Thread: Front-end as a website (PHP, Jscript, CSS)

if it was as awesome as you say i might be interest

And what happens when you hit a dead-zone, i.e., no internet on the back roads of Southern Illinois?

Originally Posted by GizmoQ

And what happens when you hit a dead-zone, i.e., no internet on the back roads of Southern Illinois?

the website is hosted locally. So it should work unless the back roads of Southern Illinois have a disruption field that breaks your localhost connection....

I'm very interested. See our thread about the upcoming afkfest demo. We are using an embedded linux device (a Sheeva plug) which includes an Apache server.

Included services on the embedded device interface with the car to provide location and OBDII information. I'd like to demo the ability to pull that information up in a web browser. A web front end would be even better.

In the car is a local WiFi router hotspot that provides the LAN connection. At the AFKfest, we will substitute a WiMax router that will provide both local WiFi and external internet access. Would we be able to log onto the web front end from a browser that is not in the car?

PM/email me. I have the ideas but not the experience to program much of this.

I have thought about this type of front end in the past and wondered why it hasn't been done before. Really you have all the tools available and it is all just data in some way or another. Give it a go and show the world SNO

- Sprinter work van
- 1.66ghz mini-itx with TinyXP
- Ethernet connected to Cradlepoint wireless router
- Verizon Broadband modem plugged into cradlepoint
- 8" Lilliput touchscreen
- Xampp server installed on PC, MySQL database
- Using tweaked version of Firefox (larger font, icons, scrollbars)
- modules are written in PHP and Javascript
- Look and feel controlled by simple CSS file
- Optimized virtual keyboard for those modules that need it.
- Does not need internet connectivity for audio & gps
- Fairly small and simple code package, enhancements to graphics and adaptation to different screens easily done through CSS file.
- When I want to add a new feature, I just clone one of the modules, modify it for the application, add a button to the menu, and it is done.
- I just took the van on a 3500 mile trip through the West. Even without an external antenna, I had broadband internet about 80% of the time.

I looked at several open source front ends, but my C++ is rusty, don't like VB, and wanted complete control of all levels of the system. Since I design and maintain websites, writing the front-end in PHP and Javascript was a natural choice, and serving it as a website to the touchscreen was simple and gives me extreme control over the layout through a single CSS file.

My layout now is very crude and simple, just a menu of buttons, but it can easily be enhanced later after I have developed a few more modules. I am in the environmental science business and I developed the front-end as a way to easily monitor and control USB and serial sensors and instruments while I am on the road. Of course the audio is nice and I can email my office and my wife with my current GPS coords with a push of the button.

I have a backgound gps process that wakes up every minute and tests the current gps position. If the position is different from the with the last recorded position in the MySQL table by an amount specified in the Configuration module ( I have it set to 1 mile) , then position is recorded in the table and various instruments can be polled for data and recorded.


The same system runs on my desktop, with the screen defined by a border to match the touchscreen size. I can do all the modifications and development and testing at my desk, then push the Upload button and the system is mirrored to a remote server. In the van I can download the system with a one-touch button. The database can also be dumped/restored the same way.

I am in Washington state. My short term plan is to drive to Florida in November to see one of the last shuttle launches. I want to have the front-end the way I want it. Just for fun, I'd like to be able to auto-capture a database of gps-tagged parameters and images of my journey. I still need to integrate a camera, OBD-II, and some environmental sensors (temp,humidity,total hydrocarbon,background radiation, etc).

I don't know if anyone is interested in this system. I takes some tweaking to make it all integrate and I didn't develop it for any use but my own personal application. However, it seems to me that someone who knows how to tinker with this stuff could build on it.

I like it and would like to see some examples/screenshots.

It's going to take a while to do screenshots, etc. I am trying to get quarterlies done, deadlines. I will try to post some shots sometime this week.

I'd love to demo this at our afkfest in August. Is there any way for us to do that?