> bk_create()
> frontend.cpp:954: error: invalid conversion from ‘DWORD**’ to ‘void**’

Yes, the original bk_create() prototype was wrong, implying a pointer to the data instead of pointer-to-the-
pointer-to-the-data.

The prototype was corrected recently (within the last 2 years?), but as an unfortunate side-effect, nazi C 
compilers refuse to automatically downgrade "xxx**" to "void**" (when downgrade of xxx* to void* is 
accepted) and a cast is now required.

K.O.

the midas forum elog is updated to latest version from Stefan - ELOG V3.1.1-b4d2a37 built from git sources. K.O.

Just in case anyone needs this in the future I am adding a comment about this issue. After a few months of working
with this solution we noticed that when using

request.open('GET', url, false);

on firefox it could cause the javascript to stop at that point, possibly due to a delayed response from the
server. A simple solution is to send an asynchronous requests

request.open('GET', url, true);

Zaher

> Thank you very much, this is exactly what I need and it works.
> 
> Zaher
> 
> > All functions in midas are controlled through special URLs. So the URL
> > 
> > http://<host:port>/?cmd=Start&value=10
> > 
> > will start run #10. Similarly with ?cmd=Stop. Now all you need is to set up a custom button, and use the 
> > OnClick="" JavaScript method to fire off an Ajax request with the above URL. 
> > 
> > To send an Ajax request, you can use the function XMLHttpRequestGeneric which ships as part of midas in the 
> > mhttpd.js file. Then the code would be
> > 
> > <input type="button" onclick="start()">
> > 
> > and in your JavaScript code:
> > 
> > ...
> > function start()
> > {
> >    var request = XMLHttpRequestGeneric();
> > 
> >    url = '?cmd=Start&value=10';
> >    request.open('GET', url, false);
> >    request.send(null);
> > }
> > ...
> > 
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Stefan

I have a problem with using analyzer offline.
I'm trying to do it this way:

[lkst@pklinux online]$ kill_daq.sh
[lkst@pklinux online]$ odbedit -c "load data/run00020.odb"
[ODBEdit,INFO] Reloading RPC hosts access control list via hotlink callback
[lkst@pklinux online]$ analyzer -i data/run00020.mid -o test20.root
Root server listening on port 9090...
Running analyzer offline. Stop with "!"
[Analyzer,INFO] Set run number 20 in ODB
analyzer: src/odb.c:6631: db_paste_node: Assertion `status == 1' failed.
Load ODB from run 20...Aborted
[lkst@pklinux online]$

I always get this "Assertion `status == 1' failed." error even
if I try it in the examples/experiment enclosed in MIDAS distribution.
After this try I can not run any midas program, even odbedit reports an error,
until I delete the ODB file in /dev/shm/ and load last ODB dump with odbedit.
What do I do wrong and how this can be fixed?

Good news, on the new experimental branch feature/jsonrpc, I have implemented all 3 program management functions - start program, 
stop program and "is running?" as JSON-RPC methods. On that branch, the midas "programs" page is done completely using 
javascript.

You can try this new code right now or you can wait until the branch is merged into main midas - I am still ironing some last minute kinks 
in JSON encoding of ODB. But all the programs management should work (and all previously existing stuff should work). Look in 
mhttpd.js for the mjsonrpc_start_program() & etc.

K.O.



> Just in case anyone needs this in the future I am adding a comment about this issue. After a few months of working
> with this solution we noticed that when using
> 
> request.open('GET', url, false);
> 
> on firefox it could cause the javascript to stop at that point, possibly due to a delayed response from the
> server. A simple solution is to send an asynchronous requests
> 
> request.open('GET', url, true);
> 
> Zaher
> 
> > Thank you very much, this is exactly what I need and it works.
> > 
> > Zaher
> > 
> > > All functions in midas are controlled through special URLs. So the URL
> > > 
> > > http://<host:port>/?cmd=Start&value=10
> > > 
> > > will start run #10. Similarly with ?cmd=Stop. Now all you need is to set up a custom button, and use the 
> > > OnClick="" JavaScript method to fire off an Ajax request with the above URL. 
> > > 
> > > To send an Ajax request, you can use the function XMLHttpRequestGeneric which ships as part of midas in the 
> > > mhttpd.js file. Then the code would be
> > > 
> > > <input type="button" onclick="start()">
> > > 
> > > and in your JavaScript code:
> > > 
> > > ...
> > > function start()
> > > {
> > >    var request = XMLHttpRequestGeneric();
> > > 
> > >    url = '?cmd=Start&value=10';
> > >    request.open('GET', url, false);
> > >    request.send(null);
> > > }
> > > ...
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Cheers,
> > > Stefan

> I have a problem with using analyzer offline.
...
> [Analyzer,INFO] Set run number 20 in ODB
> analyzer: src/odb.c:6631: db_paste_node: Assertion `status == 1' failed.

The problem has been traced to unexpected interaction between code in mana.c and 
aggressive error checking in the odb xml decoder (used to load odb.xml dump from the midas 
data file into odb).

We are working on a solution.

K.O.

We're using the lazylogger to trigger a script that copies files, and the lag 
between a completed file appearing and the lazylogger trigger occasionally feels 
uncomfortably long.  It's not too bad - at most, around five or so minutes.  But 
of course it's tough to be patient when you're waiting to look at data.

The settings for our lazylogger specify a 'Stay behind' of zero and a 'Period' of 
zero.

Is there a way to make the lazylogger less lazy?  What determines the time 
between the appearance of a file and the lazylogger trigger?

I'm trying to set up an experiment with 2 frontends for the first time.  When I
start the remote frontend I get the following errors:

first time (odd attempt):

[MCS_Frontend_203,ERROR] [midas.c:9678:rpc_server_connect,ERROR] mserver
subprocess could not be started (check path)
[MCS_Frontend_203,ERROR] [mfe.c:2696:mainFE,ERROR] Cannot connect to experiment
'Default' on host 'ucntau-daq.lanl.gov', status 503

second time (even attempt):

MCS6A_frontend: src/midas.c:9085: rpc_client_dispatch: Assertion `n ==
sizeof(NET_COMMAND_HEADER) + 4 * sizeof(INT)' failed.

On the local host I'm running : mlogger, a frontend, an analzer, mhttp, and
mserver.  I followed the instructions for adding the remote computer to the
RPC_ALLOWED list and I do see that the remote frontend was able to edit the
local odb equipment list.  At present I'm not running an event builder I just
wanted to get the frontends connected to start.  Do I need to have the mserver
running on both computers?  Any suggestions on where to start troubleshooting this?

Thanks 

Not clear on what you are doing, so here is the brief description:

- you have two machines - say "midas" and "frontend"
- you run mttpd, mlogger, etc on "midas"
- you want to run some frontend on "frontend"

Do this:
- on "midas", open a new terminal, run "mserver -p 7071"
- on "frontend", open a new terminal, run "odbedit -h midas:7071"

If you did follow all the online instruction correctly, at this point, your odbedit on "frontend" would have 
connected and all commands would work same as if run locally on "midas".

If I understand you correctly, you got this far.

Next do this:
- on "frontend", open a new terminal, run "your_frontend.exe -h midas:7071"

If all is good, the frontend would start, would connect to midas, you would see
it in odbedit "scl" and on the midas status page and you would be able to stop
it from the midas "programs" page. (this last bit is important).

I guess this is where things go wrong and you do not get anything working.

Do this:
a) cut and paste all the output from the terminal window where you are running the mserver (including the 
command you used to start the mserver)
b) cut and paste all the output from the terminal window where you are starting the frontemd (again, 
including the command you used to start the frontend)
c) cut  and paste the contents of midas.log (in the experiment directory) from the time you started the 
mserver until the very end.

Paste all this as reply to this message or email it to me at olchansk@triumf.ca

With this additional information we should be able to get you going (and hopefully improve the 
documentation so the next person does not run into the same problem - whatever the problem turns out to 
be).

K.O.

> I'm trying to set up an experiment with 2 frontends for the first time.  When I
> start the remote frontend I get the following errors:
> 
> first time (odd attempt):
> 
> [MCS_Frontend_203,ERROR] [midas.c:9678:rpc_server_connect,ERROR] mserver
> subprocess could not be started (check path)
> [MCS_Frontend_203,ERROR] [mfe.c:2696:mainFE,ERROR] Cannot connect to experiment
> 'Default' on host 'ucntau-daq.lanl.gov', status 503
> 
> second time (even attempt):
> 
> MCS6A_frontend: src/midas.c:9085: rpc_client_dispatch: Assertion `n ==
> sizeof(NET_COMMAND_HEADER) + 4 * sizeof(INT)' failed.
> 
> On the local host I'm running : mlogger, a frontend, an analzer, mhttp, and
> mserver.  I followed the instructions for adding the remote computer to the
> RPC_ALLOWED list and I do see that the remote frontend was able to edit the
> local odb equipment list.  At present I'm not running an event builder I just
> wanted to get the frontends connected to start.  Do I need to have the mserver
> running on both computers?  Any suggestions on where to start troubleshooting this?
> 
> Thanks 

Dear all,

I'm using MIDAS system and CAEN V1721 to digitize the waveform from photomultipliers ( 
and the link bridge to PC is V2718 ). I use BLTRead to read data of the digitizer, but 
I found that if the event counting rate is high ( about 100KB/s ), the communication 
of V1721 and PC would be suspended randomly, and I get an error code of -2. Could you 
give me some suggestion? Thanks a lot.

> Dear all,
> 
> I'm using MIDAS system and CAEN V1721 to digitize the waveform from photomultipliers ( 
> and the link bridge to PC is V2718 ). I use BLTRead to read data of the digitizer, but 
> I found that if the event counting rate is high ( about 100KB/s ), the communication 
> of V1721 and PC would be suspended randomly, and I get an error code of -2. Could you 
> give me some suggestion? Thanks a lot.

Hi, 

Can you provide the BLTread call fragment code and the PC /var/log/messages at the time of 
the hang up.
What is needed to restart the daq?

PAA

Hi,

I have just installed Midas and set-up the ODB for a SuperCDMS test-facility (on
a SL6.7 machine). All works fine except that I receive the following error message:

[mserver,ERROR] [odb.c:944:db_validate_db,ERROR] Warning: database data area is
100% full

Which is puzzling for the following reason:

-> I have created the ODB with: odbedit -s 4194304
-> Checking the size of the .ODB.SHM it says: 4.2M
-> When I save the ODB as .xml and check the file's size it says: 1.1M
-> When I start odbedit and check the memory usage issuing 'mem', it says: 
...
Free Key area: 1982136 bytes out of 2097152 bytes
...
Free Data area: 2020072 bytes out of 2097152 bytes
Free: 1982136 (94.5%) keylist, 2020072 (96.3%) data

So it seems like nearly all memory is still free. As a test I created more
instances of one of our front-ends and checked 'mem' again. As expected the free
memory was decreasing. I did this ten times in fact, reaching

...
Free Key area: 1440976 bytes out of 2097152 bytes
...
Free Data area: 1861264 bytes out of 2097152 bytes
Free: 1440976 (68.7%) keylist, 1861264 (88.8%) data

So I could use another >20% of the database data area, which is according to the
error message 100% (resp. >95%) full. Am I misunderstanding the error message?
I'd appreciate any comments or ideas on that subject!

Thanks, Belina

Midas has a nice alarm system. I am wondering whether it is easily possible to
get the Alarm/Warning banner also on top of custom pages?!

> Midas has a nice alarm system. I am wondering whether it is easily possible to
> get the Alarm/Warning banner also on top of custom pages?!

K.O. made nice JavaScript routines to access the alarm status. The new alarm page is completely 
made dynamically from JavaScript code (mhttpd does not supply any HTML code any more, only 
functions to obtain ODB values etc). Part of this new dynamic page must be some code to display 
the alarm status. You just need to copy this to your custom page. K.O. can tell you details.

Stefan

Hi. Is it currently possible to automatically save the MIDAS ODB as a JSON file?
I can do it manually in odbedit, but it looks like the only option for the
automatic ODB save for each run is the standard .ODB format. Is there a way to
change this?

> Hi. Is it currently possible to automatically save the MIDAS ODB as a JSON file?
> I can do it manually in odbedit, but it looks like the only option for the
> automatic ODB save for each run is the standard .ODB format. Is there a way to
> change this?

You mean you like an ODB dump at the end of every run in JSON format?

Sure this can be implemented. But I wonder for what purpose you need that. Can you elaborate a 
bit, maybe it's a useful feature also other people should be aware of. I'm also thinking if we should 
offer a CouchDB interface, so ODB data is written directly to that database.

Stefan

Hi,
We do generate a .json odb at the end of run in order to extract some of its info for our CouchDB.
This is done using the "/program/Execute on stop run" script command. This method decouples the necessity 
to describe completely the info extraction within the ODB/Logger/"CouchDB" and provides possibly better 
flexibility. But including a CouchDB support in the logger as well (like SQL) would be nice too.

Pierre-André


> > Hi. Is it currently possible to automatically save the MIDAS ODB as a JSON file?
> > I can do it manually in odbedit, but it looks like the only option for the
> > automatic ODB save for each run is the standard .ODB format. Is there a way to
> > change this?
> 
> You mean you like an ODB dump at the end of every run in JSON format?
> 
> Sure this can be implemented. But I wonder for what purpose you need that. Can you elaborate a 
> bit, maybe it's a useful feature also other people should be aware of. I'm also thinking if we should 
> offer a CouchDB interface, so ODB data is written directly to that database.
> 
> Stefan

> Hi. Is it currently possible to automatically save the MIDAS ODB as a JSON file?
> I can do it manually in odbedit, but it looks like the only option for the
> automatic ODB save for each run is the standard .ODB format. Is there a way to
> change this?

I think today it makes sense to make all ODB dump in the JSON format - in my experience it is much 
easier to work with JSON data compared to XML data.

To write the ODB dump file in JSON format, set "/logger/ODB Dump File" to "run%05d.json".

In the midas data files, the ODB dump made into the begin-of-run and end-of-run events is presently 
unconditionally done in XML format.

Perhaps the data file dump should match the format of the odb dump file (both XML or both JSON or 
both ODB).

But at the moment our standard analyzer ROOTANA does not have the code to process JSON ODB 
dumps, so I am hesitant to make this change today, Maybe tomorrow when there is a VirtualODB 
JsonOdb class in ROOTANA. The requires JSON parser is already part of MIDAS (mjson.h/mjson.cxx).

K.O.

> > Midas has a nice alarm system. I am wondering whether it is easily possible to
> > get the Alarm/Warning banner also on top of custom pages?!
> 
> K.O. made nice JavaScript routines to access the alarm status. The new alarm page is completely 
> made dynamically from JavaScript code (mhttpd does not supply any HTML code any more, only 
> functions to obtain ODB values etc). Part of this new dynamic page must be some code to display 
> the alarm status. You just need to copy this to your custom page. K.O. can tell you details.
> 

Yes, please look at resources/alarm.html and the "get_alarms" JSON-RPC method. The "get_alarms" example in 
resources/example.html probably already does exactly what you need. Also note the presence of "al_reset_alarm" and 
"al_trigger_alarm" JSON_RPC methods.

K.O.