retroTrack

retroTrack is a web-based satellite tracking program that uses TLE's to calculate and display the orbits of satellites using HTML5 canvas.

Dependencies

retroTrack was developed on top of the popular CakePHP MVC framework and shares its requirements. Namely:

• An HTTP server (e.g. Apache)
• PHP >= 5.2.8 (note, php7 is not yet usable, stick with 5.*)
• MySQL >= 4

In addition, the retroTracker satellite tracker display requires that the user's browser supports:

• Javascript
• HTML5 Canvas

Finally, cURL must be installed and loaded into PHP.

Installation

Here are some brief installation instructions.

Prep the Servers

1. Create a database in MySql for use by retroTrack. Keep track of db name, user, and password. Database tables will be created in step 2.
2. Modify www/app/Config/database.php.default to reflect your database and save it as 'database.php'
3. Import Development_Resources/SQL_Schema/retrotrack.sql into your newly created database.
4. Modify app/Config/core.php.default by changing Security.salt (line 187) and Security.cipherseed (line 192) to random values specific to your application and save it as 'core.php'.
5. Change the permissions of the app/tmp directory to 777.

Install retroTrack onto webserver

If you want to install retroTrack to a directory (or use Apache's Alias feature), you must add a rewrite base for the directory to three .htaccess files. These files are:

• /path/to/retroTrack/.htaccess
• /path/to/retroTrack/app/.htaccess
• /path/to/retroTrack/app/webroot/.htaccess

So, for example, if retroTrack were setup at mysite.com/retrotrack/ webroot/.htaccess would look like:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /retrotrack/
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

To configure Apache to run retroTrack from a directory, simply setup an alias and enable FollowSymLinks (important) for that directory. For example, if you want retroTrack to appear at /tools/retrotrack, your default virtual host may look like:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /var/www
    DirectoryIndex index.html index.php

    # Setup directory aliases
    Alias /tools/retrotrack /var/other_apps/retroTrack/www/app/webroot
    <Directory /var/other_apps/retroTrack/www/app/webroot>
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride ALL
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

This is preferred to just copying retroTrack to a directory of /var/www because it only allows access to the app/webroot folder.

Configure For Running

1. Generate an admin password hash by visiting retrotrackerlocation.com/admin/panel/makehash.
2. Update the 'admin' user in the database by replacing 'dummypassword' with the hash you just created.
3. Add a ground station at retrotrackerlocation.com/admin/.
4. Load a TLE URL and add satellites at retrotrackerlocation.com/admin/.

Using retroTrack

After retroTrack has been installed, you can access the administration panel at retrotrackerlocation.com/admin using the 'admin' user with the password you created in step 5 above. From the administration panel you can:

• Manually update TLE's
• Manage visible satellites
• Manage satellite groups
• Manage ground stations
• Configure appearance of satellite tracker
• Generate static, client-side, versions of satellite trackers

Modifying retroTrack

If you wish to modify retroTrack tracker display page, remember to also update the static version template in app/Vendor/static_template/index.html.

CRON Updates

retroTracks's TLE source can be updated by using a standard CRON tab. To make use of this feature, simply set up a CRON tab to call:

/path/to/retroTrack/app/Console/cake TleUpdate update

Credits

The retroTrack satellite tracker relies heavily on John A. Magliacane's javascript port of Predict.