This is page to track developement of the WnDb or Wireless Node Database which Personal Telco (and several other WirelessCommunities) use to track their nodes.
See also: WnDb, WnDbInstall
The current goal is to get the WnDb ready for a 1.0 release which can be GPL'd and released to the general public. One of the major goals for this figuring out a way that decentralized storage can be made to work so that each server instance can be authoritative for certain data and yet still show all the other data to a user.
Current Bugs
- [FIXED] The map server world view doesn't work. It produces an error saying that the demo.map file has an invalid ioctl and that the file is unreadable.
- [FIXED] Right now the map server lists Personal Telco twice in the left hand sidebar. I'm not sure why.
- World view is only half the world.
Bug Reports
- Trying to view a node ID that no longer exists causes an internal server error.
Minor Feature Requests
- A central config file for paths etc.
I'd like the NodeTypes restructured a little.
I'd like the wording of some of the questions changed. Instead of NoCatAuth I'd like it to say Captive Portal (or something more generic anyway). Also I'm not entirely sure what the goal behind the "Linux AP" question was. Matt?
Provide a summary page to inspire friendly competition
For example NycWireless has 50 nodes, 5 links and an average node uptime of 92.4%. Or something like that. Good journalist/marketing fodder too. I'd like the a color tint (or something) done to the main map so that the nodes stick out a little better on the busy MapBlast maps.
- I'd like the text views of the maps organized a little better. I'd like them sorted by group, with the group listed first.
I'd like a last used field in the node database. This would be automatically updated by a script when a user accesses a node via NoCatAuth (ie. the best way I can figure out how to monitor nodes is to make the end user run a CGI ... that means that local wireless access and internet access are both working).
- I'd like some more flexible options for the Recent Changes output (changes within one group, changes within the last day, two days, week and month ... or something similar).
I'd like to be able to list nodes in a given group based on specific node properties. In the NYCWireless Cloud SIG, for instance, it would be helpful to be able to list only those NYCWireless nodes that are interested in connecting to other nodes. -- AaronGrogan
Larger Feature Requests
- Major code clean up, refactoring and consolidation (fewer smarter pages etc).
- Add node list views for Active, Inactive, All nodes (right now only all works)
- A reduction of dependencies where possible.
- I'd like to see a "node audit view". Basically a view which prints out the small map, the address (maybe lat/long) for every active node for a group. The purpose would be for auditing the nodes, so I can print it and take it in the car as I drive around to see who has what installed and if everything is still working.
- I'd like some form of heirachical data backend. The goal here is that each community group could run their own map server but a user using their map server could see all the other groups nodes (good when a NYC user finds the PTP map first). LDAP leaps to mind as having a lot of this functionality built in already but it's a hideously complicated bastard of a protocol and I'm a big believer in simple. Other suggestions welcome.
Maybe a simple solution would be to do something like the InterWiki. Each node map instance knows which groups it's authoritative for, it also knows what the authoritative URL is for the other groups and forwards edits to that server. then we just have to figure out a way to replicate non-authoritve data read only to the other servers.
Set up other mapping back ends. Tiger from US Census would be a decent MapBlast replacement in the USA. Topozone would be cool for topological data etc. I think the biggest problem with this is that they all use slightly different projections for the maps so it's hard to get the dots in exactly the right spot.
Make the map data load directly from the source to the client, rather that going through the WnDb server. You could use HTML Layers to overlay the node data. Much like the weather sites do with their radar/streets/counties/etc.
- Using the map server as a monitoring server. It would be cool if it reported live status on nodes.
- I'd like the map to ack new entries by requiring a valid email address (doesn't necessarily have to be displayed). I'd then like the map to email people every X weeks/months and ask them to click on a URL to update their node data. If they don't do that with in X time it should expire their node.
- Given the open nature of the map (which I like) I'd like it if there was some form of revision control on it so we could revert in case of malicous data entry. MySQL dumps may serve well enough.
- In a similar vein it would be nice if the recent changes pages showed deleted pages.
Rough colored range overlays by doing the math for power output of the AP, and the dBi and directionality of any antennae, on top of satellite photos (DonPark said he knew somebody with CDs of the pdx metro). For a much cooler example of what I'm proposing, see the Wireless Network Visualization Project. --AndrewWoods
Some notes on how this might be done an emperical AccessPoint PowerMeterGraph --AaronJohnson
- Make the appriate city map show on the front page instead of the drop down boxes in the middle? Caching of the image should make the performance hit minimal.
When auto-detecting which host it has been contacted as it should also update the pull down boxes in the middle of the front page -- MichaelCodanti
Internationalization for none english speakers -- JaimeRobles
A web API so that external applications can make use of the data and logic in the WnDb system -- DanaSpiegel