TINE Users Meeting

 

It was decided to hold the TINE Users Meeting on a monthly basis, meeting 1st  Friday (or possibly 2nd Friday) of the month.  The notes and presentations at the meetings follow:

 

 

  • March 7, 2008
    • Release 4.0 Status and Discussion
      • Trap non-CF_NULL formats with data size = 0
      • Fixed some problems regarding wildcard calls and device groups
    • Java News and Discussion
      • Release 4 server now responds to Release 4 style queries
      • Server now issues a “REMOVEALARMS” request to the CAS
      • ACOP graph display problem with large data sets
    • Tip of the Week
      • Review of possible link transfer modes
      • How and When to call the Scheduler
    • File System and Sequencer
      • File System and Sequencer for PETRA3 and FLASH (and pre-accelerators)
  • February 22, 2008
    • Release 4.0 Status and discussion
      • VxWorks works!
      • Shared memory bug with VB Client Project talking to Server on the same machine
      • Java Archive Viewers using configurations managed by Central Archive Server
      • Some interface improvements with the Windows Instant Client
    • Java News and Discussion
      • Release 4.0 protocol integrated in
      • Some new formats, transfer modes added.
      • Tagged Structures now handle compound data types and other structures.
    • LabView News and Discussion
      • New LabView VIs for direct user-defined structure registration in LabView !
    • Tip Of the Week
      • How and When to use “Grouped”
    • Video System 3 News and discussions
      • Small Grabber Part
      • Current Status and Roadmap
      • Live Demo !
  • February 8, 2008
    • Release 4.0 Status and discussion
      • Central Logging Server API is now asynchronous
      • Central Logging Server is up and running
      • Proposed strategy for deploying TINE Central Servers
      • Release 4.0.0 officially ‘released’
      • DOOCS now using Release 4.0
      • Minor API change to GetLastLinkError() : -> now returns pointer to input string buffer rather than a return code.
    • Java News and discussion
      • A Way around the Catch-22 regarding java and multicast sockets
      • TQuery now queries for Release 4.0 ‘long’ names
      • THistory and TAlarmSystem classes for accesses the Archive and Alarm systems.
      • XML configuration files parsing logic in place
      • Nested Tagged Structure coding underway
      • Release 4.0 protocol is the next step
    • LabView News and discussion
      • Automatic bounds checking back in place
      • Tagged structure support in the buffered server/asynchronous listener API used in Labview
      • An example of creating your own data type
    • Web2C News and discussion
      • Web2C added to the TINE home page
      • Live demo of latest features
      • WYSIWYG panel editing added.
      • New components (e.g. slider)
    • Naming Convention Guidelines and discussion
      • Guidelines for naming everything from the host computer to the server process to its exported properties and devices
      • Recommendations for DESY
  • January 25, 2008
    • Release 4.0 Status and discussion
      • New viewer configuration management by the central archive server.  “Local History” configurations managed as ‘groups’ otherwise following the same configuration patterns.
      • Central Logging Server should have an asynchronous API.  Should not be abused as an ‘alarm system’ and should not be cluttered with entries relevant only to local debugging.
    • Java News  and discussion
      • Migration to Release 4.0 roadmap laid out.
      • Bug fix regarding TLinkFactory and threads.
      • Catch-22 regarding java and multicast sockets.
      • Stock Property “ACCESSLOCK” now respects the client socket.
    • Installation and Deployment
      • Existing client application deployment strategies under Windows
      • Server deployment and configuration in general
      • Strategy for using java WebStart for java applications
    • LabView News and discussion
      • Using LabView ‘user events’ in addition to/instead of ‘occurences’.  A LabView loop (thread) can only respond to a single occurrence but can respond to multiple events.  This is relevant when multiple client links are accessed within the same loop.
    • Windows CE Port
      • Successful port of TINE 3.31 and CDI to Windows CE
      • Port to TINE 4.0 underway.  Final TINE 4.0 source modules will compile ‘as is’ under Win CE (with the appropriate project.def).
  • January 11, 2008
    • Release 4.0 Status and discussion
      • The central services have all been upgraded to Release 4.0.  This include much code refactoring and handling of backward compatibility issues where browsing and storage must now be able to handle longer names.
      • The new Central Logging Server is to be commissioned.
      • A preliminary download package for Release 4.0 is available.
    • ENS News and discussion
      • Owing to the primary ENS on site at DESY having hardware problems (after all those years!) several ENS issues regarding configuration were addressed.
        • The legacy name ‘heraens.csv’ for the ENS address(es) is NOT supported in Release 4.0.
        • Some browsing bugs were eliminated whereby an application asks for a server called “ENS” and was directed to the wrong (down) ENS.
    • CDI News and discussion
      • Progress on allowing block calls (where multiple devices are accessed) to occur atomically.
      • TODO: Implement BITFIELDS, address the CDI JNI bug, address the NAME32I group call problem.
    • Java News and discussion
      • Work to start soon on porting java Tine Release 3.31 to Release 4.0
      • Road map of priorities
    • Latest news on the TINE Video System was presented and demonstrated
      • Small grabber part (PCVision)
      • Java TINE Digital Video Display
    • The ‘attachfec’ utility was demonstrated.
      • Allows debugging access to Windows and UNIX FECs via a local pipe.  If a FEC process is running in the background, as a service, or GUI, one can in effect open a ‘window’ to the FEC by running ‘attachfec <FECNAME>’ on the same machine.
  • December 13, 2007
    • Progress on TINE service applications using acop beans (discussion and feedback).
      • Archive Viewer
      • Multi-channel Analyzer
      • Operation History
      • Post Mortem Viewer
      • Trend Chart
    • C++ API for TINE Servers
    • Brief comments on TINE Video Server and Release 4.0
      • All serious problems understood and corrected
      • Cameras with a DirectShow interface now automatically supported
        • E.g. Fire-wire interface was a simple plug-and-play operation (no driver installation necessary)
      • Java client API underway
    • Topics for coming meetings:
      • Windows CE Port
      • Fec configuration tool + code generation
  • November 30, 2007
    • Release 4.0 Status and discussion
      • New DLL naming scheme : Canonical Windows DLL name is tine32.dll which points either to tine.dll (single threaded) or tinemt.dll (multi-threaded) according to the site installation for windows.  Currently : tine32.dll -> tinemt.dll (multi-threaded).
    • Large Data Transfers and discussion
      • Large data transfers at fast rates work fine, except : watch out for those ‘cheap’ switch ports!
    • This Week in Labview (Occurences) and discussion
      • The LabView IDE does NOT unload the tine libraries upon ‘stopping’.  Calling lvTineSrvInit.Vi will effectively free all resources and re-initialize.  In order to ‘Stop’ a client/server application within the IDE, a ‘STOP’ button must call the ‘new’ VI : lvTineSrvStop.Vi.
      • Property-specific Occurences need to utilize the ‘reentrant execution’ flag. 
    • CDI Bus Plugs and discussion
      • A CDI bus plug must export a bus handler routine in order to work with CDI.  Schematic example shown.  For Details, please see Honggong.
    • Local History tricks for large data sets and discussion
      • Using property scheduling to guarantee data storage at a specific archive rate
      • Using the short-term history buffers as software transient recorders.
  • November 16, 2007
    • Release 4.0 Status and discussion
      • Caching directory for addresses and manifest changed from ‘hosts’ to ‘cache’
      • Caching directory on Windows machines in %SystemDrive%:\tine\cache
      • Caching directory on Unix machines in /var/tmp/cache
      • DNS entry ‘tineens’ added at desy.de for last fallback in finding the ENS address.
    • Pushing the Envelope and discussion
      • How to send/receive large data payloads at high rates
      • How to tune Linux machines to accept more receive buffer space per socket.
      • Bug in transferring large (byte-array) data payloads over TCP/IP.
        • Understood and corrected.
      • Discussion point: How to deal with ultra-large (10s of MB) transient recorder data at the post-mortem server level.
    • Topics for coming meetings:
      • How to write CDI bus plugs.
      • Fec configuration tool.
      • C++ API