Electronic Logbook Evaluation

 

As part of ODE we evaluated electronic logbooks from Fermilab and the DOE2000 project. The following were selected for evaluation:

Fermilab

HEPNRC Control Room Logbook, v0.8 Beta

Fermilab Main Control Room E-Log Notebook, March 1999 release

Fermilab CDF Electronic Logbooks

DOE2000

ORNL Electronic Notebook v1_10

PNNL Electronic Notebook ELN4.01

LBNL Electronic Notebook, v4.2

Evaluation Goals

 

The main goals of the evaluation were to setup an example of each logbook to gain first hand experience with installation, configuration, and features, and then to compare logbook features to form an objective basis for selecting a candidate logbook for integration in ODE test stands. We could not evaluate the Fermilab CDF Electronic Logbooks because it was not available for distribution or the LBNL Electronic Notebook because of installation problems that could not be resolved with the author.

Working Examples

 

The following logbooks used an Apache virtual web server. Note that access varies depending on the default security provided by each logbook.

 

ORNL Electronic Notebook

PNNL Electronic Notebook

Fermilab Main Control Room E-Log Notebook

 

The HEPNRC logbook was installed as a local Windows NT application and the working example is not Web accessible. 

  

 

Logbook Software Overview

 

HEPNRC

ORNL

PNNL

Fermi Main Control Room

Version

Control Room Logbook
 v0.8 Beta. Latest
version is v0.85.

Electronic Notebook
v1_10

ELN4.01

based on version 1.0 of the ORNL Electronic Notebook
latest release from March 1999

Authors

Bill Lidinsky
Pat Pomatto
Gary Roediger

Al Geist
Noel Nachtigal

Jim Myers

Thomas Meyer
Walter Kissel

Contact

logbook@hep.net

gst@ornl.gov

collab-support@emsl.pnl.gov
Jim.Myers@pnl.gov

tsmeyer@fnal.gov
kissel@fnal.gov

Supported OS

Win 95/98
Win NT
Solaris

Win 95, Win NT,
Unix systems
including Linux

Win 95, Win NT
SunOS 4.11
Solaris/Sparc
Irix
Linux "should work"

Win 95, Win NT,
Unix systems
including Linux

Installation


InstallShield

tar, gunzip,
winzip

tar

tar

Technologies
 used

Java, XML

Perl-5, Java applets, HTML

Perl-5, Java

Perl, Java Script, HTML

Client s/w requirements
( )=used for test

JRE v1.3
Beta

Java compliant browser to
add entries (Netscape)

Netscape 4.51 or 4.61+
(Netscape 4.7)

Java compliant
browser (Netscape)

Client OS tested

Win NT

Win NT
SunOS

Win NT

Win NT

Server s/w requirements
( )=used for test

none

Web server (Apache)

Web server (Apache)

Web server (Apache)

Server OS tested

none

SunOS

SunOS

SunOS

Source Code Distributed

no

yes

yes

yes

Database

Inprise JDataStore

entries are html pages
appended to the end
of a notebook

creating Notebooks,
Chapters, and Pages
creates a directory tree
populated by files

entries are html pages
appended to the end of
a notebook. Each file
represents a shift.

Distribution

http://www.hep.net/hepnrc/
LogBook.html, CD

http://www.epm.ornl.gov/
~geist/enote/zips/enote/
enote1_10.tar.gz
http://www.epm.ornl.gov/
~geist/enote/zips/enote/
enote1_10.zip

http://www.emsl.pnl.gov:2080/
docs/collab/

http://medusa.fnal.gov/
E-Log_request.html
(request form)

Package Size

6MBytes

< 2MBytes

9.5MBytes

0.5Mbytes

URL for general information

http://www.hep.net/hepnrc/
LogBook.html

http://www.epm.ornl.gov/
~geist/java/applets/enote/

http://www.emsl.pnl.gov:2080/
docs/collab/

http://medusa.fnal.gov/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Logbook Features

 

HEPNRC

ORNL

PNNL

Fermi Main Control Room

GUI

Java

Web browser

Netscape detached pages

Web browser

multi-user access

no*

yes

yes

yes

Multiple notebooks from same installation

yes

yes, enable.pl configuration

yes

yes

text input

plain, Rich

plain, HTML

plain, RTF, HTML, LaTex for
equation editor

plain, HTML

image input

GIF

GIF, JPEG

GIF, see
special features

GIF, JPEG

audio input

no*

basic?

no

no

sketch pad input

serial
port

yes

no

no

cut and paste

NT clipboard

text

text

multi-paste
graphic

how customized

LogBookConfig.xml

enote.pl

edit image files?

elog.pl (enote.pl)

time stamped entries

yes

yes

yes

yes

entry access control

no*

to notebook - by group,
setup different directories
with different Web access
controls (authentication
files?)
enote.pl - enable/disable notebook functions

username/password

Write access granted
by adding an IP to the
eloglib.pl $list in the
setAccess routine.

entry locking

archive

notarize

privileged
user can
delete

supervisor can
remove entries

search features

manual, by date,
time, page menu,
and log type

search for text
(not in titles)

search in titles and descriptions
(could not confirm that this worked)

within dates or entire year of logbook files.
(Uses 2 digits to represent years.)

annotation

no*

yes

no

comments

remote access operations

no*

yes

yes

yes

special features

current situation,
scheduled entries,
desktops

add or del MIME types

setup configuration with
Web page, special editors
Image Capture
EMSL Publisher
Html Editor
Simple Text Editor
Whiteboard
Equation Editor
Import/Export to/from
notebooks
ELN Wizard

"multi-paste" graphic
inclusion
Quick Entry
Shift structure for
entries

printing

yes

from
browser

from editors

from
browser

elb size limits

4 terabytes

quota

quota

quota

hot keys

no

no

no

no

documentation

http://www.hep.net/hepnrc/
LogBook.html
Developer Manual with v1.0

Overview of Electronic
Notebook Features
provided with v1.10
Demo Notebook.
Hints, tips, FAQ -
http://www.epm.ornl.gov/
~geist/enote/cookbook.html

http://www.emsl.pnl.gov:2080/
docs/collab/userdoc/eln/help3.5/

http://medusa.fnal.gov/
e-log_about.html

 

 

 

 

 

Note: Features above denoted with an asterisk are planned for future release.

 

Logbook screen shots and installation notes

Fermilab Main Control Room E-Log Notebook

 

The PERL files are coded to use a directory path of  ../../Documents/MCRlog. To change, edit the following files: elog.pl, eloglib.pl, fixlist.pl, fixlistlib.pl, machlog.pl, and machloglib.pl. To enable write operations, add your IP address to $list in eloglib.pl setAccess.

 

 

HEPNRC Control Room Logbook

 

The HEPNRC logbook is installed with InstallShield. No additional configuration is necessary.

 

 

 

 

ORNL Electronic Notebook

 

Permissions on the index.1st  file must be changed from 755 to 777 to add entries to the notebook. In the index.html file, the reference to your notebook nb=notebook must match the assignment in enote.pl $main::nb=’notebook’;.

 

 

 

 
PNNL Electronic Notebook

 

Four identical lines in note.cgi, $pair=~s/^(\r*\n*)*//; must be changed to $pair=~s/^(\r+\n+)*//; to enable write operations. To enable the screen capture utility, download http://www.emsl.pnl.gov:2080/cgi-bin/collab/collabweb.cgi/getview/eln/win95/Rectcap.exe (for Windows 95/98/NT).

To enable the equation editor, download and unzip HotEqn from http://www.esr.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/VCLab/software/HotEqn/HotEqn.html

 

The prompt to grant privileges to Battelle Memorial Institute shown below appears 3-4 times for each Notebook login. James Myers, Notebook author explains:

 

“Normal applets are not allowed to do anything that might be harmful -

read/write files, open network connections (except back to where they came

from), get environment variables (such as the user's home directory), etc.

They do allow code that has been digitally signed to request privileges

from the user to do these things, i.e. for an applet to do the things that

any application you download yourself could do. We have purchased a

Verisign certificate for Battelle Memorial Institute (the company

operating PNNL) and signed the notebook software with it. When you are

asked to grant privileges, Netscape first verifies that the applet you

have came from us and has not been modified since we wrote it. If you

grant privileges, then the notebook can function correctly and

 

 read/write the local eln.ini file (we store information about where

rectcap.exe is located, which notebook you used last (helpful if you also

use the ELNWizard), and soon information about any proxy server you wish

to use, what directory to use for caching files locally, etc.),

 

 read the files you wish to upload and open a connection to the notebook

server to send them (once you do a local install of the applet, even

connecting back to the notebook server is prohibited unless privileges are

granted since the code now comes from you machine, not the server),

 

 launch rectcap.exe, etc.

 

Often, Netscape's messages are a little strange since they are focussing

on the bad things that such an applet could do rather than the good. So -

the privilege to allow us to read and write an eln.ini file becomes the

ability to modify/delete all files on your hard drive, etc.

 

To summarize, the notebook can't work without these privileges. By

granting them, your basically allowing us to do things an application can

and, since you can verify that the software is from us (BMI), it is more

secure than downloading an application from somewhere on the web and

            running it. “

 

 

 

 

 

Setting up an Apache Virtual Web Server

 

To setup an Apache virtual server you need to obtain a virtual server port number from the Web Administrator. For more information on setting up virtual servers at Fermilab, please see http://fncdug.fnal.gov/dbi_internal/sysadmin/web_server_configuration.html

 

 

 

Mail comments to ode@fnal.gov

January 31, 2000