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Hello everyone, |
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I'm working on the 'Package Statistics' project [1] for GSoC this summer. |
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This is my first progress report. |
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Title: "Client-server model for reporting and querying package statistics" |
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========================================================================== |
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This project aims to implement a client program to gather package |
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information from gentoo hosts and submit them to a server, which will |
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calculate useful statistics based on the data, rendered using a webapp. |
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Over the past 2-3 weeks, I have been communicating with my mentor Alec, |
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and have already written a proof-of-concept client and server, that is |
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ready to be deployed and collect data, thanks to excellent code reviews |
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and ideas from Alec. |
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A short summary of my progress: |
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------------------------------- |
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* Created project repository [2] on git.overlays.gentoo.org |
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* Read up on RESTful Web Services (from the O'reilly book) |
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* Tried to improve my python coding style using the google guide |
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(suggested by Alec) |
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* Wrote a simple client in python to collect a few environment variables |
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from portage, list of installed packages with useflags, encode the |
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data in JSON, with proper authentication, and issue a POST to the |
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server |
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* Wrote a simple webapp using web.py to handle requests from the above |
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client and save the data to MySQL tables |
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* Wrote some documentation to deploy the webapp and client |
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Issues encountered: |
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------------------- |
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* Choice of portage api vs gentoolkit api: The gentoolkit api is very |
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easy to use, but quite slow [3] compared to the portage api. Alec asked me |
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to use both of them as necessary, but provide an easy way to swap out |
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one in favor of the other at a later time. |
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* Choice of web framework, Turbogears vs others: I ended up using web.py |
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for the server, instead of Turbogears (as promised in my proposal), |
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since I found it easier to implement RESTful services using web.py. |
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Also, web.py is lightweight, provides more control, and has enough |
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features for implementing this webapp. However, should I hit a snag |
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using web.py, it probably wouldn't take more than a day or two of |
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coding to replace it with Turbogears. |
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The project repository currently provides a working client and server, |
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and it'll be deployed soon on soc.dev.gentoo.org. |
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Plans for the upcoming weeks: |
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----------------------------- |
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* Get updates from the community on what data should be collected from |
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hosts |
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* Try to add more fields to the client/server and modify the SQL tables |
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accordingly |
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* Learn more about the portage api and discuss them on #gentoo-portage |
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My semester exams are currently in progress, and they'll last till the |
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end of May. So, I'll not be able to work during these 2 weeks. I'm |
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looking forward to get back on 1st June, and continue with my project. |
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[1] |
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http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/proposal/review/google/gsoc2011/vh4x0r/1 |
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[2] |
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http://git.overlays.gentoo.org/gitweb/?p=proj/gentoostats.git;a=summary |
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[3] |
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http://vh4x0r.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/portage-dbapi-vs-gentoolkit-api/ |
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-- |
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Vikraman |
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