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authorFulup Ar Foll <fulup@iot.bzh>2016-05-30 16:07:31 +0200
committerJosé Bollo <jose.bollo@iot.bzh>2016-05-30 16:16:31 +0200
commit5262c13a63c78107d6d7df05db31f54db8d47ac7 (patch)
treec57707b2d8e396663cdb74312a69f08db5b76c02 /doc/afm-user-daemon.md
parentf45bd5fbf8d1fe440b1855d93b387755d63ac8f0 (diff)
Documentation Review
Change-Id: I5574584b820f3b4537a9cef1f9f64d0517590883
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/afm-user-daemon.md')
-rw-r--r--doc/afm-user-daemon.md266
1 files changed, 127 insertions, 139 deletions
diff --git a/doc/afm-user-daemon.md b/doc/afm-user-daemon.md
index 590b511..b21c1cd 100644
--- a/doc/afm-user-daemon.md
+++ b/doc/afm-user-daemon.md
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ The afm-user-daemon
===================
version: 1
- Date: 29 mai 2016
+ Date: 30 mai 2016
Author: José Bollo
TABLE-OF-CONTENT-HERE
@@ -11,39 +11,36 @@ TABLE-OF-CONTENT-HERE
Foreword
--------
-This document describes what we intend to do. It may happen that our
-current implementation and the content of this document differ.
-
-In case of differences, it is assumed that this document is right
-and the implementation is wrong.
+This document describes application framework user daemon fundamentals.
+FCF (Fully Conform to Specification) implementation is still under development.
+It may happen that current implementation somehow diverges with specifications.
Introduction
------------
The daemon **afm-user-daemon** is in charge of handling
-applications for one user. Its main tasks are:
+applications on behalf of a user. Its main tasks are:
- - enumerate the applications that the user can run
- and keep the list avalable on demand
+ - enumerate applications that end user can run
+ and keep this list available on demand
- - start applications for the user, set their running
- environment, set their security context
+ - start applications on behalf of end user, set user running
+ environment, set user security context
- - list the current runner applications
+ - list current runnable or running applications
- stop (aka pause), continue (aka resume), terminate
- the running instance of application
+ a running instance of a given application
- - transfer requests for installation or uninstallation
- of applications to the dedicated system daemon
+ - transfer requests for installation/uninstallation
+ of applications to the corresponding system daemon
**afm-system-daemon**
The **afm-user-daemon** takes its orders from the session
instance of D-Bus.
-The figure below summarizes the situation of the
-**afm-user-daemon** in the system.
+The figure below summarizes the situation of **afm-user-daemon** in the system.
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| User |
@@ -80,37 +77,39 @@ Tasks of **afm-user-daemon**
### Maintaining list of applications ###
At start **afm-user-daemon** scans the directories containing
-the applications and load in memory the list applications
-availables to the current user.
+applications and load in memory a list of avaliable applications
+accessible by current user.
-When **afm-system-daemon** installs or removes an application,
-it sends the signal *org.AGL.afm.system.changed* on success.
-If it receives that signal, **afm-user-daemon** rebuild its
-list of applications.
+When **afm-system-daemon** installs or removes an application.
+On success it sends the signal *org.AGL.afm.system.changed*.
+When receiving such a signal, **afm-user-daemon** rebuilds its
+applications list.
-**afm-user-daemon** provides the data that it collected about
-application to its clients that either want to get that list
-or to get information about one application.
+**afm-user-daemon** provides the data it collects about
+applications to its clients. Clients may either request the full list
+of avaliable applications or a more specific information about a
+given application.
-### Launching applications ###
+### Launching application ###
-**afm-user-daemon** launchs the applications. This means
-that its builds a secure environment for the application
-and then start it inside that secured environment.
+**afm-user-daemon** launches application. Its builds a secure
+environment for the application before starting it within a
+secured environment.
-Applications of different kind can be launched.
+Different kind of applications can be launched.
This is set using a configuration file that describes
-how to launch an application of a given kind for a given
+how to launch an application of a given kind within a given
mode.
There is two launching modes: local or remote.
Launching an application locally means that
-the application and its binder are launcher together.
+the application and its binder are launched together.
-Launching application remotely means that only the
-binder is launched for the application.
+Launching application remotely translates in only launching
+the application binder. The UI by itself has to be activated
+remotely by the requested (ie: HTML5 homescreen in a browser)
Once launched, running instances of application receive
a runid that identify them.
@@ -120,14 +119,14 @@ a runid that identify them.
**afm-user-daemon** manages the list of applications
that it launched.
-With the good permissions, a client can get the list
-of the running instances and details about a specific
-running instance. It can also terminate, stop or
-continue a given application.
+When owning the right permissions, a client can get the list
+of running instances and details about a specific
+running instance. It can also terminates, stops or
+continues a given application.
### Installing and uninstalling applications ###
-If the client has the good permission,
+If the client own the right permissions,
**afm-user-daemon** delegates that task
to **afm-system-daemon**.
@@ -150,17 +149,16 @@ The options for launching **afm-user-daemon** are:
Can be repeated.
-r
- --root directory
-
- Includes the root application directory to
- the database base of applications.
-
- Note that the default root directory for
- applications is always added. It is defined
- to be /usr/share/afm/applications (may change).
-
- Can be repeated.
+ --root directory
+ Includes root application directory or directories when
+ passing multiple rootdir to
+ applications database.
+
+ Note that default root directory for
+ applications is always added. In current version
+ /usr/share/afm/applications is used as default.
+
-m
--mode (local|remote)
@@ -188,34 +186,34 @@ The options for launching **afm-user-daemon** are:
Prints a short help.
-Configuration of the launcher
+Launcher Configuration
-----------------------------
It contains rules for launching applications.
-When **afm-user-daemon** need to launch an application,
-it looks to the mode of launch, local or remote, and the
-type of the application as given by the file ***config.xml***
-of the widget.
+When **afm-user-daemon** has to launch an application,
+it looks for launch mode (local or remote), as well as
+for the type of application describe in ***config.xml***
+widget configuration file.
-This couple mode and type allows to select the rule.
+This tuple mode+type allows to select the adequate rule.
-The configuration file is **/etc/afm/afm-launch.conf**.
+Configuration file is **/etc/afm/afm-launch.conf**.
It contains sections and rules. It can also contain comments
-and empty lines to improve the readability.
+and empty lines to improve readability.
The separators are space and tabulation, any other character
-is meaning something.
+should have a meaning.
The format is line oriented.
The new line character separate the lines.
-Lines having only separators are blank lines and are skipped.
-Line having the character # (sharp) as first not separator character
-are comment lines and are ignored.
+Lines having only separators are blank lines and ignored.
+Line having character #(sharp) at first position are comment
+lines and ignored.
-Lines starting with a not separator character are differents
-of lines starting with a separator character.
+Lines not starting with a separator are different
+from lines starting with a separator character.
The grammar of the configuration file is defined below:
@@ -244,8 +242,8 @@ The grammar of the configuration file is defined below:
NCHAR: CMT | CHAR
Here is a sample of configuration file for defining how
-to launch an application declared of types *application/x-executable*,
-*text/x-shellscript* and *text/html* in mode local:
+to launch an application of types *application/x-executable*,
+*text/x-shellscript* and *text/html* in local mode:
mode local
@@ -267,9 +265,9 @@ This shows that:
### mode local
-Within this mode, the launchers have either one or two vectors
-describing them. All of these vectors are treated as programs
-and are executed with the system call 'execve'.
+Within this mode, the launchers have either one or two description vectors.
+All of those vectors are treated as programs
+and are executed with 'execve' system call.
The first vector is the leader vector and it defines the process
group. The second vector (if any) is attached to the group
@@ -280,19 +278,17 @@ defined by this first vector.
Within this mode, the launchers have either one or two vectors
describing them.
-The first vector is treated as a program and is executed with
-the system call 'execve'.
+The first vector is process as a program and is executed with
+system call 'execve'.
The second vector (if any) defines a text that is returned
-to the caller. This mechanism can be used to return the uri
-to connect to for executing the application remotely.
+to the caller. This mechanism can be used to return a uri
+for remote UI to connect on the newly launched application.
-The daemon ***afm-user-daemon*** allocates a port for the
-running the application remotely.
-The current implmentation of the port allocation is just
-incremental.
-A more reliable (cacheable and same-originable) allocation
-is to be defined.
+The daemon ***afm-user-daemon*** allocates a port for each
+new remote application.
+The current implementation port allocation is incremental.
+A smarter (cacheable and discoverable) allocation should be defined.
### %substitutions
@@ -310,7 +306,7 @@ Here is the list of *%substitutions*:
- ***%a***: appid
- This is the application Id of the launched application.
+ Holds application Id of launched application.
Defined by the attribute **id** of the element **<widget>**
of **config.xml**.
@@ -319,11 +315,10 @@ Here is the list of *%substitutions*:
The file within the widget directory that is the entry point.
- For a HTML application, it is the relative path to the main
+ For HTML applications, it represents the relative path to main
page (aka index.html).
- Defined by the attribute **src** of the element **<content>**
- of **config.xml**.
+ Defined by attribute **src** of the element **<content>** within **config.xml**.
- ***%D***: datadir
@@ -363,9 +358,8 @@ Here is the list of *%substitutions*:
- ***%p***: plugins
- Unhandled until now.
-
- Will be the colon separated list of plugins and plugins directory.
+ In the future should represent the list of plugins and plugins directory separated by ','.
+ Warning: not supported in current version.
- ***%P***: port
@@ -374,17 +368,17 @@ Here is the list of *%substitutions*:
- ***%R***: readyfd
- Number of the file descriptor to use for signalling
- readyness of the launched process.
+ Number of file descriptor to use for signaling
+ readiness of launched process.
- ***%r***: rootdir
- Path of the directory containing the widget and its data.
+ Path of directory containing the widget and its data.
- ***%S***: secret
- An hexadecimal number that can be used to pair the client
- with its server binder.
+ An hexadecimal number that can be used to initialize pairing of client
+ and application binder.
- ***%W***: width
@@ -400,27 +394,25 @@ The D-Bus interface
### Overview of the dbus interface
***afm-user-daemon*** takes its orders from the session instance
-of D-Bus. The use of D-Bus is great because it allows to implement
+of D-Bus. D-Bus is nice to use in this context because it allows
discovery and signaling.
-The dbus of the session is by default adressed by the environment
+The dbus session is by default addressed by environment
variable ***DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS***. Using **systemd**
-the variable *DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS* is automatically set for
+variable *DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS* is automatically set for
user sessions.
-The **afm-user-daemon** is listening with the destination name
-***org.AGL.afm.user*** at the object of path ***/org/AGL/afm/user***
-on the interface ***org.AGL.afm.user*** for the below detailed
-members ***runnables***, ***detail***, ***start***, ***terminate***,
+The **afm-user-daemon** is listening on destination name
+***org.AGL.afm.user*** at object path ***/org/AGL/afm/user***
+on interface ***org.AGL.afm.user*** for following members:
+ ***runnables***, ***detail***, ***start***, ***terminate***,
***stop***, ***continue***, ***runners***, ***state***,
***install*** and ***uninstall***.
D-Bus is mainly used for signaling and discovery. Its optimized
-typed protocol is not used except for transmitting only one string
-in both directions.
+typed protocol is not used except for transmission of standalone strings.
-The client and the service are using JSON serialisation to
-exchange data.
+Clients and Services are using JSON serialisation to exchange data.
The D-Bus interface is defined by:
@@ -433,10 +425,10 @@ The D-Bus interface is defined by:
The signature of any member of the interface is ***string -> string***
for ***JSON -> JSON***.
-This is the normal case. In case of error, the current implmentation
-returns a dbus error that is a string.
+This is the normal case. In case of error, the current implementation
+returns a dbus error as a string.
-Here is an example that use *dbus-send* to query data on
+Here an example using *dbus-send* to query data on
installed applications.
dbus-send --session --print-reply \
@@ -451,8 +443,7 @@ orders to **afm-user-daemon**. This small scripts allows to
send command to ***afm-user-daemon*** either interactively
at shell prompt or scriptically.
-The syntax is simple: it accept a command and if the command
-requires it, the argument to the command.
+The syntax is simple: it accept a command and when requires attached arguments.
Here is the summary of ***afm-util***:
@@ -563,12 +554,12 @@ an application as described above for the method
**Description**: Install an application from its widget file.
If an application of the same *id* and *version* exists, it is not
-reinstalled except if *force=true*.
+reinstalled except when *force=true*.
Applications are installed in the subdirectories of the common directory
-of applications.
-If *root* is specified, the application is installed under the
-sub-directories of the *root* defined.
+reserved for applications.
+If *root* is specified, the application is installed under
+sub-directories of defined *root*.
Note that this methods is a simple accessor to the method
***org.AGL.afm.system.install*** of ***afm-system-daemon***.
@@ -576,10 +567,10 @@ Note that this methods is a simple accessor to the method
After the installation and before returning to the sender,
***afm-user-daemon*** sends the signal ***org.AGL.afm.user.changed***.
-**Input**: The *path* of the widget file to install and, optionaly,
-a flag to *force* reinstallation, and, optionaly, a *root* directory.
+**Input**: The *path* of widget file to be installed. Optionally,
+a flag to *force* reinstallation and/or a *root* directory.
-Either just a string being the absolute path of the widget file:
+Simple form a simple string containing the absolute widget path:
"/a/path/driving/to/the/widget"
@@ -591,10 +582,9 @@ Or an object:
"root": "/a/path/to/the/root"
}
-"wgt" and "root" must be absolute paths.
+"wgt" and "root" MUST be absolute paths.
-**output**: An object with the field "added" being the string for
-the id of the added application.
+**output**: An object containing field "added" to use as application ID.
{"added":"appli@x.y"}
@@ -605,14 +595,14 @@ the id of the added application.
**Description**: Uninstall an application from its id.
-Note that this methods is a simple accessor to the method
-***org.AGL.afm.system.uninstall*** of ***afm-system-daemon***.
+Note that this methods is a simple accessor to
+***org.AGL.afm.system.uninstall*** method from ***afm-system-daemon***.
After the uninstallation and before returning to the sender,
***afm-user-daemon*** sends the signal ***org.AGL.afm.user.changed***.
-**Input**: the *id* of the application and, otpionaly, the path to
-*root* of the application.
+**Input**: the *id* of the application and, optionally, the path to
+application *root*.
Either a string:
@@ -633,30 +623,29 @@ Or an object:
**Description**:
-**Input**: the *id* of the application and, optionaly, the
+**Input**: the *id* of the application and, optionally, the
start *mode* as below.
Either just a string:
"appli@x.y"
-Or an object having the field "id" of type string and
-optionaly a field mode:
+Or an object containing field "id" of type string and
+optionally a field mode:
{"id":"appli@x.y","mode":"local"}
-The field "mode" as a string value being either "local" or "remote".
+The field "mode" is a string equal to either "local" or "remote".
-**output**: The *runid* of the application launched.
-The runid is an integer.
+**output**: The *runid* of the application launched. *runid* is an integer.
---
#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.terminate
-**Description**: Terminates the application of *runid*.
+**Description**: Terminates the application attached to *runid*.
-**Input**: The *runid* (an integer) of the running instance to terminate.
+**Input**: The *runid* (an integer) of running instance to terminate.
**output**: the value 'true'.
@@ -664,9 +653,9 @@ The runid is an integer.
#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.stop
-**Description**: Stops the application of *runid* until terminate or continue.
+**Description**: Stops the application attached to *runid* until terminate or continue.
-**Input**: The *runid* (an integer) of the running instance to stop.
+**Input**: The *runid* (integer) of the running instance to stop.
**output**: the value 'true'.
@@ -674,9 +663,9 @@ The runid is an integer.
#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.continue
-**Description**: Continues the application of *runid* previously stopped.
+**Description**: Continues the application attached to *runid* previously stopped.
-**Input**: The *runid* (an integer) of the running instance to continue.
+**Input**: The *runid* (integer) of the running instance to continue.
**output**: the value 'true'.
@@ -686,12 +675,11 @@ The runid is an integer.
**Description**: Get informations about a running instance of *runid*.
-**Input**: The *runid* (an integer) of the running instance inspected.
+**Input**: The *runid* (integer) of the running instance inspected.
-**output**: An object describing the state of the instance. It contains:
-the runid (an integer), the id of the running application (a string),
-the state of the application (a string being either "starting", "running"
-or "stopped").
+**output**: An object describing instance state. It contains:
+the runid (integer), the id of the running application (string),
+the state of the application (string either: "starting", "running", "stopped").
Example of returned state:
@@ -705,7 +693,7 @@ Example of returned state:
#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.runners
-**Description**: Get the list of the currently running instances.
+**Description**: Get the list of currently running instances.
**Input**: anything.