qua-kit

Quick Urban Analysis Kit

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Qua-Kit is a client-server system that aims at assisting urban designers in their design process. Try it on our web server at qua-kit.ethz.ch.

Qua-View (apps/hs/qua-view) is a WebGL-base browser viewer and editor for building geometry. It is based on Haskell GHCJS.

Luci (apps/java/luci2) is a lightweight middleware that allows to connect different urban computing services together and present their results in Qua-View.

Projects that are already in some git repositories can be added as git modules using git submodule add <repository> <path>.

Installation prerequisites

Java

First, install JDK; we prefer java 8. Second, install maven.

Haskell

To build and install (and run later) haskell applications use stack. Stack is a tool that installs for you haskell compilers (GHC), manages all package dependencies, and builds the projects.

Components

qua-view

Path: apps/hs/qua-view.

Client side of qua-kit. Browse the submodule for details.

qua-server

Path: apps/hs/qua-server.

This app requires gd library at least (libgd-dev in Ubuntu). Follow error messages when installing to check if there are any other requirements. To build and run a particular app, use build and exec commands provided by stack. For example, to run qua-server you shoud:

stack build qua-server --flag qua-server:dev
stack exec qua-server

Flag qua-server:dev is needed to use sqlite database instead of postgresql Alternatively, you can use yesod-bin package to run it:

stack install yesod-bin
yesod devel

Luci

Path: apps/java/luci2. Given Java and maven are set up correctly, run Luci as follows:

cd apps/java/luci2
mvn clean install
mvn exec:java -pl scenario

luci-connect

Path: libs/hs/luci-connect. Luci-connect is a haskell library for clients and services of Luci. Refer to libs/hs/luci-connect/README.md for further documentation.

Notes

Some SQL queries become really slow when database grows (I have 1331 votes now). Having added couple indices speeds up "compare designs" query about 5-10x.

CREATE INDEX ON vote (better_id);
CREATE INDEX ON vote (worse_id);

Maybe a better solution is to make the request itself faster later, but for now it solved the problem.

Running luci service together with qua-kit and luci.

If you develop a luci (qua-view-compliant) service, at some point you need to test the whole system altogether. The framework consist of three parties: luci, qua-kit, and your service. So you need to run the three things, and then use the running website to execute your service.

Compile and run luci.
Compile and run qua-server.
Compile and run your service connected to localhost luci. Alternatively, you can try dist-walls-service executable - it has been tested to work with current version of luci. It is available at libs/hs/luci-connect folder. To run it use following command:

stack setup # you only need this once to set up GHC stack install --ghc-options="-pgmlo opt-3.5 -pgmlc llc-3.5" dist-walls-service

Refer to corresponding readme to solve any problems. Note, that you have to use linux and have llvm-3.5 dev libraries to run it.
Go to page http://localhost:3000/viewer
- (hint) Open browser console to see debug output if you have any troubles.
Open toolbox -> connect to luci.
Run scenario:
- (a) Load some scenario via luci (if uploaded something before).
- (b) Upload some scenario using FILES button. There is one available at apps/hs/qua-server/static/data/mooctask.geojson. Save it to luci.
Make sure that luci and some service is running, then go to SERVICES tab. It should show a list of available services. You can select one to run it. Click on refresh button if you do not see your service in a list. At this moment service parameters are broken, so do not look at them!
Press green play button.

mtfranzen/qua-kit