Possibility to integrate with multiple instances of services

[anderslindho]

This is an attractive product (albeit with a somewhat problematic name)!

I could not find any documentation about how to configure pvlist, and/or its limitations. At ESS, we have different instances of ChannelFinder, alarm logger, archiver, and logbook (the servers themselves). Would it be possible to integrate with multiple of these. How is the configuration currently configured, and is it technically possible to integrate with several instances if necessary?

[tynanford]

Hi @anderslindho ,

You can configure via the builtin react ENV files. Specifically .env https://github.com/ChannelFinder/pvinfo/blob/master/.env which shows all the currently available config options.

Note that you can also add files like .env.production , .env.development , etc https://vite.dev/guide/env-and-mode#env-files

Right now having multiple instances of a service is not supported. It would be fine to add that support but I wonder how you envision it working in practice. For instance with channel finder, pvinfo would query each channel finder server and then combine the results and display them? With multiple logbooks, the results would be combined or you would expect a separate accordion dropdown for each logbook?

[anderslindho]

Thanks @tynanford

Re multiple instances, I am mainly lifting the question to spark some discussion. Our current setup is a bit like:

• One CF for production (machine + beamlines), one for lab
• Separate archiver and alarm logger for machine, beamlines, lab
• Two logbook servers for machine, one for beamlines, one lab

I think the straight-forward solution would be to run one instance of pvinfo per combination, but that would already now get complicated, and risks getting worse, so I am curious about any alternative

[tynanford]

I think having separate instances for the lab and the production system makes sense. You probably wouldn't want an operator to be confused when searching for a PV and finding a bunch of PVs that actually aren't real signals.

We have a similar situation here with accelerator and beamlines though. Right now PV Info caters to the accelerator side and the beamline alarm logger information is not shown in the web app. So finding a solution to support multiple instances of service could be nice. It would involve updating api.js and probably some UI work for the alarm logger and logbook dropdowns. Not sure how multiple archivers would work.

Otherwise you would have to have a beamline pvinfo and machine pvinfo like you said.

[anderslindho]

I think I'll start out with spinning up an instance for the lab instances of all services, to play around a bit. It is the integration with the alarm logger and the logbook that I think would be the most attractive, so I'll need to think a bit more about how this best would be used. I worry a little about a situation where we would need to host multiple instances of pvinfo to satisfy every "persona" due to the combinations.

I guess you can close this issue if you would like. I might report back here in the future if you decide to keep it open.

[tynanford]

Sounds great, I'll keep this ticket open since it would be a nice feature to have. Feel free to report back if you have more thoughts on how this might work or general feedback after testing.