Helios

Welcome! Helios is a next-gen web client supported by The Helioviewer Project. It is a 3D web client for viewing data provided by Helioviewer You can access Helios here

Overview

Helios uses threejs to render full disk images on a hemisphere (because observatories) only see one side... If you've used JHelioviewer then you're already familiar with how this works.

The advantage of Helios is that it runs in a browser, meaning it will run on all of your devices to make sharing easy and accessible.

Helios is interoperable with Helioviewer.org and JHelioviewer. Any videos made in Helioviewer can be opened in either Helios or JHelioviewer. Similarly, any data loaded in Helios can also be opened in JHelioviewer with the click of a button.

If you're interested in contributing to this project, see the details below.

Development Quickstart

The development environment for Helios has been containerized with docker compose. The fastest way to get this application running on your system is to get get docker. Then once it's installed and running, execute:

docker compose -f compose.devel.yaml up

If you plan to work on the flask API locally, you must also change src/Configuration.js:helios_api_url to http://localhost:5000/

Development Without Docker (not recommended)

If you want to do development without docker, you need nodejs/npm and python installed. It's doable, but it's a hassle since you have to manage at least 3 different processes: The back end API server, the front end client server, and the javascript bundler.

clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/dgarciabriseno/helios.git

Install npm modules

cd helios
npm install

Build the javascript bundle

npx webpack

Run a local webserver to host index.html. I use python, but any webserver will work.

# Run this in the root directory of the repository. The folder that contains index.html.
python3 -m http.server # runs on port 8000 by default

See it in browser by going to http://localhost:8000
If you plan to work on the flask API locally, you must run:

cd server
FLASK_DEBUG=1 python -m flask --app main run

and change src/Configuration.js:helios_api_url to http://localhost:5000/

Making Changes

If running via docker compose, all changes for both js and python are automatically updated.

If running without docker, use npx webpack watch to automatically rebuild js changes as you make them. Running flask in debug mode will automatically update API changes as you make them.

Development Guide