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SignalK / specification

Signal K is a JSON-based format for storing and sharing marine data from different sources (e.g. nmea 0183, 2000, seatalk, etc)
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No way to specify location of server web interface in endpoints #481

Open bkp7 opened 6 years ago

bkp7 commented 6 years ago

Currently the _http._tcp server web interface can only be defined in the optional DNS-SD advert, and if specified there it MUST be at the root.

There is nowhere to specify it in the endpoint message (discovery.json schema). Should there be an additional advertised service for a web interface? Should it be possible to locate a web interface elsewhere than in the root eg. at http://<<host>>:<<port>>/signalk/admin?

tkurki commented 6 years ago

I don’t understand what you are saying. A tcp service has no path concept, so root has no meaning in this context.

Tcp has nothing to do with http as used in this context - tcp refers to direct tcp socket connection, not http on top of tcp.

Web interface and /signalk/admin is never mentioned in the specification afaik. And as a side note current node server interface is not even located at /signalk/admin.

A web interace is not part of the spec. The spec specifies the api.

What parts of the spec do you refer to?

tkurki commented 6 years ago

Sorry, my mistake. _http._tcp specifies the web interface, if there is one.

Endpoint message is for rest interface - why should it be specified for anything other than the rest interface?

There is already a way to advertise a web interface. Please note this service name is not sk specific, just a way to advertise a generic web interface. I don’t think it needs to be anywhere but at root - if you need to support non root web app advertise a separate port and redirect from there to the actual port and path.

bkp7 commented 6 years ago

OK, so this is not meant to apply to the web interface? If that's the case I will just clarify the documentation on that point.

Since the Bonjour advert is optional, if it is not present there is no way to know where the web interface is via the endpoints (discovery schema). This seems odd, if it's worth knowing when Bonjour is present why isn't it worth knowing when it's not?

tkurki commented 6 years ago

Yep, please clarify the doc, as it refers to the api endpoints.

Web interface ad makes sense to support browsers that have integrated Bonjour discovery. Safari used to have that, not sure if it still has.

If there is no Bonjour a user must have knowledge of the server’s address. In the most usual case the user would just enter the address in the browser.

There is the case where you would enter the server api address in a non browser client which could provide a ’button’ to open the web ui based on data in endpoints. Not a huge thing to add it there.

bkp7 commented 6 years ago

There is the case where you would enter the server api address in a non browser client which could provide a ’button’ to open the web ui based on data in endpoints. Not a huge thing to add it there.

@tkurki, agreed.