SECexplorer

SECexplorer is a web interface to the R package SECprofiler.

This project consists of two parts:

• The client/ folder contains a javascript-based frontend making use of the framework angularjs.

• A server/ folder holds Python code for the backend server based on flask. Further the backend uses rpy2 to execute the functions from the SECprofiler R package.

How is the web server setup ?

The only role of apache in this setting is to run the backend, the frontend on port 443 is served by client/start_nodejs_for_frontend script.

When we open a web browser and request http://sec-explorer.ethz.ch we communicate with a nodejs web server listening on port 443. This server is configured and setup in the client folder.

Currently this web server only serves the index.html file plus the referenced static java script and css files.

The clients javascript code requests the functions from the R pacakge SECprofiler by accessing the backend server who offers a web service on the URL http://127.0.0.1:8020/app.

This backend Python server is implemented with flask. Apache listens on port 8020 and forwards requests to the app.wsgi script using the apache module mod_wsgi.

How to setup and install the web server

First read the client/README.md file for installing nodejs and the requires javascript packages.

Furter check the installation instructions in the SECprofiler package. This R package must be accesssible by rpy2 within the Python backend.

We implemented a unit file sec_explorer.server for systemd for proper startup and shutdown of this processes. More details below.

The following instructions where developed and tested on Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS. They should work for new versions as well, but might break on older versions as systemd was not default system manager before Ubuntu 15.04.

To install the sec_explorer.service file and to configure apache we assume that your current working directory is the one holding this README.md file. Then run:

$ sudo ln -s $(pwd)/sec_explorer.service /lib/systemd/system
$ sudo ln -s $(pwd)/for_apache.conf /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/sec-explorer.conf
$ sudo systemctl enable sec_explorer.service

Development on the web server setup

In case you edit the sec_explorer.service file you first have to reload it:

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload

How to start / stop the web server

$ sudo systemctl start sec_explorer.service

If this fails or in case you need more information about the status of the involved processes run

$ sudo systemctl status sec_explorer.service apache2.service

$ sudo systemctl stop sec_explorer.service