Ajax Push Engine 1.0 released

December 8, 2009 — Florent Clairambault

I’m quite unlucky because I’ve downloaded the APE BETA5 just before they (I mean Anthony Catel) released the 1.0. The quite interesting part is that it fixes all the bugs I’ve talked about sooner. So we could say my last post won’t be very useful to anyone.

Still, if you want to compile APE on CentOS x64, you have have to edit the modules/Makefile file and add the “-L/usr/lib64/mysql” command arg. It will give you something like that :

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ifeq ($(HAS_MYSQL), yes)
        MYSQL_FLAGS = -L./deps/mysac/ -I./deps/mysac/ -lmysac -L/usr/lib64/mysql -lmysqlclient_r
endif

They also added some new great demos but they are not included in the 1.0 sources. I’ve been closely following their websites for the last two days and they did an awesome job in a very short time. And I guess a lof of people are taking interest in this project because you can see a lot of monkeys on the APE home page.

As soon as possible, I will make some little test with the very interesting javascript server-side code based on SpiderMonkey.

Posted in English. Tags: , , , , . 3 Comments »

Ajax Push Engine 1.0 Beta 5

December 6, 2009 — Florent Clairambault

I talked quickly about APE in a recent post. I recently downloaded a new version of their program and
I’ve installed it successfully and it works much better. Since the first released verison, it has become quite easy, you just have to launch “./build.sh”. I had some problems with the linker on my CentOS system and the mysql libraries. But I solved it by added “-L/var/lib64/mysql” to some line of the Makefile.

How to make the demos work
They are some tiny bugs that took me quite some time to bypass :

  • To use the controller demo, you need to put the modules/conf/inlinepush.conf file into bin. I guess this will be fixed someday soon but still, that’s how it works right now.
  • To use the move demo, you need to change the scripts/main.ape.js file and add this line : 
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    include("examples/move.js");
  • To use the TCPSocket demo, you need to copy the modules/conf/proxy.conf file into bin.

Note : Each time you modify a script file (within the “scripts” directoy of APE), you have to restart the server.

The very interesting javascript backend
This project is very interesting because everything in the backend is handled by some little javascript files, the move example file is this one :

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Ape.registerCmd('setpos', true, function(params, infos) {
        if ((!$defined(params.x) || !$defined(params.y)) && (!isFinite(params.x) || !isFinite(params.y))) return 0;
 
        infos.user.setProperty('x', params.x);
        infos.user.setProperty('y', params.y);
 
        // We get the channel
        var chan = Ape.getChannelByPubid(params.pipe);
 
        // And send the position data of the calling user on it
        if (chan) {
                chan.pipe.sendRaw('positions', {'x': params.x, 'y': params.y}, {'from': infos.user.pipe});
        } else {
                return ['109', 'UNKNOWN_PIPE'];
        }
 
        return 1;
});

This is what allows the client to send this kind of request :

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[{"cmd":"SETPOS","chl":10,"params":{"x":282,"y":38,"pipe":"3dcaa701e8ee3394d65d5f71cd18e428"},"sessid":"b897476d835d12c150fb9fc337c7c93d"}]

If you don’t add the include line, the answer will be something like that :

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[{"time":"1260123358","raw":"ERR","data":{"chl":10,"code":"003","value":"BAD_CMD"}}]

The “BAD_CMD” reply means that this commands hasn’t be registered by the Ape.registerCmd method. If you come here because that happened to you, just fix it.

For the Controller demo, this is exactly the same. The file is :

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Ape.registerCmd("inlinepush", false, function(params, infos) {
        // We check the password ("password" parameter of the "inlinepush.conf" file)
        if (params.password == Ape.config("inlinepush.conf", "password")) {
                // If every request parameters have been correctly defined
                if ($defined(params.channel) && $defined(params.data) && $defined(params.raw)) {
                        // We get the channel
                        var chan = Ape.getChannelByName(params.channel);
                        if (!$defined(chan)) return ["401", "UNKNOWN_CHANNEL"];
 
                        // We send the data (as received) back to the channel
                        chan.pipe.sendRaw(params.raw, params.data);
 
                        return {"name":"pushed","data":{"value":"ok"}};
                } else {
                        return 0;
                }
        } else {
                return ["400", "BAD_PASSWORD"];
        }
})

If you get the the BAD_PASSWORD error response and you’re not sure why, you can change the BAD_PASSWORD line by :

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return ["400", "BAD_PASSWORD, the right one is :"+Ape.config("inlinepush.conf", "password")];

If you get “BAD_PASSWORD, the right one is :”. There’s a good chance you didn’t move the inlinepush.conf into the bin directory.

Sample communications
Here is a sample chat communication

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Echange CHAT :
--> [{"cmd":"script","params":{"domain":"ape.webingenia.com","scripts":["http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/mootools-core.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Core/APE.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Core/Events.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Core/Core.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Pipe/Pipe.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Pipe/PipeProxy.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Pipe/PipeMulti.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Pipe/PipeSingle.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Request/Request.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Request/Request.Stack.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Request/Request.CycledStack.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Transport/Transport.longPolling.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Transport/Transport.SSE.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Transport/Transport.XHRStreaming.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Transport/Transport.JSONP.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Core/Utility.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Core/JSON.js","http://ape.webingenia.com/Source/Core/Session.js"]}}]
<-- (useless html response)
 
// We  try some "CONNECT" and then "JOIN" commands with the name "superfc"
--> [{"cmd":"CONNECT","chl":1,"params":{"name":"superfc"}},{"cmd":"JOIN","chl":2,"params":{"channels":"test"}}]
// Error, the nick name is already use
<-- [{"time":"1260119123","raw":"ERR","data":{"code":"005","value":"NICK_USED"}}]
 
// We  try some "CONNECT" and then "JOIN" commands with the name "Florent"
--> [{"cmd":"CONNECT","chl":5,"params":{"name":"Hello"}},{"cmd":"JOIN","chl":6,"params":{"channels":"test"}}]
// This works !
<-- [{"time":"1260119134","raw":"LOGIN","data":{"sessid":"36a60d006d50882d0d2cd6bcfda90cb9"}},
{"time":"1260119134","raw":"IDENT","data":{"user":{"casttype":"uni","pubid":"8b5fec5af11df915d9806a3be4b46c35","properties":{"name":"Hello"}}}},
{"time":"1260119134","raw":"CHANNEL","data":{"users":[{"casttype":"uni","pubid":"8b5fec5af11df915d9806a3be4b46c35","properties":{"name":"Hello"},"level":1},{"casttype":"uni","pubid":"cc03a08f304a75cc133827c6c4b561c8","properties":{"name":"superfc"},"level":1},{"casttype":"uni","pubid":"541e78a0fbfbc08457c800aacccd212d","properties":{"name":"Florent"},"level":1}],"pipe":{"casttype":"multi","pubid":"2b27244bdb42c193d5158e818ec577d0","properties":{"name":"test"}}}}]
 
// We send 
--> [{"cmd":"SESSION","chl":7,"params":{"action":"set","values":{"currentPipe":"2b27244bdb42c193d5158e818ec577d0"}},"sessid":"36a60d006d50882d0d2cd6bcfda90cb9"}]
<-- [{"time":"1260119136","raw":"LEFT","data":{"user":{"casttype":"uni","pubid":"cc03a08f304a75cc133827c6c4b561c8","properties":{"name":"superfc"}},"pipe":{"casttype":"multi","pubid":"2b27244bdb42c193d5158e818ec577d0","properties":{"name":"test"}}}}]
 
// These next requests are long polls with nothing
--> [{"cmd":"CHECK","chl":9,"sessid":"36a60d006d50882d0d2cd6bcfda90cb9"}]
 
// Nothing new
<-- [{"time":"1260119186","raw":"CLOSE","data":{"value":"null"}}]
 
--> [{"cmd":"CHECK","chl":10,"sessid":"36a60d006d50882d0d2cd6bcfda90cb9"}]
<-- [{"time":"1260119211","raw":"CLOSE","data":{"value":"null"}}]
 
--> [{"cmd":"CHECK","chl":11,"sessid":"36a60d006d50882d0d2cd6bcfda90cb9"}]
<-- [{"time":"1260119239","raw":"CLOSE","data":{"value":"null"}}]
 
// We send some text ("hello")
--> [{"cmd":"SEND","chl":19,"params":{"msg":"Hello hello","pipe":"2b27244bdb42c193d5158e818ec577d0"},"sessid":"36a60d006d50882d0d2cd6bcfda90cb9"}]
// And we receive it ("hello")
<-- [{"time":"1260119399","raw":"DATA","data":{"msg":"hello","from":{"casttype":"uni","pubid":"541e78a0fbfbc08457c800aacccd212d","properties":{"name":"Florent"}},"pipe":{"casttype":"multi","pubid":"2b27244bdb42c193d5158e818ec577d0","properties":{"name":"test"}}}}]

If you don’t understand what is long polling, please look at previous post on the subject.

Please not that that the “CLOSE” RAW isn’t some sort of “session closed” message. I’m not sure this it’s what the developer planned but right now it only means that there’s nothing to receive. So if you get that, don’t panic. Everything is working fine.

If you need any help…
Please, don’t hesitate add some question in the comments, I’ll be happy to help you.

Posted in English. Tags: , , , . 5 Comments »

Lighttpd + Mono ASP.Net : The right configuration

May 18, 2009 — Florent Clairambault

As I already told before, I love the Mono project. It enables to run the powerful Microsoft .Net Framework on UNIX/Linux/BSD systems.

I recently wanted to test a very cool feature of ASP.Net on a mono server. So I did a little

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apt-get install lighttpd mono-fastcgi-server2 -y

The feature I wanted to try was a web scripting method ( with the “[WebMethod]” attribute) exporting some JSON directly from your method return value.

Here is the web scripting method declaration :

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[ScriptService]
public partial class _Default:Page {
 
	[WebMethod]
	[ScriptMethod( ResponseFormat = ResponseFormat.Json, UseHttpGet = false )]
	public static String TestMethod() {
		return DateTime.Now.ToString();
	}
}

And here is the javascript / JQuery code that gets the data :

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<div id="toto"></div>
 
<script type="text/javascript">
    function doIt() {
        $(document).ready(function() {
            $.ajax({
                type: "POST",
                url: "/Default.aspx/TestMethod",
                contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
                data: "{}",
                dataType: "json",
                success: AjaxSucceeded,
                error: AjaxFailed
            });
        });
        function AjaxSucceeded(result) {
            document.getElementById("toto").innerHTML = result.d;
        }
        function AjaxFailed(result) {
           document.getElementById("toto").innerHTML = "Error : "+result.status + ' ' + result.statusText;
        }
        setTimeout("doIt()", 1000);
    }
    doIt();
 
</script>

In my /etc/lighttpd/conf-enabled/10-fastcgi.conf file, I had this :

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server.modules   += ( "mod_fastcgi" )
fastcgi.server    = (
        "" => ((
                "socket" => mono_shared_dir + "fastcgi-mono-server",
                "bin-path" => mono_fastcgi_server,
                "bin-environment" => (
                        "PATH" => "/bin:/usr/bin:" + mono_dir + "bin",
                        "LD_LIBRARY_PATH" => mono_dir + "lib:",
                        "MONO_SHARED_DIR" => mono_shared_dir,
                        "MONO_FCGI_LOGLEVELS" => "Standard",
                        "MONO_FCGI_LOGFILE" => "/var/log/lighttpd/mono.log",
                        "MONO_FCGI_ROOT" => mono_fcgi_root,
                        "MONO_FCGI_APPLICATIONS" => mono_fcgi_applications
                ),
                "max-procs" => 1,
                "check-local" => "disable"
        ))
)

Everytime I launched a call from javascript, I got (with JS) I got a “405 Method not allowed”. Well, that was pretty disturbing. Mostly because a google search on this didn’t give me anything.
My first thought was that mono didn’t react the same way the .Net framework does. But this isn’t it. It came from my crappy lighttpd config file. It didn’t search for the Default.aspx file but for the Default.aspx/TesMethod.
What you need to do is set :

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fastcgi.server    = (
        ".aspx" => ((
            # Everything you have in your file (like my file above)
        )
 
fastcgi.map-extensions = (
        ".asmx"   => ".aspx",
        ".ashx"   => ".aspx",
        ".asax"   => ".aspx",
        ".ascx"   => ".aspx",
        ".soap"   => ".aspx",
        ".rem"    => ".aspx",
        ".axd"    => ".aspx",
        ".cs"     => ".aspx",
        ".config" => ".aspx",
        ".dll"    => ".aspx"
)

And that will even improve your performances because any other file will be handled directly by lighttpd.

One quick note : There’s something weird with VS2008 WebDev.WebServer.Exe, the WebMethod request takes at least 1.0s to complete. On the same host with XSP, it’s around 15 ms. And on the Celeron 2.6Ghz linux server with lighttpd it’s around 12 ms. And on a IIS 7 server (bundled with Windows 7), it takes 12 ms. So why is the Visual Studio’s WebDev.WebServer so slow ?

By the way, why should we use a Linux + lighttpd + Mono server when we can use a Windows + IIS + ASP.Net server ? The reason is mainly that for the same usage, Linux consumes less resources and it’s easier to customize to suit your needs.

An other question you might have : Why use JQuery + JSON when you can use everything in the Microsoft AJAX Framework ? The main reason is that I really have the feeling to lose control with Microsoft AJAX Framework, I don’t like the huge automatically generated code. And it doesn’t make really fast web interfaces. With JQuery, everything goes faster and it’s way simpler to understand (and debug).

Related :
- Using JQuery with ASP.Net

Posted in English. Tags: , , , , , . 4 Comments »
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