First public release

[Jesse]

The first public version of Powerline, 0.2.0, was released today. A
installation guide is available at http://code.google.com/p/powerline/wiki/UnixSetup
; configuration details will be posted shortly.

[Kieran Hixon]

Congratulations!

--
"Remember, lad," said  the newt, "if it's going to be tomorrow, it might as well be today.  And if it is today, it could have been yesterday.  If it was yesterday, then you're over and done with it, and can write your own book.  Think about that."  Avon thought about it for a long moment, and then he said right out loud, "Yes, I will do it.  Yesterday for sure!"  - Avi  "The End of the Beginning"

[Jesse]

On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 6:16 AM, Kyle Hall <kyle....@gmail.com> wrote:

So, I take it there is no Linux client of any kind?

Kyle

On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 11:42 AM, Jesse <piano...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 8:50 AM, Diogenes <kyle....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hello All,
>>  I've been poking around the Powerline site, and I can't seem to find
>> any details on the software. What I'm wanting to know is if there is a
>> client that runs on the 'public' computers that requires a user to log
>> in in order to use it. Or are you supposed to use the Pre-Book client?
>> Thanks.
>>
>
> At this time, yes, unfortunately. I'm working on a new, better client, but
> in the meantime, you can download http://userful.com/download/dl?p=winclient
> . Don't worry about the free trial warnings, it's free to use as long as you
> like.
>

No; at this time, the only client is the Windows one made by Userful. After some (now quite frequent) problems with that client, I am developing a new client for Windows and Linux; it should be finished within a week or two.

[Kyle Hall]

That is excellent. I've written a similar system called LibKi, but it
doesn't have a reservation system. The big problem is I wrote it in
PHP/Gtk+ which works great on Linux, but not well at all on Windows.

Please let me know when your client is ready. If we decide to switch
to powerline, I may even be able to help with some development if you
are interested, though I must say I've never programmed in python. I'm
a php and perl guy.

Kyle

--
http://www.kylehall.info
Information Technology
Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org )

[Jesse]

On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 10:06 AM, Kyle Hall <kyle....@gmail.com> wrote:

That is excellent. I've written a similar system called LibKi, but it
doesn't have a reservation system. The big problem is I wrote it in
PHP/Gtk+ which works great on Linux, but not well at all on Windows.

Please let me know when your client is ready. If we decide to switch
to powerline, I may even be able to help with some development if you
are interested, though I must say I've never programmed in python. I'm
a php and perl guy.

Kyle

>

> No; at this time, the only client is the Windows one made by Userful. After
> some (now quite frequent) problems with that client, I am developing a new
> client for Windows and Linux; it should be finished within a week or two.
>

Once possible goal would be interoperability between LibKi and Powerline. Since the two systems have slightly different goals, but would need roughly the same client, I could work on making the Powerline client use a LibKi/Powerline protocol, rather than the somewhat quirky one it speaks now. A new protocol would probably be part of a new version of Powerline; as soon as that gets rolling, I'd like to talk about protocol design.

[Kyle Hall]

Can you explain how the goals of LibKi and Powerline are different? I
honestly don't know.

LibKi is was born out of a replacement of the various parts of
Outkafe, one by one. Both use a communication system where the client
and server read and write to a database, and never talk to each other
directly.

Kyle

--

[Jesse]

On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 10:31 AM, Kyle Hall <kyle....@gmail.com> wrote:

Can you explain how the goals of LibKi and Powerline are different? I
honestly don't know.

LibKi is was born out of a replacement of the various parts of
Outkafe, one by one. Both use a communication system where the client
and server read and write to a database, and never talk to each other
directly.

Kyle

To me it seemed that LibKi was just a kiosk manager program, rather than a reservations system, no?

As for protocols, the communication between server and client was intended to make sure that any policy decisions stayed in one place on the server, rather than duplicated on all of the clients.

[Kyle Hall]

The goal of LibKi was this: to provide an automated way to allow each
library patron to use a computer for X minutes a day without
librarians having to manage sign-up sheets and the like. All other
concerns are secondary. I was planning on eventually adding a
reservation system to it, but it has not been a priority.

I've not seen the Powerline/Userful client program. I assume that it
prevents a patron from using a computer unless they have logged on
with their username/password, after having made the proper
reservation. Is this correct?

Kyle

--

[Jesse]

On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 12:36 PM, Kyle Hall <kyle....@gmail.com> wrote:

The goal of LibKi was this: to provide an automated way to allow each
library patron to use a computer for X minutes a day without
librarians having to manage sign-up sheets and the like. All other
concerns are secondary. I was planning on eventually adding a
reservation system to it, but it has not been a priority.

I've not seen the Powerline/Userful client program. I assume that it
prevents a patron from using a computer unless they have logged on
with their username/password, after having made the proper
reservation. Is this correct?

Kyle

Yes. They first make a reservation by entering their barcode (no passwords yet) at a central reservations computer. We also allow multiple sessions; our patrons can use the computer 4 times a day for 35 minutes max a session.

[Kyle Hall]

Is there a web frontend for the librarians so they can see who is
logged in where? Some of the features I've put into LibKi that are
nice but non-essential are the ability to log someone off, disable
their account, add notes to their account, send the person a message
over the network, etc.

Here is a snapshot of the web admin inteface:
http://kylehall.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/libki_admin.jpg

Kyle

--

[Jesse]

Powerline has some of these features.

On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 10:13 AM, Kyle Hall <kyle....@gmail.com> wrote:

Is there a web frontend for the librarians so they can see who is
logged in where? Some of the features I've put into LibKi that are
nice but non-essential are the ability to log someone off,

No
 

disable their account

Yes on that one; you can ban someone permanently or until a certain date.
 

add notes to their account, send the person a message
over the network, etc.

Here is a snapshot of the web admin inteface:
http://kylehall.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/libki_admin.jpg

These are quite nice; how do you accomplish them? Does the client check the database every few minutes?
 

Kyle

[Kyle Hall]

> These are quite nice; how do you accomplish them? Does the client check the
> database every few minutes?

Yes, the timeout for checking is in a config file for the client. I
usually have it check every 10-15 seconds. It checks the status and if
it's not set to 'Logged in' it logs the user off. It also checks the
messages column and if there is one, clears the field and displays it
to the patron.

It's not the most elegant system, but I didn't really have a choice
since I was reverse-engineering someone elses architecture, much like
you have done.

Kyle

--