Rivendell HTML

What is it?

In simple terms, I'm trying to replace the non-critical parts of Rivendell with HTML, Javascript and PHP.

Tested with Riv 2.10.3 (Tryphon Repos). The service table was changed after this version to pull the CLOCKS into a SVC_CLOCKS table. This won't work properly with newer versions (2.11+).

Note: Riv seems to have more changes incoming in the next release. This includes a change from CLOCK TABLES to a CLOCKS_METADATA table containing all the clocks.

The pictures below show how clocks and grids support drag and drop with list insertion and all other expected goodness (feel free to tweak css to make it look nicer):

What do you mean non-critical?

Anything that doesn't have to run in real time e.g. rdairplay for radio output. This would also apply to rdpanels, caed, ripcd etc.

Basically most of the non-presenter using bits of Rivendell that don't need to happen with low latency audio delays.

Why?

There have been murmurings of QT5 updates to Rivendell. I think this is quite a long way off as it looks like an immense amount of work.

If look at the source code (approx 200,000 lines):

SLOC	Directory	SLOC-by-Language (Sorted)
62339	lib	cpp=62339
33880	rdadmin	cpp=33880
11563	rdairplay	cpp=11563
11028	utils	cpp=9741,ansic=1170,sh=117
10989	ripcd	cpp=10989
8317	rdlogedit	cpp=8317
7549	rdlogmanager	cpp=7549
7319	rdlibrary	cpp=7319
7206	rdcatch	cpp=7206
5841	cae	cpp=5841
3764	rdcatchd	cpp=3764
3494	rlm	ansic=3494
3461	web	cpp=3461
2836	rdhpi	cpp=2836
2002	importers	cpp=1977,sh=25
1582	tests	cpp=1582
1528	rdcastmanager	cpp=1528
869	rdrepld	cpp=869
677	helpers	sh=390,ansic=201,cpp=86
557	top_dir	sh=557
514	rdmonitor	cpp=514
435	debian	sh=435
431	scripts	sh=431
403	rdcartslots	cpp=403
392	ios	objc=392
378	rdpanel	cpp=378
307	rdselect	cpp=307
276	rdlogin	cpp=276
209	pam_rd	cpp=209

*generated using David A. Wheeler's 'SLOCCount'.

Big portions of rdadmin, logedit, log manager and library could be entirely replaced with web pages. If we could take these off the todo list you can save about 40,000 lines of code. I haven't looked too clearly at the libs directory so its possibly a lot more. Either way if this was HTML/PHP etc, this is at least 20% of all Riv development/conversion to QT5.

Obviously you could run through everything and get it done but:

• I'm not great with C++/QT so this is the best way I can try to help.
• A lot of Riv is quite a simple system of reading or changing database values (normal CRUD stuff).
• I forget where the quote came from but, "Web pages are just skins to databases" and it fits quite well.
• HTML/PHP/CSS/Javascript are much more accessible to more people so in theory the Rivendell guys will have more help if the tools are built in these languages.
• If you have a browser you can use the tools, you don't need a Windows, OSX, BSD or Linux build (or phones/tablets).
• I recently had to spend a lot of time with Rivendell events, grids and clocks. They work really well but I could see some ways that would be simpler/faster to use, especially as someone new to Riv.
• The mailing lists occasionally talk about how other systems generate templates. I think it will be easier to tweak/implement new behaviour for these tools in HTML etc than QT/C++ for most people.

How long will this take?

I have no idea, this is a spare time/boredom project.

Anything else you would like to do?

I don't know how feasible it is but if I can figure out a way of getting sound cloud style wav form elements in a web page it might even be possible to replace rdlibrary, voice tracking and potentially audio importing.

These are long term/will never be done goals but you never know.

Why plain HTML/PHP etc?

I have dabbled with various frameworks (most recently CakePHP, Ionic, Angular) over the years. You tend to spend about as much time learning the framework as actually coding something.

Then after a while you realise there are big security vulnerabilities in the framework you used and it needs to be updated. Then you realise the API changed massively and everything is broken.

This is bad when you haven't necessarily touched the code for months/years. All the parts of your code that you used to know are now a hazy blurry mess of pain and misery so it takes 10 times longer to fix than it should.

So unless there is a good reason I'll try and stick to standard PHP and Javascript rather than bolting on Angular or CakePHP etc. JQuery is a necessity as pure Javascript GET and POSTS are quite a horrible convluted mess and there are some nice JQuery date/time selectors.

This code is rubbish!

Most probably yes. I have a background in business apps written in Java. I taught myself PHP in an afternoon over 15 years ago. I still have never written any webpage that is complicated enough to bother with Object Orientated design/custom classes in PHP.

It is all just outputting strings of text and so far simple functions in organised files that you can add with includes work for me.

If you can suggest a framework or way of organising things that makes sense feel free to let me know. If it seems like a good plan I'll refactor to make it happen.

How do I use it?

Install MySQL/PHP/Apache (standard lamp stack) on a machine somewhere. If you have Rivendell, you already have everything but PHP on at least one machine.

Download the code and drop it somewhere on your web server.

If the Rivendell db is on localhost, it will just work. If not edit: /config/database.php