Using SpyGlass
There are two different ways to start SpyGlass. First one can start the standalone application, secondly it is a plugin for iShell. For the latter one must start iShell first and activate the SpyGlass plugin afterwards. All screenshots included in this manual are taken from SpyGlass as an iShell plugin.
On the first start of SpyGlass with an empty configuration one can see the following things:
As iShell contains of many plugins one must explicitly click on the tab for the SpyGlass plugin to bring SpyGlass to the front.
All functions necessary to control the behaviour of SpyGlass can be found here (see below for a more detailed description).
All visualization of the sensor network will take place here. The drawing area shows a section of the whole sensor network. This section can be enlarged by zooming out or downsized by zooming in. To change the section to be shown on the drawing area without changing the zoom level, one can either use the scrollbars on the bottom and on the right side of the drawing area or hold the left mousebutton when the pointer is located on the drawing area and move the mouse to the desired direction.
The rulers' labeling represents the current section of the drawing area with respect to the real coordinates. Thus the labels of the ruler change automatically, whenever the drawing area is either moved or if the zoom level changes.
Logging console of the iShell application. iShell plugins print out log messages to the console during runtime.
In the standalone version, all func- tionalities accessible by buttons in the button bar are also accessible via the windows' menubar. Also, there is no iShell console in the standalone version.
The button opens a dialog to define the current packet source. The source can either be iShell (through a TCP/IP socket connection) or a file. If the packet source is iShell, then the packets come from network. The real packet source (i.e. the packet source where iShell receives packets from) must then be configured by setting the TCP/IP preferences of iShell.
Please note: In the standalone version of SpyGlass it is only possible to choose a file as packet source. For more information about how to generate such a file check the reference for the output file and record buttons.
Clicking the pause button will stop the SpyGlass application delivering the sensor nodes’ packets to the various plugins currently active. By this, the visualization will freeze for the most parts as the plugins don’t receive new packets. However, some ob jects on the drawing area could disappear because they time out or they could move to another position for any reason (e.g. when using a SpringEmbedderPositioner). Also, plugins doing statistical calculations including timing information, such as packets per second, will therefore display falsified information during the time SpyGlass is paused.
All new packets coming in during the time SpyGlass is paused, are queued. They are delivered sequentially after the play button has been clicked. The pause button toggles to a play button when it was clicked and vice versa.
Clicking the reset button will cause all active SpyGlass plugins to re- set. Resetting a plugin means that it forgets all aggregated data and removes all drawings from the drawing area. You could say that, after all plugins are reset, the application displays the same information as it displays directly after startup. However, the configuration of plugin instances are kept.
The record button is to start the recording of incoming packets. One must specify a file, where the incoming packets will be written into. The file gets the ending .rec and can be used later in both the standalone application and the SpyGlass iShell plugin as a packet source. The record stops if one clicks on the record button again. During the recording time, the button is white. Otherwise it is red.
The + and - buttons with the magnifier are pretty self-explanatory. One zooms in (+) while the other zooms out (-). The third magnifier button zooms exactly to the zoom level that all current network components (nodes) are displayed on the drawing area.
Additionally to the buttons, zooming can also be done with the scrollwheel on the mouse, if the pointer is located on the drawing area.
The button opens the preferences dialog, where you can configure the SpyGlass application, as well as the spyglass plugin instances. All that is described in detail in Plugins.