GSoC 2011: Nodeshot

Do wireless communities around the world really need another map server? Here in Ninux we believe that the answer is yes!

Enter Nodeshot an open source wireless community map server written in python and based on django, focused on ease of useand performance.

Why a new map server? Mainly because we had some precise needs that the current open source map servers can’t satisfy easily:

  • we needed an application which is easy to use and understand for everyone
  • we wanted to preserve a similar look to the old map server we used before (wnmap).
  • we wanted it to be simple and performant
Instead of modifying and hacking the existing alternatives we decided to make a new one, trying to keep the code clean and well commented (which was one of the hardest tasks).

The frontend is built in HTML5 and it does an intensive use of jQuery and the Google Map API.

The backend is based on the django admin and it permits to easily administer the app.

These are the main features of the nodeshot:

  • Map based on Google Map API v3
  • New node with confirmation via email
  • Possibility to insert devices, interfaces and hna4 for a better troubleshooting
  • Edit node, devices, interfaces, hna4
  • Contact node owners
  • Address lookup
  • Hide sidebar
  • Search nodes and IP addresses
  • Distance calculation between nodes
  • Save distance calculations for future reference
  • Public information about devices, interfaces and performance of links
  • Statistics  (number of nodes, links, links in km)
  • IPv6 support

During the development we used github to commit changes and several merges have occurred in some cases when different developers were working to fix some issues.

The project has revealed to be more complex than what was expected but at the same time has been really engaging and fun.

There is still work to do though, actually we are translating and optimizing the app. We’ll keep working on nodeshot so that we can arrive quickly to a stable and performant release, we hope we’ll attract new developers from all around the world that will help us to push forward this new open source project!

Meanwhile, you can check the demo and you can download the source code on github.

This article appeared first on the website of Ninux.org: 

http://blog.ninux.org/2011/09/06/gsoc-2011-nodeshot

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