[patch] basic gridinfo support

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hippo, Imprudence, and some other viewers use GridInfo requests to
pre-populate their selectable list of grids with info people need to
connect.  It's nothing more than a GET to <entered_url>/get_grid_info which
returns some XML.

The attached patch adds basic support for these requests if you enter the
SimianGrid frontend base URL into, say, the Imprudence grid manager.  It'll
pull some basic info, e.g. login and website URLs.  There are a few
shortcomings though:

  1) Current viewer-side GridInfo implementations (only tested Hippo and
Imprudence) don't handle 302 redirects.  So in the viewer's grid manager
you need to enter the SimianGrid frontend URL with a trailing slash.  While
this is technically correct, humans often think trailing slashes in URLs
are optional.  This should be fixed on the viewer side.

  2) The wording in the viewer grid manager boxes asks you (I forget exact
wording) to enter in the grid's login URL to pull the grid info.  But IMO
this really isn't something the core grid services, particularly the login
service, should be bothered with.  Where users go to register for accounts
or change their password, etc., are things which should be handed by the
frontend.  And they're things which lend themselves well to an MVC
structure.  So this patch has the frontend handle the GridInfo requests,
not the backend login service.  Though the included .htaccess will redirect
GridInfo requests if they're sent to the login server.

  3) This stuff should really be driven from the web UI and not config
files, but that will come with time.  This is just to provide the basics
for now.

Let me know if you have any feedback.  I'm honestly not married to this
patch; I don't use GridInfo myself.

-coyled

Original issue reported on code.google.com by coyle@knifejaw.com on 31 Mar 2010 at 8:01

Attachments:

• simiangrid-gridinfo.diff

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I've been slow getting to this but I did look the patch over. It looks good, 
but I'm
thinking about dropping the .htaccess redirect and just providing good 
instructions
on the frontend of what URL to enter to gridinfo support. The original 
SimianGrid
code made heavy use of .htaccess and it was the number one pain point for new
installations. Default Linux installs not setup for it, shared hosting plans not
providing support for it, difficult to tell whether it is working or not, etc.

Original comment by jhurlima...@gmail.com on 3 Apr 2010 at 10:21

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by coyle@knifejaw.com on 29 Apr 2010 at 3:01

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Revised patch commited in 
http://code.google.com/p/openmetaverse/source/detail?r=395

Original comment by coyle@knifejaw.com on 13 May 2010 at 4:47

• Changed state: Fixed