Remote connection address and port handling

[Corionis]

This Issue has gotten more complex:

• Add command line option for subscriber & hint server ip:port #48

The host address:port is used by clients - publish operations and Navigator - for out-going connections to listeners - remote subscribers and/or Hint Server. Listeners always use the listen address:port to support NAT or port forwarding from a host address:port to the listen address:port. If listen is not defined the host is used.

In a configuration that uses both the Internet and LAN - on a LAN-connected system is it desirable to connect directly to the listen address:port instead of a host address. Avoids routing and firewall issues.

Point: The impact of these change is more involved than anticipated. And have uncovered a variety of related bugs along the way.

Working on it ...

Sorry for the slow progress lately. Have had spring yard work, 2 family birthday celebrations and built a gaming computer for a gift (we don't buy prebuilts 😝).

[Corionis]

The social activities resulted in a nasty cold that turned into a ear and sinus inflection. 🤒 Took over 3 weeks to get through. Argh humph.

Just getting back into the code.

[Corionis]

Am working on a large refactor of Jobs, Tasks and Tools to clean-up the many permutations of options and related handling and implement selection of host or listen accordingly.

[Corionis]

Progress has been slow while playing catch-up with things after being sick for quite a while. Working on it as I can.

[Corionis]

Testing has revealed a number of problems due the to scope of changes and a different approach to Task execution.

And have run into an issue debugging due to a logger appender plugin configuration problem. It seems something has changed because this was not a problem previously. Argh.

[Corionis]

Well - the logger appender problem turned-out to be my old eyes not seeing a capital L that should have been lowercase. 😀

[Corionis]

Apologies for the slow progress: 1) This is a massive refactor and a bit of a brain warp adding important functionality, new options, and bug fixes, 2) it's been a holiday and my birthday.

These changes will require a lot of testing and the full regression suite across all platforms. In other words this is going to take a while yet.

Adding the ability to run Jobs internally in the current ELS Navigator instance or externally either in the background or foreground in a new independent instance.

And, because a Job fully defines a Tool with the needed Origins, the Run and Generate buttons in Tools, Operations will be removed because they are not fully defined. In the process Task and Tool execution has been simplified to allow an easier interface for future Tools.

A point - ELS 4.0 is evolving and is the foundation for the next 4 planned Milestones. As such, while using a basic Agile development approach, refactors are to be expected. Some have been more involved than others. When 4.0 is released I will be asking for contributors to jump-in. There is much to do and a lot of potential.

There have been no code commits - yet. Working on it 😄

[Corionis]

This huge refactor has involved more than remote connections. Several other fixes and changes have been implemented. And the execution of Tools and Jobs has been reorganized. That portion is not quite finished and will require significant testing. Along with having to build a new Windows 10 setup for testing this is taking far longer than originally anticipated.

No commits have been made because the run changes aren't done. Most of this work is internal code with a few user interface changes.

However here is a preview of the current Change List:

• Fixed null pointer after Job Run if an origin library was not previously loaded.
• Fixed toolbar show/hide on restart.
• Fixed start-up bug when there are no repositories defined yet.
• Fixed File, Open Subscriber when there is an existing remote connection.
• Fixed a save/delete bug in all Tools.
• Added a dialog during File, Open Subscriber and Open Hint Tracking to select the host or listen address for a remote connection.
• Added -O | --override-host to use the listen address:port for out-going Subscriber connections from clients.
• Added -J | --override-hints-host to use the listen address:port for out-going Hint Server connections from clients.
• Note: "Clients" are Navigator and remote Publisher processes.
• Added Hint Tracker/Server to Jobs, Tasks, Origins when required by the Task.
• Hint Server previously used the Task Subscriber key for Job Tasks but was changed to have its own key.
• Cleaned-up dry-run handling in Run and Generate dialogs. Removed that option from Operations.
• Added Run in another foreground or background instance option to the Jobs, Generate dialog.
• Added display of dynamically-loaded remote Repository to Libraries tab. Not editable. Removed when closed.
• Replaced the previous Windows shortcut-creation mechanism that used an outside program with an internal implementation.
• Reorganized the code related to the execution of Tools and Jobs.

[Corionis]

After a couple of tries the latest large refactor is basically code-complete and committed. The Updater works - at least for Linux. More testing cross-platform is needed.

[Corionis]

The Windows Updater for build ELS-4.0.0-development-2407272025 works.

[Corionis]

Basic Mac tests have been successful.