CCScrape

CCScrape is a tool to facilitate the integration of XFD (eXtreme Feedback Devices ie. Lava Lamps, ...) to your continuous integration buildsystem based on CruiseControl. It enables to monitor either a single project or a multi project build environment without changing the underlying XML of the build scripts.
Furthermore it decouples the XFD from the build machine (ie. if the build machine is locked away in a server room or on another continent) as it looks at the website. Also, you can have as many CCScrapes running agains a specific CruiseControl results page as you want. (ie. you could place a set of Lava Lamps (or similar) into the managers office, or monitor from home using VPN).

The idea comes from 'The Pragmatic Programmer' bookshelf book 'Pragmatic Automation'. For the X10 setup I use the X10  Fire Cracker Automation System as described in the Pragmatic Automation book.

Supported OS: CCScrape currently only runs on a Windows computer featuring a COM port.

How does it work and how to set it up

Setup
  1. Plug your X10 switches into power outlets.
  2. Plug your XFDs into the X10 switches; note down the addresses of the OK XFD and the Fail XFD.
  3. Plug the X10 serial port dongle (transceiver) into the computer serial port, note down the COM port name
  4. Start CCScrape using webstart on the computer with the dongle and fill in the values described below. Don't forget to save them.
  • URL is the URL of the CruiseControl website; it can either be from a specific project or the CruiseControl status page. If you use the status page then XFD will be switched into the fail state if one of the project has failed.
  • Start Time/End Time is the time when the monitoring begins and ends. In this case the XFDs will be turned on at 8 am and off at 8 pm. If the time of the day is not between this range the XFDs will be off.
  • Interval is the time in seconds between reading the URL and setting the XFDs. In this case it is 3 min (180 secs).
  • Port the come port of the X10 seriall port dongle.
  • OK the address for the ok XFD
  • Fail the address for the fail XFD
  The settings can be stored and read using the Settings menu.
Start
starts the monitoring.It checks the website immediately and then waits for interval seconds before the next check.
Depending if the build is ok or has failed the UI will look like this
While the monitoring is going on no settings can be changed.

Stop
stops the monitoring and the UI changes back so that settings can be changed.

Test
runs a short test in which it turns on all the lights waits for some time and then switches them off again. Note: the ligths don't go on/off together there is a ~2sec shift between.

Log
Shows a log window with all results; the last is topmost.



ATTENTION:  Malfunction of the software or attached hardware may pose a fire hazard. Never leave the your XFDs unattended.
Ralph Jocham
Last modified: Thu Mar 12 21:43:16 PT