Collaboratory Update for Winter Quarter, Week 7

During week seven our group worked on several project components,
including:

- the overall object model for the experiment entry form
- the GUI screens to be used in the project
- several OrbixWeb examples and demonstration applets

Object Model:

We are still working on the object model, and had good progress in
determining what the new structure will be.  Some outstanding questions we
are considering are the limitations that the existing transport protocol
placed on the original experiment form design, and how we can improve the
design with the new CORBA architecture.

GUI Screens:

After reviewing the object model, we also started some rough-draft GUI
screens using SmallTalk.  The addresses for our generated screens are
respectively:  

http://192.211.18.10:8080/sitka/images/guistuff/slogin.GIF
http://192.211.18.10:8080/sitka/images/guistuff/stransfer.GIF

We also reviewed JavaWorkshop and tested several sample applets using that
software.  Pavan rewrote the SmallTalk screens into Java GUI's, and posted
the screen captures at:

http://192.211.18.10:8080/sitka/images/guistuff/jlogin.GIF
http://192.211.18.10:8080/sitka/images/guistuff/jtransfer.GIF

There are several outstanding questions concerning the draft GUI screens. 
In designing these screens we decided it might be good to try and implement
the capability to send multiple files during a session, instead of single
files as was discussed earlier.  Is this feasible?  It would require the
application to be capable of browsing the client file system, and that
might introduce additional complications or security considerations. 
Another question concerned the types of Java widgets that would be used to
browse the notebook file structure.  We were not sure on the best solution
for this, so we choose to use list boxes for the draft version.  A final
question concerned the overall look and feel of the application, and what
design elements might still be missing.

OrbixWeb:

We worked extensively with David Metzler on OrbixWeb several examples and
demonstrations, although we ran into problems in getting a connection
between the Client application and Server object.  We are able to register
Server 
objects without any problems, can run the OrbixWeb daemon without problem,
and can compile all the necessary classes on our machine.  When we try to
run the Client applications, however, and connect to the registered server
objects, we are getting the following error message:

Bind to object failed
Unexpected exception: 
10605-- Internet Protocol Error
Error using Internet Interoperability Protocol 
Possibly your server has gone down or it does not support this protocol 
   
We will try working further with Dave on this problem, and hopefully we can
track down where the problem is originating from.
Otherwise, the group will be continuing work this week on our requirements
documents, object model, and new classes for the experiment form.

The Evergreen Collaboratory Project
Eric, Pavan, Robert & Travis