Re: GUI interface to an embedded system




GMM50 wrote:

Grant Edwards wrote:

GMM50 wrote:

I'm developing am embedded system with Ethernet, USB and
Serial ports. I want to provide a GUI interface which the
user can use to configure and program the system. One
approach is to use java and deliver a compiled/compressed file
to a browser that provides that gui interface.

My question is are there alternatives to this approach that I
can use with either the USB or Serial interfaces?

Sure. Put a web server in your device. You can use either
a normal HTML interface, JavaScript, or Java.

And can I download and run that software using the USB or serial
ports?

The phrase "download and run" leads me to believe that you
aren't quite getting it. When you enter some information
so as to buy something from a website on the Internet, do you
"download and run" that webpage? That's not the phrase that
most people would use to describe doing that.

Controlling an embedded system from your web browser is the
same as ordering a book from Amazon.com. The only difference
is the content of the information you enter (commands to the
embedded system vs. your credit card number) and the URL you
use to access the page.

The program on your embedded system that serves up the *.html
webpage, reads the info the user inputs to the webforms, and
provides the URL that you type into your browser is called
a "web server", and is a pretty easy thing to program into
an embedded system.

Accessing the web page through Ethernet, USB or Serial is done
the same way you would access any web page that is at the other
end of one of those connections. Again, the program on your
embedded system that does that is called a "web server."

Or you can treat it like you would treat a *.HTML file on disk
and put a simple network file server in your embedded system.
That's harder to do, unless your system is already serving up
files.

Once you get the basics of serving up a web page with a web
form on it, you can get fancy with JavaScript, Java or even
Flash or (spit!) VBScript -- but keep in mind the capabilities
of all of the browsers that will be accessing the web page.

--
Guy Macon
<http://www.guymacon.com/>


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