Introduction

This is the web app for the BioBoard. Below is an install guide to help you get started with the software for your BioBoard.

Installing the Web App

Create a directory for the software:

mkdir ~/bioboard

cd ~/bioboard

Install ruby:

sudo apt-get install ruby-full

Go to http://rubygems.org/ and download the rubygems tgz.

extract the files:

tar xvzf rubygems-1.7.2.tgz

Install rubygems:

cd rubygems-1.7.2/

sudo ruby setup.rb

cd /usr/bin/

sudo ln -s gem1.8 gem

Install Ruby on Rails:

sudo gem install rails --no-rdoc --no-ri

Make sure you have git installed:

sudo apt-get install git-core

Get the code for the web app:

cd ~/bioboard/

git clone https://github.com/BioBridge/BioBoardSite.git

Install web app dependencies:

sudo apt-get install libsqlite3-dev

bundle install

Initialize the database:

cd ~/bioboard/BioBoardSite/config/

tar xvf config_examples.tar

cd ..

rake db:migrate

Start the web app to see if it works:

rails s

You should get something like the following:

=> Booting WEBrick
=> Rails 3.0.5 application starting in development on http://0.0.0.0:3000
=> Call with -d to detach
=> Ctrl-C to shutdown server
[2011-05-01 21:57:44] INFO WEBrick 1.3.1
[2011-05-01 21:57:44] INFO ruby 1.8.7 (2010-06-23) [i686-linux]

Open your web-browser and go to:

http://localhost:3000/

You should see the welcome page. If you did: Congratulations! You're almost there :-) Let the webserver run, open up a new terminal and continue to the next section.

Installing the log & comet server

This assumes that you have installed the web app on the same computer. You can have the log & comet server on a different computer, but for that you're on your own.

Get the code:

cd ~/bioboard/

git clone https://github.com/BioBridge/BioBoardLogServer.git

Install the dependencies:

sudo aptitude install build-essential

sudo gem install eventmachine --no-ri --no-rdoc

sudo gem install json

Start the log server:

cd BioBoardLogServer/

./server

Note that the server assumes your sqlite database is at "../BioBoardSite/db/dev.sqlite". This will be true if you followed this guide. If you want to keep your sqlite database elsewhere, you need to modify the line "dbpath = '../BioBoardSite/db/dev.sqlite'" in the file "BioBoardLogServer/server.rb", and the line "database: db/dev.sqlite" in the file "BioBoardSite/config/database.yml".

Testing the setup

Now you are ready to test if everything works.

Open up a new terminal and go to the log server directory:

cd ~/BioBoardLogServer/

To test the setup, you can start a small program that simulates an attached BioBioard:

./board_simulator.rb

This will begin sending fake data to the server you started previously. You can now go back to your web browser to verify that the data is there.

Go to:

http://localhost:3000/

In the project list at the bottom, click the "BATCH1" project.

If everything is working, you should see a graph with two lines. You can hit refresh in the browser to update the graphs with the new data.

Using the software

For information on how to use this software, go to: https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/BioBoard/Documentation/PC_Software#Using_the_software