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• Generating test data – Introducing the Piwik Platform

  9 octobre 2014, par Thomas Steur — Development

  This is the next post of our blog series where we introduce the capabilities of the Piwik platform (our previous post was How to create a command). This time you’ll learn how to generate test data.

  Developers are developing on their local Piwik instance which usually does not contain useful data compared to a real Piwik installation in production (only a few test visits and a few tests users and websites). The ‘VisitorGenerator’ plugin lets you generate any number of visits, websites, users, goals and more. The generator makes sure there will be data for each report so you can easily test anything.

  Getting started

  In this series of posts, we assume that you have already installed Piwik. If not, visit the Piwik Developer Zone where you’ll find the Installation guide for developers.

  Installing the VisitorGenerator plugin

  The easiest way to install the plugin is by using the Marketplace in Piwik itself. It is accessible via Settings => Marketplace => Get new functionality. There you’ll find the plugin “VisitorGenerator” which you can install and activate in one click.

  If your Piwik instance is not connected to the internet you can download the plugin from the VisitorGenerator page on the Marketplace. Afterwards you can install the plugin by going to Settings => Marketplace => Uploading a plugin and uploading the previously downloaded ZIP file.

  If you have already installed the plugin make sure it is activated by going to Settings => Plugins.

  Generating websites

  After you have installed the plugin you can add as many websites as you need. This is useful for instance when you want to test something that affects many websites such as the ‘All Websites’ dashboard or the Websites manager. To generate any number of websites use the following command :

  ./console visitorgenerator:generate-website --limit=10

  This will generate 10 websites. If you need more websites simply specify a higher limit. In case you are wondering the names and URLs of the websites are randomly generated by the Faker PHP library.

  Generating goals

  In case you want to test anything related to Goals you should execute the following command :

  ./console visitorgenerator:generate-goals --idsite=1

  This will generate a few goals for the specified site. The generated goals are defined in a way to make sure there will be conversions when generating the visits in the next step.

  Generating visits

  To generate visits there are two possibilities. Either via the Piwik UI by going to Settings => Visitor Generator or by using the command line. The UI is a bit limited in generating visits so we recommend to use the command line. There you can generate visits as follows :

  ./console visitorgenerator:generate-visits --idsite=1

  This will generate many different visits for the current day. Don’t worry if it takes a while, it will insert quite a few visits by default.

  In case you want to generate visits for multiple days in the past as well you can specify the --days option.

  ./console visitorgenerator:generate-visits --idsite=1 --days=5

  Providing your own logs

  Half of the generated visits are randomly generated and half of the visits are based on real logs to make sure there is data for each report. If you want to generate visits based on your own logs for a more realistic testing just place your log files in the plugins/VisitorGenerator/data folder and make sure the file name ends with .log. You can find a few examples in the VisitorGenerator data folder.

  To generate visits based only on real log files then use the --no-fake option.

  ./console visitorgenerator:generate-visits --idsite=1 --no-fake

  All generated visits will come from the logs and no random visits nor random fake data will be used.

  Advanced features

  We are regularly adding new commands, tools and runtime checks to make your life as a developer easier. For instance you can also generate users and annotations. In the future we want to extend the plugin to create visits in the background to make sure there will be constantly new actions in the real time report.

  Are you missing any kind of generator or any other feature to make your life as a developer easier ? Let us know by email, we are listening !

  Would you like to know more about the Piwik platform ? Go to our Piwik Developer Zone where you’ll find guides and references on how to develop plugin and themes.

• Generating test data – Introducing the Piwik Platform

  9 octobre 2014, par Thomas Steur — Development

  This is the next post of our blog series where we introduce the capabilities of the Piwik platform (our previous post was How to create a command). This time you’ll learn how to generate test data.

  Developers are developing on their local Piwik instance which usually does not contain useful data compared to a real Piwik installation in production (only a few test visits and a few tests users and websites). The ‘VisitorGenerator’ plugin lets you generate any number of visits, websites, users, goals and more. The generator makes sure there will be data for each report so you can easily test anything.

  Getting started

  In this series of posts, we assume that you have already installed Piwik. If not, visit the Piwik Developer Zone where you’ll find the Installation guide for developers.

  Installing the VisitorGenerator plugin

  The easiest way to install the plugin is by using the Marketplace in Piwik itself. It is accessible via Settings => Marketplace => Get new functionality. There you’ll find the plugin “VisitorGenerator” which you can install and activate in one click.

  If your Piwik instance is not connected to the internet you can download the plugin from the VisitorGenerator page on the Marketplace. Afterwards you can install the plugin by going to Settings => Marketplace => Uploading a plugin and uploading the previously downloaded ZIP file.

  If you have already installed the plugin make sure it is activated by going to Settings => Plugins.

  Generating websites

  After you have installed the plugin you can add as many websites as you need. This is useful for instance when you want to test something that affects many websites such as the ‘All Websites’ dashboard or the Websites manager. To generate any number of websites use the following command :

  ./console visitorgenerator:generate-website --limit=10

  This will generate 10 websites. If you need more websites simply specify a higher limit. In case you are wondering the names and URLs of the websites are randomly generated by the Faker PHP library.

  Generating goals

  In case you want to test anything related to Goals you should execute the following command :

  ./console visitorgenerator:generate-goals --idsite=1

  This will generate a few goals for the specified site. The generated goals are defined in a way to make sure there will be conversions when generating the visits in the next step.

  Generating visits

  To generate visits there are two possibilities. Either via the Piwik UI by going to Settings => Visitor Generator or by using the command line. The UI is a bit limited in generating visits so we recommend to use the command line. There you can generate visits as follows :

  ./console visitorgenerator:generate-visits --idsite=1

  This will generate many different visits for the current day. Don’t worry if it takes a while, it will insert quite a few visits by default.

  In case you want to generate visits for multiple days in the past as well you can specify the --days option.

  ./console visitorgenerator:generate-visits --idsite=1 --days=5

  Providing your own logs

  Half of the generated visits are randomly generated and half of the visits are based on real logs to make sure there is data for each report. If you want to generate visits based on your own logs for a more realistic testing just place your log files in the plugins/VisitorGenerator/data folder and make sure the file name ends with .log. You can find a few examples in the VisitorGenerator data folder.

  To generate visits based only on real log files then use the --no-fake option.

  ./console visitorgenerator:generate-visits --idsite=1 --no-fake

  All generated visits will come from the logs and no random visits nor random fake data will be used.

  Advanced features

  We are regularly adding new commands, tools and runtime checks to make your life as a developer easier. For instance you can also generate users and annotations. In the future we want to extend the plugin to create visits in the background to make sure there will be constantly new actions in the real time report.

  Are you missing any kind of generator or any other feature to make your life as a developer easier ? Let us know by email, we are listening !

  Would you like to know more about the Piwik platform ? Go to our Piwik Developer Zone where you’ll find guides and references on how to develop plugin and themes.

• Hacking the Popcorn Hour C-200

  3 mai 2010, par Mans — Hardware, MIPS

  Update : A new firmware version has been released since the publication of this article. I do not know if the procedure described below will work with the new version.

  The Popcorn Hour C-200 is a Linux-based media player with impressive specifications. At its heart is a Sigma Designs SMP8643 system on chip with a 667MHz MIPS 74Kf as main CPU, several co-processors, and 512MB of DRAM attached. Gigabit Ethernet, SATA, and USB provide connectivity with the world around it. With a modest $299 on the price tag, the temptation to repurpose the unit as a low-power server or cheap development board is hard to resist. This article shows how such a conversion can be achieved.
  

  Kernel

  The PCH runs a patched Linux 2.6.22.19 kernel. A source tarball is available from the manufacturer. This contains the sources with Sigma support patches, Con Kolivas’ patch set (scheduler tweaks), and assorted unrelated changes. Properly split patches are unfortunately not available. I have created a reduced patch against vanilla 2.6.22.19 with only Sigma-specific changes, available here.

  The installed kernel has a number of features disabled, notably PTY support and oprofile. We will use kexec to load a more friendly one.

  As might be expected, the PCH kernel does not have kexec support enabled. It does however, by virtue of using closed-source components, support module loading. This lets us turn kexec into a module and load it. A patch for this is available here. To build the module, apply the patch to the PCH sources and build using this configuration. This will produce two modules, kexec.ko and mips_kexec.ko. No other products of this build will be needed.

  The replacement kernel can be built from the PCH sources or, if one prefers, from vanilla 2.6.22.19 with the Sigma-only patch. For the latter case, this config provides a minimal starting point suitable for NFS-root.

  When configuring the kernel, make sure CONFIG_TANGOX_IGNORE_CMDLINE is enabled. Otherwise the command line will be overridden by a useless one stored in flash. A good command line can be set with CONFIG_CMDLINE (under “Kernel hacking” in menuconfig) or passed from kexec.

  Taking control

  In order to load our kexec module, we must first gain root privileges on the PCH, and here a few features of the system are working to our advantage :

  1. The PCH allows mounting any NFS export to access media files stored there.
  2. There is an HTTP server running. As root.
  3. This HTTP server can be readily instructed to fetch files from an NFS mount.
  4. Files with a name ending in .cgi are executed. As root.

  All we need do to profit from this is place the kexec modules, the kexec userspace tools, and a simple script on an NFS export. Once this is done, and the mount point configured on the PCH, a simple HTTP request will send the old kernel screaming to /dev/null, our shiny new kernel taking its place.

  The rootfs

  A kernel is mostly useless without a root filesystem containing tools and applications. A number of tools for cross-compiling a full system exist, each with its strengths and weaknesses. The only thing to look out for is the version of kernel headers used (usually a linux-headers package). As we will be running an old kernel, chances are the default version is too recent. Other than this, everything should be by the book.

  Assembling the parts

  Having gathered all the pieces, it is now time to assemble the hack. The following steps are suitable for an NFS-root system. Adaptation to a disk-based system is left as an exercise.

  1. Build a rootfs for MIPS 74Kf little endian. Make sure kernel headers used are no more recent than 2.6.22.x. Include a recent version of the kexec userspace tools.
  2. Fetch and unpack the PCH kernel sources.
  3. Apply the modular kexec patch.
  4. Using this config, build the modules and install them as usual to the rootfs. The version string must be 2.6.22.19-19-4.
  5. From either the same kernel sources or plain 2.6.22.19 with Sigma patches, build a vmlinux and (optionally) modules using this config. Modify the compiled-in command line to point to the correct rootfs. Set the version string to something other than in the previous step.
  6. Copy vmlinux to any directory in the rootfs.
  7. Copy kexec.sh and kexec.cgi to the same directory as vmlinux.
  8. Export the rootfs over NFS with full read/write permissions for the PCH.
  9. Power on the PCH, and update to latest firmware.
  10. Configure an NFS mount of the rootfs.
  11. Navigate to the rootfs in the PCH UI. A directory listing of bin, dev, etc. should be displayed.
  12. On the host system, run the kexec.sh script with the target hostname or IP address as argument.
  13. If all goes well, the new kernel will boot and mount the rootfs.

  Serial console

  A serial console is indispensable for solving boot problems. The PCH board has two UART connectors. We will use the one labeled UART0. The pinout is as follows (not standard PC pinout).

          +-----------+
         2| * * * * * |10
         1| * * * * * |9
          -----------+
            J7 UART0
      /---------------------/ board edge
  

  Pin	Function
  1	+5V
  5	Rx
  6	Tx
  10	GND

  The signals are 3.3V so a converter, e.g. MAX202, is required for connecting this to a PC serial port. The default port settings are 115200 bps 8n1.