Puppy WiFi Assistant is completed!!!!!

[can8v]

Aitch,
Yes I definitely will have a few links out in the left side navigation and The main page will actually be something of an intro similar to WhoDos page that you have linked above, but with less screen shots and more links to external resources.
Right now I am only focusing on the application, because that is the largest missing piece in support of WiFi on Puppy.
As for the hundreds of forum entries that will be challenging to incorporate, but absolutely essential. In fact it was the main reason behind this project. It is simply unreasonable to expect someone who doesn't know how to get their hardware working to navigate something as massive as the Puppy linux forum and skim through hundreds of threads in several different categories and hundreds more that turn out to be about something different entirely, but turn up in the search because someone happened to mention one of the search terms somewhere in the thread. Currently we are in the unfortunate situation where ones best hope if they run into trouble with WiFi, is to post a note on the forum and wait to see if Tempestuous can help them. Alright that is a little sarcastic, I do realize that others help, but my point is that only limited number of people on the forum even have much experience with it beyond their own hardware. There have been several attempts at making it easier, most of which have helped to some degree, such as WhoDos Wiki post, or the various videos out their. The problem has been that they only help with select cards. I am really hoping that this db application will pull together all of the information on the forum and organize it, so that people can readily find it. In about two weeks I will be seeking help with the data entry. It will take a couple months if I do it all by myself. that is something for interested parties to think about.
can8v

[Aitch]

It will take a couple months if I do it all by myself. that is something for interested parties to think about.

The first would be masochism & not recommended

The second I hope will generate more interest when you have got a bit further on as people generally, unfortunately,
tend only to be impressed with results

However, I am not a general, so I'm already impressed

Keep up the good work

http://www.wizardofjobs.net/wizofoz/humor.html

Aitch

[can8v]

@Aitch
I certainly have not kept my hectic schedule a secret, so I certainly wouldn't hold it against anyone who doesn't want to volunteer before seeing the results of my efforts. On the other hand like you said I hope that a few more people will volunteer after the project is completed in a couple of weeks (which is a couple weeks before the original deadline I set for myself).I also did some cross-browser testing and found some major cosmetic issues, so I resolved most of those last night and I rewrote the css for the calendar popups, so they blend with the rest of the site.
can8v

[can8v]

I had a few free hours so I started work on the registered user view of the Puppy WiFi Assistant, but I have a ways to go before it will be ready for users to register and start populating the data. I have howerver, finished fixing all known bugs in the visitor view (all 19 of them). If a couple of you could test out the popup calendar selection system for the search by date range and the filtering system in the search by Manufacturer results screen I would greatly appreciate it. I will continue working on the registered user view unless someone finds a critical bug in the visitor view.
Kind regards,
can8v
P.S. with the feature set requested for searching the db in this thread, keeping the visitor view JavaScript free became extremely impractical. I finally gave in and included some significant JavaScript. I have not finished making it degrade gracefully when JavaScript is disabled and I may not finish this until the rest of the application is complete. In other words please only test with JavaScript enabled.

[can8v]

Alright I put in a couple more hours and completed the update functions, but have only minimal validation and I still have to create the edit db functions and registration process, so I cannot upload yet. I should be able to complete the edit db functions this weekend sometime, but it may well be the following weekend before I can get a chance to work on the registration process and smooth out the edges.
regards,
can8v

[can8v]

The visitor interface is now complete and being tested by Aitch. Aitch will also be using the recently completed form for updating the db with new WiFi adapters, so fairly soon there should be some useful information to be had in the Puppy WiFi Assistant. Anyway once that all happens and I get some feedback from Aitch I will finish the development of this project.
kind regards,
can8v

[urban soul]

Cool.

Just to point out that what tempestuous said earlier: It is important to have the chipset info.

Vendors tend to change the chipset in use even within the same model revision!

Also the question on the forum is: Does WPA/WPA2 work ??? This is important, you name it, WEP is compromised.

Urban

[can8v]

@Urban
I agree that is important imformation, but I felt it should go in the notes section. Perhaps I should relabel it configuration notes instead of setup notes. The chipset is something you need to know (sometimes) in order to configure Puppy to work with the card. I thought it more important to no if the card is compatible and the location of the driver to use. If you know the driver to use then the chipset is not very relevant. It is when you don't know which driver to use that the chipset becomes extremely relevant. In, which case this application would not be especially helpful. This applications purpose is to assist people with sharing data about how they got their WiFi adapter to work in Puppy or which, adapter they were not able to get working and what they tried to do.
If someone knows the chipset of an adapter, but not the driver, then they would need to ask someone for assistance. Since this application does not facilitate discussion, the forum would be a more appropriate tool, Once the problem is solved the Puppy WiFi Assistant would then be an ideal place to record the solution, so that others could more easily find it. This application was prompted by a thread on the forum that attempted to consolidate the solutions for installing a great many WiFi adapters in Puppy, but it became very convoluted and difficult to find the solution you were looking for. That is the scope of this application. perhaps I could have come up with a grander vision for it. Greater clarity of communication in the beginning or more participation at the technical discussion level could possibly have steered this application in a dramatically different direction. As Aitch pointed out however, that level of participation was not forthcoming. right now I am very interested in getting this project completed, so it can start getting used, before I have to leave for Cub Scout camp, a wedding, church camp, and to put a roof on a church in Portugal. I have a very busy summer and I am trying to squeeze this project in amongst chaos. I did however, make this application very portable and easily modifiable, at some later date it is possible I could further expand its purpose and features, as well as create similar applications to help with printing, video adapters or whatever. These ideas may be getting ahead of the game a bit, but they are merely ideas right now.
can8v

[urban soul]

We appreciate the time and energy you invested. Take your time... work on the project when you feel it is fun...

Regarding the driver question:
You cannot state "Interface xyz uses THIS driver and works in Puppy 3.01."

The world would be nice if it were so simple. Unfortunately it isnt. Moreover this info is a bit redundant and may be even missleading. Imagine you go buy some recommended wifi card by this database. Vendors change chipsets every 3 month. The sentense that it works in puppy is not true anymore.

Dont feel critisised, however. You put up a great database and you are not responsible for the contents.

Urban

[can8v]

@urban
Interesting, so you are saying that someone may have a Brand X SuperDuperCard version 7.1 and someone else who has a Brand X SuperDuperCard version 7.1 could have different chipsets in their respective cards. I have yet to experience that. I have seen different chipsets between say versions 7.1 and 7.2, but not between two version 7.1 cards. This poses a major problem, as most people don't even know what chipset they have. So if I require the chipset to be entered into the db before the data is accepted then a number of people will likely not enter anything. Do you have any possible solutions to this. At this point it would still be fairly easy to add a chipset field, but to filter by chipset would be a chore at this point.

As far as the db being redundant you are right it is, it was never meant to do something never done before, it was simply meant to do it much better. The data could and has been entered into the forum; the problem is that it is difficult to get at the information for the exact card and puppy one is trying to use. Not many people want to scroll through a list of a few hundred cards that are in no particular order to find the card they have only to realize that the listing they found is for a different version of puppy and the instructions don't work, so they need to continue looking to see if there is another listing even farther down the list for the same card, but a different version of Puppy. This type of application is simply meant to replace and organize data that is found in such list, then make it sortable for ease of use.

[urban soul]

@urban
Interesting, so you are saying that someone may have a Brand X SuperDuperCard version 7.1 and someone else who has a Brand X SuperDuperCard version 7.1 could have different chipsets in their respective cards.

Exactely. Normaly vendors call it 'revision'. So SuperDuperCard version 7.1 rev.1 has say a broadcom chip whereas SuperDuperCard version 7.1 rev.2 has a different chipset.

BUT it has also been known that some nasty vendors do NOT tell anything about it. No name china resellers e.g.

My solution is to buy from vendors who officially support linux, ralink e.g. But even ralink does not make things clear to the enduser. However you can find out without opening the case if you have the skills.

Urban

[Aitch]

Do you have any possible solutions to this. At this point it would still be fairly easy to add a chipset field, but to filter by chipset would be a chore at this point.

I have a simple solution
if there is more than 1 solution for brandx card, whether it be rev 1 /2/3,
can be added to setup notes, as you suggest can8v, ,but also a listing of
a), b), c), etc, solutions could be given and dated, [I hope there is a space,
as I haven't got there yet, because the forum went down & I got involved in sorting a friends PC]
as people often refer to cards by 'when they bought them',
or 'early'/'late' versions

[I hope there is a space for such info, as I haven't got there yet,
because the forum went down & I got involved in sorting a friends PC]

What do you both think of this?

My solution is to buy from vendors who officially support linux, ralink e.g. But even ralink does not make things clear to the enduser. However you can find out without opening the case if you have the skills.

We have to also be realistic
Things change & I don't think this 'solution' was intended to be a 'be all & end all' fix. We can only say what is known to work, in these examples The rider being there's no guarantees in life's wifi


Aitch

[Aitch]

I made an example

[can8v]

@Aitch
I had in mind that each version of Puppy that the card is tested with would require a whole new entry, so that it could be searched by and sorted by the puppy version it is tested with. For example if someone is using 2.15CE and they want to buy a WiFi card they can search for all WiFi cards by whatever company they like, then filter out anything that doesn't work with 2.15CE If we only separate entries based on Mfg. model version and revision then put all of the puppies that it works with in one entry this is no longer possible. The application would still be vastly superior to a simple list, but not as easily filtered as it could be. What are your thoughts on this?
can8v

[can8v]

This is really not a huge thing. I am thinking it can be resolved by annotating which revision number if any was used for testing if any and the chipset if known. I will simply change the input form to include two more fields labeled something like this.

Rev. # if known:

Chipset if known:

When the form is submitted,if the user entered any text for these fields, I can have the script append that text to setup notes like so.
(just an example here)
revision: 3
Chipset: Atmel

This way if a user is searching for their card and they search by Mfg, model, and version they will see their revision and any other revision. This of course is assuming that someone has gone before them and entered it into the db.

[Aitch]

OK,
Re: the first, maybe because there was no intro, which there will, presumably, be, on finished product

I think seperate entry is better, just at the mo' with so little in db it's hard to see/visualise how it's going to return with different search filters

you have an advantage over me as you know what it's going to/intended to do

re: the second

yes, it was just that I was thrown by losing all the data, for the sake of not filling a 'required field' when I was returned to the entry page

maybe an onpage backbutton to restore you to last entry attempt, with errors/omissions highlighted?

Aitch

[can8v]

I was able to spend almost three hours on this project tonight (first time in a few days). This few hours proved productive as I was able to fix all of the bugs and add almost all of the suggestions reported by Aitch and urban soul, as well as add some critical validation to keep users from inadvertently adding duplicate records to the db for the same adapter (determined by manufacturer, model, version and Puppy version). There are now revision and chipset fields that get appended to the setup notes. I hope to complete some more validation functions to help ensure accurate data entry. I plan work on this for about an hour either Saturday night or Sunday afternoon. Once the validation is completed I will upload the updated scripts from my localhost to the web server for testing. Hopefully this will be no later than Sunday, as I am anxious to complete the edit and delete functions, so we can have a somewhat comeplete application online. The final release will come about a week after that. Next week is the last week of school, before summer break. If the project is not complete before then, progress will pick up sharply thereafter.
Kind regards,
can8v

[urban soul]

yust one more note -

we have many Puppy versions. Let's say more than 20. Is it appropriate to have a 'per puppy version' entry?

If everybody can edit the 'notes' field, we can list puppy versions there. At the end it all breaks down to the kernel version and many puppys have the same kernel.

Urban

[Aitch]

good point, urban

only thing, I see 'wrong' with it, without picking fights, is, even I don't know which kernel each puppy is based on, & that is already a nuisance factor to me!!

If the kernel version was hard wired into each puppy in a way to make it easily visible, [as I know howto with say, W98/2K], & it could be 'scraped' for our purposes, it might help the noob being asked to fill in details

If entering puppy version automagically changed the info stored in the db to popup & say 'you have kernel xxx.xxx'; then fine, no prob, but I don't know, can/should this be done, Jason?

Maybe it should be put in the db as kernel version,....... [as there's certainly less variations, & who knows what the future may hold?15 puppies per kernel version is not beyond possibility, eh?]..... as the v4 example when BarryK took the .25 kernel out & went back to the .18.1 or whatever, springs to mind, but I can't even be sure about that, as I don't use v4, it still seems too buggy to me, & I prefer my solid reliable type distro,
like 2.14&/orR

- what[2?] kernel[s?]? - no idea!! > > >

Aitch

[erikson]

If the kernel version was hard wired into each puppy in a way to make it easily visible...

It is.

In rxvt simply type

Code: Select all

uname -r

Cfr uname - print system information at die.net for description of all possible options.