to replace the NAS box with something more reliable in the future, but it shall remain here as a footnote for a "nice to have" feature.

[hamishmb]

Just a quick note to say that I have put my to-do lists for the river system on the fileserver at: https://wmtprojectsforum.altervista.org ... em%20Files

Most of the things on the list are nice-to-haves, really, as most of the system is up and running at this point, but it might be useful if anyone wants to see what I was thinking about doing next.