WebLab-Deusto [TARET3]

Introduction Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Future work Questions WebLab-Deusto Pablo Orduã n DeustoTech - Tecnol´gico Fundaciń Deusto o o July 16th, 2009 TARET 2009, Maribor (Slovenia) and Villach (Austria) img/logo.png Pablo Orduã n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Introduction Future work Questions Introduction So, what are we going to talk about? We are going to talk about the WebLab-Deusto project It aims to provide software for the Remote Labs developers, by providing an experiment-agnostic framework This is more or less the idea of the talk: First, brief analysis of the requirements of a Remote Lab We will focus in several aspects that are interesting for Remote Labs developers Then, show WebLab-Deusto approach Finally, discuss :-) img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Problem So, let’s start by detailing the problem img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Problem This guy here is Dr. Emmet L. Brown You might remember him from Back to the future I, II or III img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Problem He has a superb experiment, that he wishes to share with some students img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Tentative solution So, since he has some IT background, he decides to build the Remote Lab himself For that, he builds this architecture img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Tentative solution Result: a cool Remote Lab that he can use from the Internet! img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Basic requirements Now, he wants many students to use it. It’s not a problem! You can just let anybody use it! Ok, that’s an approach, Doc. Want to grant access only to certain people? Want to know who broke it? Want to measure accesses, from which courses? img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Basic requirements Well, I can program that! You only need a database and that’s it! img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Basic requirements True, but: Secure layers? Certiﬁcates? Password hashing? SQL/XPath/ Injection attacks? Integration through LDAP/etc.? Doc, do you really have the knowledge, time or interest in implementing that? img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Basic requirements And what about scalability? Too many people? Balancing load? Degradation? img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Basic requirements Of course! I have the same program twice in two diﬀerent servers, and some students will use one and other the others img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Basic requirements And will you, Doc, maintain those servers? Security policies? Upgrading the system? Upgrading the conﬁguration? ... Does it even make sense? Is not IT services’ work? What if you need more and more experiments? img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Technologies And what about technologies? Each client technology has advantages and drawbacks Which one did you choose, Doc? img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Technologies LabVIEW Advantages: powerful and easy! Disadvantages Install the runtime! if you can: platforms, admin. . . img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Technologies Java applets: advantages Powerful! Outside the sandbox: Files Connections to other hosts You can do what you want! img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Technologies Java applets: disadvantages Install the runtime Admin rights? Correct version? Slow load Outside the sandbox: Risks! Expired certiﬁcates? Lack of secure layer? → man in the middle attack!!! Hack the server → you’ll hack the students img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Technologies img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Technologies Adobe Flash: advantages Fast, visual, powerful and secure Plugin, available in most platforms, widely spreaded img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Technologies Adobe Flash: disadvantages Mainly: single provider Still a plugin img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Technologies AJAX: advantages Many providers No installation is required Security img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Technologies AJAX: disadvantages Did you say video? Or even audio? Networking? Where are my sockets?!?! Development eﬀort img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab Problem WebLab-Deusto Basic requirements Future work Technologies Questions Technologies More technologies: Microsoft Silverlight. . . No technology is perfect Although everyday they are better (HTML5. . . ) But it’s not such a trivial decision We already talked about this in our chapter of the following book: https://www.weblab.deusto.es/joomla/imoprl/book.html Chapter 3, unfortunately quite outdated now (July 2007) img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions Requirements So Doc, you’re working too much Reuse solutions for requirements! Scalability Maintainability Security Client deployment Authentication, authorization Logs of the system Dependence on the protocol SOA compliance Integration in LMSs ... img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions What to do? But then, what should I do? img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions WebLab-Deusto approach Following the WebLab-Deusto approach, focus on the experiment development You’re the expert there Leave other decisions to the underlying framework img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions WebLab-Deusto 3 architecture In WebLab-Deusto, system administrator: manages users, groups, permissions deployment protocols between servers ... Experiment developer: only “experiment server” img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions WebLab-Deusto 3 architecture img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions What to do? Ok, but what do I have to do there? img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions Just the experiment! You only need to write the experiment code The client (any web technology) The server (any technology supporting XML-RPC -Java, .NET, Python, LabVIEW. . . -) img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions Any technology? img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions But how? But how? What do I have to write? img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions Operations Very simple operations: 1 start 2 dispose 3 String sendCommand(String) 4 String sendFile(byte [], String) Subject to very little changes img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions Only that? Only that? And where are the communications? img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions Let us work on that Right now, we use SOAP, but we have almost finished XML-RPC and JSON We know that Doc needs speed so we’ll support sockets through Flash soon if Flash is available no firewall Anyway, doc, you shouldn’t need to know it! Software changes a lot, and optimizations in the underlying layers will make your life easier :-) img/logo.png Pablo Orduã n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions Show it! Demos Java applet Java experiment server LabVIEW experiment server (experimental!) img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Focus Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Architecture WebLab-Deusto XWL Future work Results Questions That was easy! Well, that was easy! So, what are you working on the moment? img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Future work Future work Questions Future work - More requirements Some requirements not met by current version Other schedules schemas Support of XML-RPC, JSON and sockets inside the architecture when possible More experiments to validate the interface img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Future work Future work Questions Future work - LMSs! Integration in LMSs! Check the s-Labs project and work done by Elio Sancristobal et al! http://www.ieec.uned.es/Investigacion/sLabs/ Check Jaime’s presentation too! img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Future work Future work Questions Future - Licensing Open Source and Commercial Support Right now the software can not be downloaded :-( A spin-off (Edooca) has been set up, and will start working soon Make the project Open Source Offer commercial support for WebLab-Deusto img/logo.png Pablo Orduã n WebLab-Deusto

Introduction Building a Remote Lab WebLab-Deusto Questions Future work Questions Questions? porduna@tecnologico.deusto.es www.weblab.deusto.es img/logo.png Pablo Ordu˜a n WebLab-Deusto

WebLab-Deusto [TARET3]

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