List of items needed to be minimally functional / useful

[SamuelDudley]

This issue is for ideas and discussion on what features need to be present / implemented before this software is considered 'useful'. Please keep in mind that the end goal is to have this project be a part of APSync and shipped != perfection ;)

[SamuelDudley]

• Start / stop video stream via the web UI
  • Currently this is handled by the cherrypy server https://github.com/ArduPilot/companion/blob/master/Common/Ubuntu/cherrypy/apsync.py.
  • As a minimum this functionality needs to be matched, for bonus points we can watch for hearbeats in the mavlink module and keep an updated list of all MAV_TYPE_GCS's + associated IP addresses. The web UI will then display this list and allow start / stop and re-configuring of the streaming target on the fly.

• Read and write config files from / to disk via the web UI
  • Some initial work here: web UI to modify config files #8
  • Additionally all modules need to have a set of default config values which they will write to the config file if they do not yet exist. Example here

• Logging to disk
  • Implement a logging using the builtin python logging module.
  • Either have each module make a log in its folder or push them over the queue and log in one central location

• Control of network interfaces via the web UI (see Wifi connection to configurable list of access points ArduPilot/companion#22)
  • Some initial work here: https://github.com/SamuelDudley/APSyncWeb/blob/shell_command/APSyncFramework/utils/network_utils.py

• Support backup of AP logs via RSync (see Initial log upload support ArduPilot/companion#21)
  • initial work here: https://github.com/SamuelDudley/APSyncWeb/blob/df_sync_wip/APSyncFramework/modules/APSync_dfsync/__init__.py
  • This is being written as a module. Needs cleaning up and exit conditions added, but currently it will rsync files from a local directory to a remote server if they are unmodified over 15 seconds (oldest files are uploaded first). If successful the files are then moved to an archive directory on the companion computer. It is using pre shared keys and rsync'ing over ssh.
  • Currently unsure what the best option is for user and server security... but some ideas are being floated in the ArduPilot companion issue
  • First cut of the server code can be found here. The server is live at https://apsync.cloud and provides a secure service to register and upload logs via rsync.

• Support loading / rolling back configs via a command line interface and mavlink. If a user loads a bad config file and needs to recover to a saved prior working state, that should be made possible via ssh and mavlink.

[davidbuzz]

obviously, starting/stopping network interfaces via a web browser/server over the same network interface is challenging, do we care..? I guess having an alternate cmd-line method to activate/refresh all settings might be a worthy add-on. eg: imagine a typo in a IP address or netmask, they are saved to the .json file as part of the "save new settings" button , and then some script is triggered to update the actual interfaces and routes etc, but that last step fails. My cmd-line idea is to allow recovering from that error case via ssh and a cmd-line convenience , if needed. ..?

[SamuelDudley]

I think loading a config from the command line is a good idea and should be pretty easy to implement. Another idea I had was to send a MAVLink message with a config name and the system will attempt to load it.