SAGE Web UI FAQ

This page lists the frequently asked questions about the SAGE web based user interface application. The installation instructions are primarily intended for System administrators. Clients do not require any special software other than standard web browsers and VNC server to share their desktop.

1. What is SAGE?
2. What is SAGE web UI?
3. How is web user interface different from the stand-alone version?
4. What are the functionalities provided by the SAGE web UI?
5. What are the minimum requirements?
6. Where to obtain the application package?
7. How to install the application?
8. How to share your desktop?
9. Some known bugs.
10. Who to contact?
11. Web display controller Screenshots.

What is SAGE?

SAGE (Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment) is a graphics streaming architecture for supporting collaborative scientific visualization environments with potentially hundreds of megapixels of contiguous display resolution. In collaborative scientific visualization, it is crucial to share high-resolution imagery as well as high-definition video among groups of collaborators at local or remote sites.

What is SAGE web display controller?

The SAGE web display controller is a web application built using AJAX and Javacsript that allows users to control the SAGE displays. The applications works on standard web browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari (Mac).

How is web user interface different from the stand-alone version?

The current web user interface provides a minimum subset of functionality of the stand-alone version. It was primarily developed to make it easy for a user with minimal knowldege about SAGE, to use the SAGE displays for their work.

What are the functionalities provided by the web based SAGE UI?

• Connect to multiple SAGE sessions simulatenously.
• Move (Drag n Drop), resize, minimize and maximize application windows
• Share your desktop through VNC

Note: For desktop sharing you need an VNC server running on your local machine: laptop, desktop etc.

What are the requirements to deploy SAGE web display controller application?

• Apache Tomcat Servlet Container (Version 4 & above)
• VNC client/server application.

  You can download a copy of the VNC client/server from the following links specfic to your platform.

  • Windows: client and server: http://www.tightvnc.com/
  • Mac: server: OSXvnc http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11283
  • Mac client: Chicken of the VNC http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9517
  • Linux: vncviewer/vncserver package or tightvnc package

  Here is the link to common FAQ on Tomcat. Links include how to install Tomcat as service, enable SSL (Security encrpytion)

Note: Please, update your version of SAGE to the latest available. You can download the latest version of SAGE here.

Downloads:

• Version 1.0

Installation Instructions:

1. Download the application tar file.
2. Unzip using the command "tar zxvf sage_web_ui.tar.gz". This extracts the contents to a folder name "sage"
3. Just copy the entire folder into the tomcat webapps directory.
4. Restart the tomcat server by usng the command "catalina.sh restart"
5. Start SAGE
6. Run SageProxy using SageLauncher (only with SAGE version newer than 2.1). Otherwise follow these steps:
   • Download the new sageProxy.zip file.
   • Extract contents.
   • Run the sageProxy.py script with the arguments -h <host> -p <port> -x <session password>. Ex: sageProxySecure.py -s deva.evl.uic.edu -p 30001 -x password12

How to Share your desktop?

Clients Only: To share your desktop you have to install a VNC server on your personal device (e.g., laptop, desktop). Currently, the application does not support NAT addresses, so if you are behind a router you would have to enable port forwarding in your router to share your desktop.

You can download a copy of the VNC client/server from the following links specfic to your platform.

• Windows: client and server: http://www.tightvnc.com/
• Mac: server: OSXvnc http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11283
• Mac client: Chicken of the VNC http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9517
• Linux: vncviewer/vncserver package or tightvnc package

Known Bugs:

1. Minimizing the application window does not work.

Contact Information:

Please, post your questions and comments on the SAGE web forum.

Screenshots:

Here are some screen shots of the SAGE web display controller in action.

Screen shot of SAGE web display controller in action

Multiple users sharing their laptop displays