Boomerang-Express

A recieving server for boomerangjs beacon data and structured storage.

Usage

For this you will need boomerang.js see: https://github.com/lognormal/boomerang

Your webpage code may look like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <script src="https://github.com/andreas-marschke/boomerang-express/raw/master/javascripts/boomerang.min.js" type="text/javascript"> </script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
      BOOMR.init({
        beacon_url: "//<boomerang-express server>/beacon/0000",
        DNS : {
          base_url: "//*.<boomerang-express server>/"
        }, 
        RT: {
          cookie: "cookie-rt", 
          strict_referrer: false
        },
        BW: {
          base_url: "//<boomerang-express server>/",
          cookie: "cookie-bw",
          nruns: 1
        }
      });
    </script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
      BOOMR.plugins.RT.startTimer("t_head");
    </script>
    <title><%= title %></title>
    <link rel='stylesheet' href='/stylesheets/style.css' />
    <script type="text/javascript"> 
      BOOMR.plugins.RT.endTimer("t_head").startTimer("t_body");
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1><%= title %></h1>
    <p>Welcome to <%= title %></p>
  </body>
  <script type="text/javascript"> 
    BOOMR.plugins.RT.endTimer("t_body");
  </script>
</html>

If you've setup the boomerang-express server correctly the above code will run DNS latency, Roundtrip and Bandwidth tests as described in the boomerang.js documentation (see: http://lognormal.github.com/boomerang/docs/).

On the boomerang-express side you will see requests to image-(+*).(png|gif) and /beacon/0000.

/beacon/0000 will recieve a parameterized GET request containing data from the evaluation of previously described tests. boomerang-express will save this data together with the Customer Identification Number (here 0000) into the mongodb under the beacon_0000 collection.

NOTE: boomerang-express expects pre-existing collections ie. beacon_0000.

Should you have enabled the boomerang.js plugins clicks and restiming you'll also see data inserted into the collections restiming_0000 and clicks_0000 where these handle the specific data of these plugins.

If you have more than one customer you'd like to manage add a different ID to each of the beacon-urls like

  beacon_url: "http://<boomerang-express server>/beacon/0333"

Also feel free to use alphanumerical IDs such as:

  beacon_url: "http://<boomerang-express server>/beacon/HamsterShop"

This still depends on the collections you've created in your database.

Requirements

express (http://expressjs.com)
node-conf (https://npmjs.org/package/node-conf)
mongodb (https://npmjs.org/package/mongodb)
forever (https://npmjs.org/package/forever)

Installing Requirements

Locally (recommended):

 $> npm install .

Globally:

 $> npm -g install

Configuration

Configuration is defined in config/master.json

See the setup documentation for more information on how to configure boomerang-express for your environment.

Deployment

CentOS

Installing boomerang-express on CentOS is handled using grunt. You'll need to install the packages under devDependencies as well as the following:

rpmdevtools: tools for build rpms
rpmlint: post-build linting of rpms

Once you have these installed you'll need to run:

if you have all dependencies installed globally:

  $> grunt rpm

if you have all dependencies installed locally:

 $> ./node_modules/.bin/grunt rpm

This will build an rpm package in the project root-directory. If you have a deployment scenario involving a local centos repository you may import the rpm file into your repository.

Setting up for development and more tips visit our development documentation

andreas-marschke / boomerang-express