Interaction with Falcon

Falcon operation and data flow graph execution can be controlled using keyboard commands (see Usage), but this does not expose the full set of features. Another way to interact with a running Falcon instance is through a network connection.

Send commands to Falcon

there is set of command which can be send through zmq as multipart messages to Falcon. The answer will also be a multipart message either with an yaml format or a list of string

• to manage the general app :

command	action
quit	quit the app
kill	stop processing and quit (kill)
info	generate basic information answer as falcon version and state
documentation	generate yaml documentation with a node for each processor registered in Falcon
resources list [resources_type]	list all files in the resources type folder (graphs, filters … etc.)
resources graphs [graph_name.yaml]	generate a yaml node with the graph description corresponding

Example:

>>> send_zmq_multipart_message("info")

Falcon version: beta-2-g9c0fcf1
run_environment_root: ~/log/
resource_root: ~/opt/falcon-core/share/resources
graph_state: NOGRAPH
default_test_flag: false

>>> send_zmq_multipart_message("documentation")

"processor1:
    Description: ""
    Long description: ""
    Input ports: list
       - name:
         type:
         slots:
         description:
    Output ports: list
       - name:
         type:
         slots:
         description:
   Options: list
       - name:
         type:
         default:
         description:

   State:
      Static or Follower or Broadcaster: list
      ... specific to each type"

"processor2:
..."

>>> send_zmq_multipart_message(["resources", "list"])
    ["file1", "file2", "file3"...]

>>> send_zmq_multipart_message(["resources", "graph", "neuralynx/ripple_detection.yaml"])
    falcon: version: ..
    graph:
       processors
           source: ...
       connections:
           - ...

• to manage the graph : (note the graph prefix for each command) No answer from this commands but update on the graph will come from the log messages.

command	action
graph build	build the graph
graph documentation	generate yaml documentation with a node for each processor in the build graph
graph run	start processing graph (run)
graph test	start processing in test mode
graph stop	stop processing graph
graph yaml	display the current graph in yaml format
graph apply [yaml Node]	apply a exposed method in the processor
graph retrieve [yaml Node]	retrieve a particular processor state/definition
graph update [yaml Node]	update a particular processor state/definition

Receive log messages

You can receive log message through the Falcon client or by designing your own ZMQ client communication. The zmq log format for any levels :

timestamps + log level + log message

with a specific format for debug level with the additional debugging information from where the message has been raised:

timestamps + log level + [ + file + " L: " + line + ] + log message