Changes between Version 15 and Version 16 of FeddUsersGuide

Timestamp:

May 21, 2014 11:22:48 AM (10 years ago)

Author:

faber

Comment:

--

FeddUsersGuide

@@ -294 +294 @@
 The {{{--force}}} parameter can be used to terminate experiments that are not in the {{{active}}} state, or that have other problems.
 
-
-
+== Generating and Using TopDL Descriptions ==
+
+[TopDl TopDL] is the XML-encoded layout description language that the federation system uses internally.  While ns2/tcl can be shorter and easier to generate - especially by human programmers - it can be very difficult for tools to deal with.  In particular, because each ns2 description is a program in a Turing-complete interpreted language, extracting the layout for analysts or presentation requires running the program.  Translation of XML is much less computationally expensive and presents fewer security concerns.
+
+The [FeddCommands#fedd_create.py fedd_create.py] command will take either a topdl or an ns2 description.  To get topdl description from an ns2 description, one can use the [FeddCommands#fedd_ns2topdl.py fedd_ns2topdl.py] command.  Note that this command must contact an [NewFeddAbout#TheExperimentController experiment controller] to do the conversion.  DETERLab's experiment controller at !https://users.isi.deterlab.net:23235 provides this service.  Running {{{fedd_ns2topdl.py}}} on that machine contacts the experiment controller by default.
+
+Converting the [attachment:federation1.tcl experiment layout we used above] into topdl is done by running this command on {{{users.isi.deterlab.net}}}:
+
+{{{
+fedd_ns2topdl.py --file federation1.tcl --out federation1.xml
+}}}
+
+The contents of [attachment:federation1.xml federation1.xml], run through an XML formatter, are attached.  The topDL representation is much more verbose, but encodes the same information about layout.
+
+The information it does not encode is the [NewFeddAbout#ExperimentServices service] information.  When using the topdl representation, services have to be passed to [FeddCommands#fedd_create.py fedd_create.py] using the {{{--service}}} parameter, like so:
+
+{{{
+users:~$ fedd_create.py --service project_export:deter/exp1::project=TIED --service project_export:deter/exp2::project=TIED --file federation1.xml --experiment_name fed2
+localname: fed2
+fedid: 4758ff5a8b20ec1a54ea59f84e1eaaf60ee39cf9
+status: starting
+}}}
+
+The two formats are generally interchangeable using federation tools, though some external tools will prefer one or the other.