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@@ -2,45 +2,60 @@ Web interface simulating a cockpit of an unmanned aerial vehicle, built with Akka, Play and ScalaJS. -This project is made of several subprojects: - - `vfd-main` contains the play application that serves the actual interface - - `vfd-dashboard` dynamic cockpit interface built with scalajs that displays real-time data from the drone - - `vfd-index` dynamic landing page advertising available drones - - `vfd-uav` communication backend for message exchange with drones +See [demo](http://vfd.herokuapp.com). -# Run +# Getting started SBT is used as the build tool. To get started: 1. start sbt in the base directory 2. enter 'run' *Note: if this is the first time your run a play project through sbt, be aware that you may need to wait a while as your computer downloads half the internet* - 3. open localhost:9000 in a modern browser to see the application in action - 4. make some changes + 3. open [localhost:9000](http://localhost:9000) in a modern browser (tested in Firefox and Chromium) to see the application in action + 4. make some changes to the application 5. go to step 3 (the application is automatically recompiled) The application can be deployed as a standalone package by running the 'dist' task. # Developer Overview -The general idea of this project is to create a web interface for displaying live data from a drone. +## General Idea +The general idea of this project is to create a web interface for displaying live data from a drone. It is made of several subprojects, each providing a certain functionality. -The flow of such data can be summarized in a few points: + Project | Description | Technology + ------- | ----------- | ---------- + `vfd-main` | Contains a play application that serves the actual interface. | Scala + `vfd-dashboard` | Dynamic cockpit web interface that displays real-time data from a drone. Served up by `vfd-main`. | ScalaJS + `vfd-index` | Dynamic landing page advertising available drones. | ScalaJS + `vfd-uav` | Communication backend for message exchange with drones. | Scala + `vfd-bindings` | MAVLink utility library, used by all other projects. | Scala + +To get acquainted with the application's internal structure, it is recommended start looking at code in `vfd-main` and `vfd-dashboard`. + +As stated in the general idea, this application mainly reads data from a drone and displays it. The flow of such data can be summarized in a few points: - Data is received and processed in the form of [MAVLink](http://qgroundcontrol.org/mavlink/start) messages. - Messages arrive at a communication backend (implemented in vfd-uav). Currently, this is either a mock backend that generates random messages, or a serial connection using [flow](https://github.com/jodersky/flow) for low-level communication. - These messages are then transferred through vfd-main to the interface via websockets. -- Messages are parsed by the front-end (the interface) and used to display virtual instrumentation. -- Currently, a custom set of MAVLink messages are used. Their definition is in mavlink/concise.xml -- The dialect definition is translated from xml into useable scala code by a [plugin](https://github.com/jodersky/sbt-mavlink) during the build. +- Messages are parsed by the interface and used to display virtual instrumentation. +- The official 'common' mavlink dialect is used. Its definition is in [vfd-bindings/mavlink/common.xml](vfd-bindings/mavlink/common.xml) +- The dialect definition is translated from xml into useable scala code by a plugin during the build. + +## Sub-project details + +### vfd-dashboard +The dynamic cockpit UI frontend. + - The frontend is a pure scalajs application using [scalatags](https://github.com/lihaoyi/scalatags) templating. + - Basically, `vfd-main` serves an empty page containing the frontend and provides a websocket for communication. + - Once loaded, the scalajs frontend replaces the empty page with its UI. + - Messages are received by the websocket and stored in an observable [scala.rx](https://github.com/lihaoyi/scala.rx) "var". + - Messages are reactively propagated to the final user interface components. -Details on the dashboard interface: - - the frontend is a pure scalajs application using [scalatags](https://github.com/lihaoyi/scalatags) templating - - basically, vfd-main provides a websocket for communication and serves a page (see views.uav.scala.html) that contains a div with a loading message - - once loaded, the scalajs frontend replaces the content of said div with its insrumentation (see code in package vfd.dashboard.ui.*) - - messages are received by a websocket and stored in an observable "var"; this process uses [scala.rx](https://github.com/lihaoyi/scala.rx) - - panels observe the recieved messages and update their respective instruments and components +### vfd-bindings +Initially an empty project, it uses the [sbt-mavlink plugin](https://github.com/jodersky/sbt-mavlink) to generate Scala bindings for the MAVLink protocol Other projects depend on it for interacting with the protocol. See the scaladoc, package `org.mavlink`, for details on the MAVLink API. +## Scaladoc +Scaladoc of the current application is available [here](https://jodersky.github.io/vfd/latest/api/#org.mavlink.package). -# License -Copyright (C) Jakob Odersky +# Copying +Copyright (C) 2015 The VFD Developers This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as |