[tor-dev] TorStatus

[Karsten Loesing]

Hi Jan,

On 5/2/11 12:31 PM, tagnaq wrote:
> On 5/2/11 11:38 AM, Jan G. wrote:
>> im trying to port TorNetworkStatus to Ruby.
>>
>> I took a look at the Trac and it looks like it's project that should be
>> done at the GSoC.
>> https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/TorStatus
>>
>> Is anyone working at this now?
> 
> No one is working on/maintaining TorStatus (it is not even a Tor Project
> "product").
> 
> As far as I've understood the plan is to extent metrics-web to have the
> TorStatus functionality on metrics.tpo.

tagnaq is right, extending metrics-web to be more useful for displaying
the _current_ network status, too, would be good!  After all, the
database contained in metrics-web already has this information, and the
website part displays similar information.  So, extending metrics-web
shouldn't be that hard.  But the website is written in JSP/servlets
which keeps many people away.

There are plans to rewrite TorStatus in Python/Django, which is much
more popular in Tor land, and make it use the metrics database from
metrics-web.  If this goes well, we might extend that new TorStatus to
cover the metrics part, too, and end up with a single website for both.
 Don't expect any results here in the next, say, three to six months,
though.

But these plans shouldn't really stop you from writing a TorStatus in
Ruby!  I'd be curious to see what user interface you come up with.
Like, what information would you put in a relay list, what information
would you make searchable, etc.  Even a paper prototype or click dummy
would be cool as a start!  And who knows, if your TorStatus turns out to
be better than the current one, we might change our plans to rewrite
stuff in Python/Django.  Hard to say.

I can help you with setting up the database part of metrics-web if you
want.  Or I can help you make sense of most parts Tor's directory
protocol, if needed.  Just let me know!

Thanks,
Karsten