Development on the WebServer has rather stalled, so I am wondering whether to pull together a small project for people interested in improving it.
I was thinking of:
Bill (BillC)
Ryan (YoRyan)
Bob (Rj Zondervan)
I thought it might be worth adding a bit of context.
The idea of a "secondary screen" has been around a while. James Ross described it 5 years ago. Dan Reynolds (HighAspect) was the first to pick it up offering code for a minimal webserver and some basic JavaScript to implement the Head Up Display. (Of course, you can't call it a HUD if it's on a separate screen, but that's another story.)
Bill Currey refined the code to make it compatible with the watchdog timer, tidy up cleanly after a disconnection and let the user choose port number or disabled.
Mauricio made the HUD code look better and also provided a Training Driving page.
Bob offered his services as an designer of APIs.
Ryan has offered code which embeds an open-source server EmbedIO as a more advanced alternative to Dan's original.
(Dan Reynolds last visited ET in Jan 2020, so maybe we can tempt him back.)
I've stuck my oar in as well and we now have code somewhat scattered all around which needs to be pulled together, organised, documented and published.
If I have got any of this story wrong, then do jump in and correct it.
The Web Server has the potential to satisfy multiple aims:
- Bill would like to control Open Rails from a tablet instead of RailDriver.
- Several people have been in touch asking for this and also for train location data to display on a moving map.
- Mauricio wants to refine his current pages. It would be great to have the full set of Open Rails Pop-up Windows available off-screen.
- Rick Loader would like to provide timetable and other context-sensitive information to make Open Rails more interesting.
So I'm proposing to invite these 4 people with a PM to join a little project group. Is there anyone else whom I should ask?