Forum OpenACS Development: Iteractive console for XOTcl, any takers?

Do you have ideas on how to code such a beast?

Thank you for your prompt answer.

Anyway, I found a way to access an openacs thread without any changes to tkcon. If I open an openacs shell and input the code below, it will open a server socket which may be attached to a tkcon (even in a remote machine, of course). The code is mostly adapted from tkconclient. It will rest connected for indefinite time, althout the web client (firefox, for instance) will report a time out. Doesn't matter. Tkcon will keep connected to aolserver thread and will be able to introspect everything and interact with the interpreter. That's exactly what I wanted!

There is just one thing I have to do. Integrate this code in Developer Support, so I don't have to cut-n-paste in the openacs shell everytime... I have to learn a little yet on how to do this.

Here is the code (paste into openacs shell, press "ok", run tkcon and attach it to socket <your_server>,port 8765):

 namespace eval ::tkconclient {
    variable script ""
    variable server ""
    variable socket ""
    variable wait ""
	namespace export start stop
    proc start {port {myaddr localhost}} {
	variable socket
	variable server
	if {$socket ne "" || $server ne ""} stop
	set server [socket -server [namespace current]::accept \
			-myaddr $myaddr $port]
    }
    proc stop {} {
	variable server
	if {$server ne ""} {
	    closesocket
	    close $server
	    set server ""
	}
    }
    proc closesocket {} {
	variable socket
	catch {close $socket}
	set socket ""
	# Restore [puts]
	rename ::puts ""
	rename [namespace current]::puts ::puts
    }
    proc accept {sock host port} {
	variable socket
	fconfigure $sock -blocking 0 -buffering none
	if {$socket ne ""} {
	    puts $sock "Only one connection at a time, please!"
	    close $sock
	} else {
	    set socket $sock
	    fileevent $sock readable [namespace current]::handle
	    # Redirect [puts]
	    rename ::puts [namespace current]::puts
	    interp alias {} ::puts {} [namespace current]::_puts
	}
    }
    proc handle {} {
	variable script
	variable socket
	if {[eof $socket]} {
	    closesocket
	    return
	}
	if {![catch {read $socket} chunk]} {
	    if {$chunk eq "bye\n"} {
		puts $socket "Bye!"
		closesocket
		return
	    }
	    append script $chunk
	    if {[info complete $script]} {
		catch {uplevel "#0" $script} result
		if {$result ne ""} {
		    puts $socket $result
		}
		set script ""
	    }
	} else {
	    closesocket
	}
    }
    ## This procedure is partially borrowed from tkcon
    proc _puts args {
	variable socket
	set len [llength $args]
	foreach {arg1 arg2 arg3} $args { break }

	switch $len {
	    1 {
		puts $socket $arg1
	    }
	    2 {
		switch -- $arg1 {
		    -nonewline - stdout - stderr {
			puts $socket $arg2
		    }
		    default {
			set len 0
		    }
		}
	    }
	    3 {
		if {$arg1 eq "-nonewline" &&
		    ($arg2 eq "stdout" || $arg2 eq "stderr")} {
		    puts $socket $arg3
		} elseif {($arg1 eq "stdout" || $arg1 eq "stderr") \
			      && $arg3 eq "-nonewline"} {
		    puts $socket $arg2
		} else {
		    set len 0
		}
	    }
	    default {
		set len 0
	    }
	}
	## $len == 0 means it wasn't handled above.
	if {$len == 0} {
	    global errorCode errorInfo
	    if {[catch [linsert $args 0 puts] msg]} {
		regsub tkcon_tcl_puts $msg puts msg
		regsub -all tkcon_tcl_puts $errorInfo puts errorInfo
		return -code error $msg
	    }
	    return $msg
	}
    }
 }

::tkconclient::start 8765 [ns_info address]
vwait ::tkconclient::wait
::tkconclient::stop
ReturnHeaders
ns_write "Remote Tkcon connection server stopped!"

Ok, I agree with you that "vwait" will keep the thread alive. I think this is not a good thing for serving requests (as there are a lot of requests coming, which would keep many threads alive...), but in a single thread I can't see a problem (we can't have 2 tkcons at the same time, anyway).
There is a (potentially serious) problem yet with that code., though. If we do not answer the web browser, it will keep trying to connect again and again, so we'll have many threads starting. There are several ways for bypassing that. Please wait a little more and I'll get the best 😊

For now, a simple way to stop this problem is to press the "stop" button in the browser (firefox), so it will not wait for the answer.
I have measured the performance (despite vwait keeping that thread alive) and didn't notice any stall or anything else. In fact I can even see the sockets, "llength [nsv_names]", etc., at the tkcon. Please, explain me better why the vwait may be troublesome.

Well, time to work. Let me polish this crude idea, so we get a nice debugging tool (also suitable for teaching), because everyone likes interactivity!

Thank you for your motivation! I'll keep you informed on this and other results I get. I'm starting to implement a kind of e-commerce application with oacs & friends, but I'm still learning how to program in xotcl/xowiki.

BTW, many thanks also for those nice libraries. I'm really amazed with them, and XoWiki alone convinced me to try OpenACS.

greetings from Recife, brazilian's Venice,
Rildo Pragana

Ok, I got it. Please, tell me how to start the service. I have put it in &lt;server&gt;/www/tkcon-gustaf.tcl, but when I start it from the browser, it throws an error:

is not under the path root (/var/lib/aolserver/service0)
while executing
"error "$path is not under the path root ([acs_root_dir])""
(procedure "ad_make_relative_path" line 6)
invoked from within
"ad_make_relative_path [info script]"
(procedure "ad_library" line 3)
invoked from within
"ad_library {
...

Please, help me as I'm still a newbie in oacs and xotcl/xowiki (though, I have worked with tcl/tk for some years).

Another question: does this approach keep the connection with the webbrowser live? (many procs don't work as expected if there is no connection)

I have made some tests with another tkcon-remote interface (see it at http://pragana.net/tkcon-remote.tcl). If I put this in /my_server_path/www/tkcon-remote.tcl and open the url in Firefox, it will start, avoid double starting and keep the connection (with the browser) active at the server side. This was achieved by a simple javascript "trick" on the client.

Then I may type the following in a tkcon console:

::xowiki::Package initialize -parameter {{-m view} {-folder_id:integer 0}}
foreach {v x} {url /xowiki object "" package_key xowiki package_url /xowiki} { ::$package_id set $v $x }
::$package_id invoke -method view

It will return the html page for the main xowiki instance.

best regards,
Rildo Pragana