Short Introduction

The main purpose of the CERN Alerter application is to provide one-way messaging system for distributing important CERN information to the users. Information is distributed in form of special RSS feeds and can be targeted to a specific set of users/machines. Those feeds are called CERN obligatory feeds and their subscription is enforced by the administrator. In addition to that some functionality for handling other (normal) RSS feeds has been provided. This allows user to subscribe to any RSS feed and use CERN Alerter notification mechanism, as a way of informing the user about new coming items.

CERNAlerter functionality

• CERNAlerter Menu
  • Help button - opens the help (this) page
  • About button - opens the CERNAlerter about dialog
  • Refresh button - searches for new RSS feeds
  • History button - opens the obligatory CERN feed in a new browser. The user can see all CERN messages.
  • Preferences button - opens the CERNAlerter configuration window
  • Quit button - stops CERNAlerter application

• CERNAlerter About Box:
  
  
  

• CERNAlerter Balloon Warning:
  • If specific feed cannot be read then warning balloon message is shown. This can be due to temporary feed unavailability, wrong formatted feed, connection problems...
  • All balloon warnings close automatically after 10 seconds

• CERNAlerter balloon message
  • All balloon messages have title (in this example title is 'test'). It is configured on feed creation.
  • All balloon messages have short description
  • All balloon messages close automatically after 30 seconds. This does not mark the message as read.
  • All balloon messages have close button. This does not mark the message as read.
  • All balloon messages have 'Yes, View' button. This marks the current message as read and opens the RSS URL in a browser. The message will not pop up again.
  • All balloon messages have 'Ignore' button. This marks the current message as read. It will not pop up again.
  • All balloon messages have 'Ignore All' button. This marks all messages as read. They will not pop up again.

• CERNAlerter CERN balloon message
  • CERN balloon messages are marked with a CERN logo.
  • Same rules as for regular balloon messages apply.

• CERNAlerter Preferences
  • Save button - saves the current configuration. Remember that if you do not press 'Save' button your changes will not be saved.
  • Cancel button - discard all changes.

• CERNAlerter Preferences Disable Feed
  • Disable feed checkbox - CERNAlerter will not check the feed. This option is useful for temporary unavailable feeds or if you do not know username/password for a password protected feed.

• CERNAlerter Preferences Add New Feed
  • In order to add new feed you have to fill feed name, feed URL and press 'Add' button.

• CERNAlerter Preferences Inaccessible Feed
  • Feed validation on new feed add and feed URL change is done. If the feed is not accessible a warning is shown. However, you can still save the configuration

• CERNAlerter Preferences Edit Feed
  • Feed properties can be edited by clicking on the desired feed's property.

• CERNAlerter Preferences Delete Feed
  • Feeds can be deleted by selecting the desired feed and pressing 'Delete' button.

• CERNAlerter Preferences Base Configuration
  • In Base Configuration tab CERN specific information can be configured Username and Hostname are automatically get by the application (the current user and host are used). They are important for selecting the CERN specific messages. Often the current user differs from the actual LDAP user and CERN Feeds use the LDAP user.

• Password protected feeds
  • CERNAlerter supports password protected feeds (Basic and Digest authentication). CERNAlerter saves the username and password in memory and they are available only for the current session.

CERNAlerter Windows Notes

Windows is not officially supported platform. However, the developer has a good heart and decent programming skills so CERNAlerter works on Windows too. Unfortunately PyGTK balloon implementation for Windows is not as good as for Linux. Because of that CERNAlerter has a bit different behavior on Windows.

• Tray icon does not change on feed check action and on new/unread messages.
• Balloons do not have buttons ("View", "Ignore" and "Ignore All")
• CERN messages do not have CERN logo.
• CERNAlerter for Windows marks a message read on balloon popup.

CERNAlerter Installation

• Linux RHEL/SLC
  • run "yum install cern-alerter"
  • in order to start the application run "cern-alerter"
• Windows
  • install python
  • install PyGTK
  • in order to start the application run "python CERNNotifierUI.py"
• MacOS

  - Install X11 http://guide.macports.org/#installing.x11

  - Install Xcode tools http://guide.macports.org/#installing.xcode

  - Install MacPorts http://guide.macports.org/#installing.macports

  - Make sure the paths are configured in your shell profile http://guide.macports.org/#installing.shell

  - Restart your shell, and follow the next commands :

  1. Install Python

  sudo port -v install python25

  2. Install Python select

  sudo port -v install python_select

  3. Activate our installed python version

  sudo python_select python25

  4. Install pygtk

  sudo port -v install py25-gtk

  5. Install some gnome themes and engines

  sudo port -v install gnome-themes
  sudo port -v install gtk-nodoka-engine
  
  sudo port -v install gtk-smooth-engine
  sudo port -v install gtk2-aurora
  sudo port -v install gtk2-clearlooks
  
  sudo port -v install gtk2-extra
  sudo port -v install gtk2-industrial
  sudo port -v install gtk2-murrine

  6. Install theme switch

  sudo port -v install gtk-theme-switch

  7. Select which theme to be used by your applications by running the theme switch

  switch2