Factory Webui

Running make webui from the top-level Factory directory provides a user-friendly web browser-based user interface to configure and save your workorder. This method mimics the familiar and intuitive user experience of Timesys' free LinuxLink Web Factory build service while providing the benefits of the Desktop Factory build system.

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The webui tool is designed to provide an easy to follow configuration tool that is familiar to LinuxLink Web Factory users, helping to make the shift from Web Factory to Desktop Factory more fluid. The webui tool allows for basic configuration of the BSP/SDK to generate a Linux system that can be booted on the target platform hardware.

The step by step process guides you through selection of the target platform (board), toolchain components, included packages, and target platform RFS options. Both a hierarchical category-driven menu (similar structure to that seen in menuconfig) and search functionality make finding and selecting packages to include in your BSP/SDK fast and easy. Once configured and your workorder is saved, the building of your BSP/SDK is completed from the command line in the customary Desktop Factory fashion with make as indicated by the message on the Successful Save webui page.

Starting Webui Configuration Tool

From the top-level Factory directory, the webui configuration interface can be started with the simple command:

make webui
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webui make target builds mongoose and sets up the webserver then opens the default web browser and connect to the webserver

Note here in the second image that once Factory configuration with the webui tool is completed, a Ctrl-C is necessary to stop the web server service. Also provided here are instructions to manually connect to the webui web server if the automatic connection is unsuccessful.

Attempting to launch a web browser.
If nothing happens, open a browser and connect to http://127.0.0.1:8080/factory/

Navigation

Once the web browser is connected to the web server, navigation within the webui tool is as simple and intuitive as navigating through a set of web pages in your web browser. Mouse clicks on each configuration stage load pages with the configuration options correlating to that stage. The web browser's back and forward buttons function as expected within the context of the webui tool, and can be used to return to the configuration should you click a link to an external page (e.g. busybox URL page http://www.busybox.net/ from busybox package information). Note the back button will not undo selections made, only return to the previous page.

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Packages Navigation

The Packages stage of the configuration can be navigated via the categories listed near the center of the page. Clicking on any category will expand that category to display sub-categories, and eventually packages. Directly above the categories list is the progression of category selection, with each item clickable to bring you back to that category level. In order to navigate to and see the info for the busybox package, you could click System > Shells > Busybox as shown here, or utilize the webui search capability.

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initial Software Packages view System category view Shells category view

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busybox information from within System > Shells > Busybox

Selecting

Making selections through the webui configuration tool is done via various common web form input mechanisms as shown below.

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dropdown menu check boxes radio buttons

Webui Search

The search facility available in the webui configuration tool is accessible in the Packages stage of the configuration. The Search box can be found on the right-hand side of the page, above the package list box. This box is also where the results of your search will be displayed.

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search box found on the Packages page

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search results for 'ssh'

Entering a search string in the Search box and clicking the Search button (or simply hitting Enter key) will result in the matches displayed in the package list box below. The search results are broken down into two categories: package results and description results. As seen above, the search for 'ssh' provides both package results and description results. Once the results are displayed, package selections/deselections can be made directly within the search results box. Any packages names listed in this location can be clicked for more information, which will be displayed on the left-hand side of the page in the Package List area.