My config files are often large and use some shell scripting. In these shell scripting part I interact with files and execute scripts in specific folder.
It would be nice to have the ability to define for example a file path once and reuse it in different parts of the config file. It would help to make config files cleaner. For example:

EDIT: forget the tip below. Instead just call script files: inline scripting in the ELOG config shows very strange behavior. Doing the same in external scripts works reliable.

I just spend an hour searching for a problem. To avoid others to spend the hour again, here's a little "special behaviour" of shell execution in ELOG you should know about:

If you want to do redirect to a file in a shell execution, put a space before and after the redirecting. The following does not work:

You will not get an error message, but the file is not created. But if you add a space it will work as expected:

It is not really a bug; if you know about it, then it is not a big deal: hence this entry here. I saw this behavior on a Linux RHEL7 system.

In case you are wondering: I use this to create a default for the field CampaignID, to be used for new entries in combination with a Preset:

We want to develop separate mobile web pages for the web applications deployed at CSNS accelerator, including the PSI Elog.

In Elog, is there RESTful API or HTTP/JSON or HTTP/XML interface for other web clients to access?

Or is there any workaround?

When elog has been developed, REST did not yet exist. The closest you can get is the RSS API. Just try https://elog.psi.ch/elogs/Forum/elog.rdf and you see the result for this forum. To write to elog, you can use teh HTTP/HTML interface and mimic a browser. See for example elog:69209

Stefan

There is a python API to access ELOG via HTTP: https://github.com/paulscherrerinstitute/py_elog

I've been trying to configured a Synology NAS to run my personal elog with a reverse proxy to the outside world.  The best way seems to be running Elog in a Docker instance and then running a separate connected Docker running a nginx-proxy (in this case jwilder/nginx-proxy). This second container manages the certificates to letsencrypt and mapping URL requests to relevant containers so that connection is secured properly.  

It worked great in the initial test. However, I have an issue with authentication.  When I password protect the elog it goes to a login page.  When I give an correct password it loops back to the login page (incidentally when I give an incorrect password it gives an 'Invalid user name or password!' warning).  So I know that its getting the correct password but there is some issue that is resetting or ignoring the authentication.  I am never able to actually get to the protected content. 

Does anyone have any experience in using Nginx to setup a secure reverse proxy? Any insights into why this would mess with the authentication of elog?

Side note: I have tried using Apache to do the same and authentication worked fine.  But the pre-canned jwilder/nginx-proxy docker manages all the certificates automatically and seamlessly and allows me to have multiple services running on the same outward facing port on my router.  There is no equivalent (as far as I know) that uses Apache for proxying with letsencrypt​.

Have you tried the "URL = ..." statement? This determines you elog redirects if you log in. If you reach elog through a proxy, the URL is a different one that if you access it directly. In your case the proxy URL might be necessary.

Stefan

Yes, I tried setting the URL parameter to the url used by the proxy.  It goes to the correct address but that landing is the login page.

Andrew

Actually this forum works through an Apache reverse proxy with authentication and it works, so I suspect that the problem has to do with jwilder/nginx-proxy. Since we don't have this here, all I can propose is that you do debugging yourself. Run elogd with the -v flag so that you see all requests coming from the user through the proxy. Compare the requests through Apache and Nginx to see if any argumets are stripped or mangled. Upon successful login, elog sets a cookie with a unique session-ID (the cookie name is "sid") to the browser. If you proxy strips that cookie, you would land on the login page. Maybe look in that direction.

Stefan

It does indeed seem to be a cookie stripping issue.  I just need to figure out how to get Nginx to forward these properly.

Thanks for the help.

I have the same problem -- did you find a solution in using the nginx revese proxy with user login?

Hi All,

I am using elog to track technical changes in an experiment but also to log what experimentalist are doing during an experiment. For the latter, I would like to be able to lock those entries from being further edited after the expertiment if finished. Is there a way to do that?

Thanks,

Manoel

You can either lock all entries or none. So I would propose you set up two logbooks, one for technical changes which is not locked and one for what experimentalists are doing which is locked. Locking can be done a certain time after an entry has been made (like 1h, 1d, 1 month etc.). Or you simply make the logbook read-only.

Stefan

Can the size of the application log file affect performance?

If the logbook files are getting big, searching text in entries can take quite some time. But if you have a log file logging all activities, that should not slow down elog since the server just appends at the end of that file which is a quick operation.

Is there any way to log child events on the detail pages for a fixed number of entries on the main page? For example, I have 15 vehicles to enter on the main page, ID'd by Vehicle Number. Within each of those entries I will be logging ongoing repair service entries with certain attributes.

So how might I design this concept without having repeating vehicle entries on the main page for every service event, and preferably without splitting the information between two linked logbook tabs?