OSDash Web Interface Definition

**Bugbyte** · 12-28-2009, 11:26 AM

What is the OSDash web interface?

OSDash is made up of three main components plus a data exchange standard.
1. OSDash client - runs on the local pc and interfaces with the web services
2. OSDash server - the server that exposes the web services to OSDash clients
3. OSDash data standard - standardized data exchange packets for the web services
4. OSDash web interface.

The OSDash web interface is an online web page(s) that allows the users to control the settings for various web services that he/she is interested in using. The web page will allow the user to see available OSDash web services and activate them for use with their car pc or mobile device.

The web interface will provide user id and password for both security and to allow the user to store custom settings for the services.

Mp3car.com has agreed to write the web interface for the OSDash project and to provide the server space with user id and password services.

**UnusuallyGenius** · 12-28-2009, 01:12 PM

This web interface will need to be severely user friendly. I would take hints from the Apple Mobile Me web interface

**Bugbyte** · 12-28-2009, 09:59 PM

I haven't used the Apple Mobile Me service but yes, the idea is to be very user friendly and make it as simple as possible.

Otherwise, we just won't be able to attract users for the services.

**optikalefx** · 12-28-2009, 10:41 PM

Intuitive is our goal.

**Bugbyte** · 12-29-2009, 09:26 AM

Here's an example of a situation where the web interface could be used under a services based approach to OBDII.

Essentially, that project is a bluetooth OBDII reader for the Motorola Droid. He mentions the idea of disconnecting the user interface from the communications code that runs on the Droid. A web service for the user interface could be built that would allow multiple interfaces (simple example - one red, one blue to match the interior lights on your car) to be selected through the web interface.

When you log in, the web interface would display the available web services, you would select the OBDII service and one of the options to configure it would be which interface (that is, which skin) you want displayed on the phone.

**UnusuallyGenius** · 12-29-2009, 09:41 AM

good catch on the Voyager project. It is a very smart example of the way things should be handled.

**regulatre** · 12-30-2009, 09:31 AM

Good call making it as intuitive as possible.

As far as graphable datasets does anyone have the expertise to make -->this type of graph<-- work on a webpage?

I'm not much of a web programmer so this might be crazy but what if we had a OSDash component that
* Provided a gateway for Carputers to upload data such as OBDii stats, and whatever else
* Provided an OSDash web interface to that data with the ability to build composite graphs against the data using Chronoscope (see link above).

In addition to graphs, other reporting could be performed. Like summary data that is digestable.

**optikalefx** · 12-30-2009, 09:33 AM

jQuery has some awesome graph plugins that make creating datasets very user friendly

**regulatre** · 12-30-2009, 09:52 AM

rock on, that's totally bada55. Imagine driving to work, then logging in to OSDash online and analyzing your vehicle's performance with killer graphs.

Voyager could upload the data in XML table format and the web component could just take that XML and stuff it right into the DB. Then the jQuery graphing component would present the data.

Voyager stores metrics by "trip" including trip start and end date/time. The web component would just query it
SELECT requestID, data from obdScanData where tripID = 1234;

Voyager also logs GPS data to a gpsTracks table, so we could have a map overlay.

Present a graph, along with some summary text:
"Intake Air flow rate is suboptimal, recommend primary air filter replacement"
"Trip length X minutes, distance Y Miles, stop time Z seconds"
"New DTC trouble code found. Recommend tighten gas cap"
"Performance trending downward on cylinder 1, recommend tune-up"

I'd be interested in championing or teaming up for this particular web piece. In about a month or two I'll have Voyager stabilized to the point where I'll be ready for a new project.

**justchat_1** · 12-30-2009, 12:41 PM

I don't mean to shoot down some of your ideas but the standardized OBDII PIDs really don't give a lot of useful data and certainly not enough to gather performance info. The data your looking at would need to be compared to a baseline with exactly the same barometric pressure, air quality, temperature and fuel which certainly won't happen in the real world.