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70 lines
3.4 KiB
TeX
70 lines
3.4 KiB
TeX
\chapter{Usage}\label{ch:usage}
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% Maybe this is too much of a guide, but I think a section with the user's
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% description should be present and there is not much other content to write
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% here. Also, the UI is currently horrible, so it is worth having this
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% somewhere, and since there is no documentation, here is the place probably.
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In this chapter we describe the program from the user's point of view and
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present its features.
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\section{Running Birdvisu}
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First, the user needs to obtain Birdvisu from somewhere. Either, the
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attachment~\ref{att:birdvisu} can be extracted, or the project can be
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downloaded from its repository at
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\url{https://gitea.ledoian.cz/LEdoian/birdvisu}, which will also contain any
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future improvements.
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The only strict dependency of Birdvisu is Python3.10 or newer. While the project
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depends on the PySide6 library for the user interface, it can be downloaded
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as a wheel\X{glos} from PyPI. Of course, using a system-wide installation of
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PySide6 is also possible.
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Birdvisu can read the topology information from files, so it is not necessary
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to have a BIRD running and configured if only showing static data is required.
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We only support running the project on Linux. However, Birdvisu might be able
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to run on other types of operating systems, since we have only used
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cross-platform libraries.
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There are several ways to start the program. The recommended method is to
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install the project into a Python virtual environment, but running the
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\verb|visu.py| script also works when PySide6 is installed in the system.\X{uuuuuuuuuuu!!}
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Once the program is started, the user is presented with an empty canvas. Using
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the \emph{Topology} menu, it is possible to load both a reference and current
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topologies. Both can be loaded from a file, the current one can also be
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retrieved directly from a running BIRD via its socket. In the latter case, the
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user is provided with a dialog to pick an area and OSPF instance.
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Once both topologies are loaded, the graph of the topolgy appears. Now, the
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vertices can be moved around to the user's liking. Alternatively, the
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\emph{Positions} menu provides a way to load the positions of vertices from a file.
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The program expects the topology files to have the \verb|.ospf| extension,
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positioning files may end in \verb|.visu|. Nevertheless, any files may be used,
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they just are not offered by default.
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Several highlighting ways are available. In the \emph{Highlight} menu, the user
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can choose to show differences between the reference and current topology, or
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set the widths of edges according to their costs. Alternatively, by
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right-clicking any vertex, it is possible to highlight its shortest path DAG.
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If the user wants to find a specific route, showing the DAG also serves as
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selecting the start vertex. The context menus for vertices then allow finding
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the path to those vertices. Note that stub and external networks are sinks in
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the OSPF topology, so it is expected that the program draws an empty DAG for them.
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Finally, there is an option to reload the shown graph in the Topology menu. We
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decided that the graph should not change unexpectedly, because that could be
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unpleasant to use.
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As a part of Birdvisu we ship the files \verb|gennet.ospf|,
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\verb|gennet-changed.ospf| and \verb|gennet.visu| for demonstration purposes.
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These files provide a topology of the default Gennet, the same topology with
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several manual changes, and a placement of vertices like in figure~\ref{fig:gennet}.
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\iffalse
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\section{Extending Birdvisu}
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\fi
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