· Connecting to the instrument
· Capturing Data via Clipboard and Drag and Drop
· Markers
· Choosing Different Presentations
· Printing
· Can I have multiple Web Enabled clients connected at once?
· I can’t connect to my OSA. What am I doing wrong?
· What does my error message mean?
· Do I have full access to the OSA functionality?
· Ping
The supported systems for clients of the Web Enabled software are any of the following Windows based operating systems:
Client systems need a supported web browser to run the Web Enabled applet. Success in running the Web Enabled applet in other operating systems such as Linux and Solaris has been achieved but no other operating systems beyond those listed above are supported at this time.
The Web Remote applet is supported for the following web browsers only on the supported systems:
In addition these web browsers must have Java enabled. In some cases, this will require downloading and installing Sun’s "Java Plug-in" for the browser. Windows 2000 machines come with the Plug-in preinstalled.
If you are not sure if you have this Plug-in, you can check by attempting to connect (Clicking on “Remote Control” in the navigation area). The browser will prompt you if you need to install the Plug-in. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation.
See the Java Enabled section of this page for more details and instructions.
It is possible that other browsers, as long as they are capable of running java and JavaScript, could run the Web Enabled applet with few or no problems. Feel free to try, but understand that no browsers beyond those listed above are currently supported.
The initial page that comes up should look something like the following:
To actually initiate a connection with the instrument, simply click on the “Remote Control” button on the left hand side of the page.
In order for a browser to run a java application, it needs Sun’s Java Plug-in. If you do not have this Plug-in, the browser will route you to a location where you can download it. If you are using Internet Explorer, it will automatically run the setup. Otherwise, you need to download and install the Plug-in manually.
Once your Plug-in is installed, and you attempt to connect again, you will see the following dialog:
Click “Grant always” (recommended) or “Grant this session” if you trust that the applet supplied by Agilent Technologies is safe (you must accept this certificate to run the applet). If you click “Grant this session”, this dialog will appear each time you access this page. If you click “Grant always”, you will not see this dialog again.
Wait a few moments, and you will be connected
The Web Enabled interface makes data capture very easy. To capture data for the current trace, one can either copy data to the clipboard, or drag and drop the information into another application. Both options are extremely easy. If you hover your mouse over the trace, you will see it light up, and the following tool tip appears.
To copy the trace data to the clipboard, simply right click, and select the option to copy trace data to the clipboard.
To drag and drop trace data, simply click and drag your mouse, and drop it into another application such as excel. You will notice that your cursor will change, indicating that a drag and drop operation has started.
Web Enabled software has incorporated a zoom toolbox with allows users to quickly and easily manipulate display parameters. Simply select a tool from the toolbox, and use your mouse on the display.
The current toolbox contains 6 options (from left to right, and up to down):
· Default pointer – This is the default pointer which allows you to manipulate markers and perform drag and drop operations. This is what is initially selected.
· Full Zoom – This allows you to zoom in on a selected area in the graticule. You can change both horizontal and vertical parameters by selecting the tool from the toolbox, and then specifying an area inside the graticule with you mouse. Simply click and drag to create a bounding box. When you release your mouse, the new settings will take place.
· Wavelength Zoom – This is similar to “Full Zoom”, except it will only change the horizontal display parameters.
· Vertical Zoom – This is similar to “Full Zoom”, except it will only change the vertical display parameters.
· Zoom Undo – pressing this button will zoom out to the previous zoom state. Pressing this button will not change the current tool. It will simply perform a zoom out operation, and the current tool will still be in effect.
· Pan – This allows you to manipulate horizontal and vertical positioning, but without any change in scaling. Simply select the tool from the toolbox, and then click and drag within the graticule area. When you release the mouse, the new settings will take place.
Below is an example of using the zoom tool to select an area within the graticule
There are currently three different presentations to choose from. All three of these presentations can be accessed via the “Presentation” menu. The initial display will be your standard display. However, there are also two additional displays that allow you to view data with a third dimension of time.
You can print the display by navigating to the file menu, and then selecting print. This will then scale and print the display on a single page. If you are concerned about wasting ink on the black background, you may want to change the background color to white by changing the appropriate settings on the Options dialog.
You can also use the print option under your web browser’s File menu, but it may not produce desired results.
The options dialog can be accessed under the help menu. This dialog may be very useful in troubleshooting.
The top portion of the dialog contains information regarding the OSA. Firmware and model information will be shown here.
Below instrument information, there is server information. This pertains to the PC that is acting as the web server and the entry point for all Web Enabled clients.
Finally, you may also view the "Server log entries:”. This text area displays entries in the Web Enabled server log, which are what you would see if you looked at the display of the Web Enabled instrument server. Some of the information presented in this area will be explained here.
The server log will present you with information about other clients who are connected to the same instrument as you. If there are other clients connected, you may see settings on the instrument change suddenly as the other user or users make changes. All users have the same level of access to the instrument through the Web Enabled software, so any applet is able to change any settings at any time. You may find it necessary to coordinate your activities with other users of the same instrument. In the case where the instrument server has lost its connection to the instrument, you will probably see error messages in the server log that may help you to diagnose the problem.
Note that the server log reports clients connecting and disconnecting, so you may have to look through the whole list of messages to generate a list of who is currently connected. However, you are able to only view active clients by selecting the option in the drop down box. This will filter out client information and will only display active clients.
The options dialog can be accessed under the view menu. There are 3 tabs inside the options dialog. Here is a description of all the 3 different pages you will see.
· OSA – On certain firmware revisions, there is an option to turn off the display. Turning off the display on the OSA will in turn speed up the remote commands. Since Web Enabled software is based on these remote commands, you may see a performance boost if you turn the display off. If the OSA firmware does not support this option, the check box will be disabled.
· Timeout – This dialog is intended for advanced users only. It is strongly advised not to change the default values. You can change the GPIB timeout option here. The standard timeout is for all your standard GPIB commands. During long sweep times, you may be prompted to change your timeout value. This is because when you invoke a sweep, it is using a GPIB command to send the command to the OSA. So if your sweep time is longer than your timeout, there is a good chance of error. The WDM timeout is the timeout used during WDM operations. We separate the WDM timeout value because these operations tend to take longer than most operations.
· Color – this is where you can change the color scheme of you display. For instance, when printing, you may want to turn the background white so that you conserve ink.
Multiple clients are not officially supported because there are currently several limitations( listed below ). However, most of the time, multiple users can be connected at once without any major problems. This section will give you some tips for collaborating remotely with other Web Enabled users. You must be very careful when making changes because you may easily mess up another client’s measurement.
First of all, there are several limitations that you should be aware of.
· The WDM application cannot be shared. It is recommended that there should be only 1 connected client during the WDM application, or else other clients may not function properly during this time. If you get a message on the screen that says, “WDM application on”, then you should immediately exit the applet to avoid any complications.
· Marker 1 and Marker 2 will only be visible per client. This is because these markers are implemented solely within the applet, and they are independent from any other client. However, OSNR and Noise markers can be shared because we are actually using the OSNR and Noise markers on the actual OSA. See more information in the markers section of this document.
· It is VERY important that only 1 client make changes to the instrument at a time. Web Enabled software may encounter synchronization problems if 2 clients try to change the same setting at the same time. If this problem does occur, you may need to reconnect your client so that all the data is refreshed with the most current information.
· Most importantly, there is no way to police the active clients. So there is no way to lock out users or limit access. Thus, it is important to always be aware of who is connected, and its important to have active communication with those other clients.
The important thing to remember when collaborating with other Web Enabled clients is that other users will see all the changes to instrument settings that you make, and you will see all changes they make. It is important to communicate with other users about which instrument settings you are changing to avoid conflicts. It is recommended that you communicate either via telephone, or via some Internet based instant messaging or chat facility.
If you are not sure what clients are currently connected, you can get a list of machine names for other connected clients via the connection info dialog.
This section describes the various error messages that you may see when trying to start the applet for your Web Enabled OSA, and the steps that you can take to fix these problems.
If you are able to connect to the welcome page for the remote control spectrum analyzer, then the server computer has its web server running properly. This ensures that you will be able to download and attempt to run the applet. This does not, however, ensure that the applet will start correctly. In general, you will receive one of two error messages if the applet does not start properly. These messages will appear in large blue type in the area where you would otherwise see the spectrum analyzer display.
This error message informs you that some error has prevented the applet from connecting to the Web Enabled instrument server. The most likely reasons are the following:
· The instrument server has not been started. You should contact the server administrator to have the server started.
· The instrument server has stopped functioning correctly or has crashed during connection. You should stop the server, and then restart the server. Then, attempt to connect again. If problem persists, try rebooting the server PC.
· The client PC has encountered networking issues. Make sure your browser can still access the network. It is possible that the network has encountered difficulties.
Receiving this message means that the applet was able to connect to the Web Remote instrument server, but the instrument server was unable to connect to the instrument. This could be because:
· The instrument is not on.
· The instrument is not connected with a GPIB cable.
· The address specified by the server is not correct. When you start the server, you must specify the GPIB remote address. Make sure that this address is the same as you instrument. You can check your OSA be navigating to System | More functions | Remote Setup.
· The server has previously crashed, and the GPIB bus is having problems. Attempt a device clear on the bus, or restart your applet. The applet should attempt a device clear while setting a connection. If this fails, try restarting your instrument server.
There is limited support for multiple users and this error message indicates one of those limitations. The WDM application should be used exclusively to only 1 client. If a client has already entered the WDM application, any client that attempt to connect will get this error message until the WDM application is exited. Please review the policies for multiple users. It is strongly encouraged to only have 1 client actively making changes at a time.
There are several error messages that you may receive from the applet if something goes wrong with the server. These messages will be displayed on the screen.
If you are presented with this error message, it means that you are still connected to the Web Enabled instrument server, but the server can no longer communicate with the instrument. This may be because the instrument has been turned off, lost power, or been disconnected from the server computer. You can look at the server log in the Connection Info dialog to see if the server has logged any error messages, as these may be useful in diagnosing the exact cause of the lost connection. You will most likely need to contact the server administrator to turn on or reconnect the instrument.
This error message informs you that you are no longer connected to the Web Enabled server. There are a number of possible reasons why you may have lost your connection to the instrument server. The first possibility is that either your computer or the server computer has lost its network connection. It is also possible that the server administrator has closed the Web Enabled instrument server, disregarding the fact that clients were connected. The Web Enabled instrument server may also have crashed or hung. It is also possible that the server computer itself has crashed or hung.
Web Enabled Software does not provide a complete emulation of the instrument's front panel. The Web Enabled interface provides access to much, but not all, of the functionality provided by the front panel. Some notable features that are not supported are the following:
· Linear scaling is not supported.
· Only one trace can be displayed on the applet display.
· No averaging is available.
· There is only limited support for marker and marker search functions. See markers section of this document to see what features are supported.
· No applications other than the WDM application are supported.
NO. Currently, Web Enabled OSA software is designed for intranet use only.
Ping is a small command-line program available on most Windows PCs. Ping can be used to determine if your computer can make a network connection to another specific computer. To use ping, start a command prompt or DOS prompt from the Windows Start menu. You can type "ping /?" to get help with ping. Usually, all you need to know is the IP address of the computer you are trying to connect to, or the computers network name. To use ping, type "ping" followed by the IP address or computer name of the computer you are trying to connect to. The ping program will display results informing you of whether or not it was able to connect to the specified computer. If you see messages such as "Request timed out", then you were not able to connect to the computer. If you see messages starting with "Reply from ...", then you were able to make the connection.
If you are able to make a connection, then both your computer and the other computer are on the network. If you cannot make a connection, then either your computer or the other computer is not currently on the network. Try pinging other computers on your network. If you can make connections with them, then your computer is on the network. If you cannot, then your computer may not be on the network, or the network itself may be down. In either case, you should probably inform your network administrator of the situation.
If you determine that your computer is on the network, but the one you are trying to connect to is not, then you should contact the administrator of that computer to find out why it is currently not on the network.
Web Enabled OSA applet code will only run in browsers that have Sun’s Java Plug-in installed.
· Windows - On Windows machines, installing the Plug-in is very easy. If you are using Internet Explorer and the Plug-in is not yet installed, it will automatically run download and run the setup for you. If you have problems, you can download the Plug-in at the following location: http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.3/plugin-install.html
· Linux, Solaris – Installing and configuring the Plug-in can often be trickier on non-windows platforms. Consult documentation on Javasoft’s website for further details. Download location will remain the same: http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.3/plugin-install.html
In general, you can expect the Web Enabled OSA applet to work on any supported web browser. This Web Enabled OSA applet should also work with newer versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape than were available at the time of testing, but there are no guarantees of this! It is recommended, if you have multiple computers, that you test any new version of a browser on one computer only and see if it works, before upgrading all of your computers. If it is at all possible, it is also recommended that you keep the old version of the browser around in case the newer one does not work (Netscape allows this at least some of the time).
You should have no difficulty running your software if you choose to upgrade your client PC from Windows NT to Windows 2000, or install newer service packs. However, Agilent Technologies has not been able to test configurations with service packs newer than were available when this product was released (Service Pack 6a for Windows NT or Service Pack 2 for Windows 2000), so your ability to run this software on newer configurations is not guaranteed.