12.7 PowerNet - Network Interface

 

12.7.1 Introduction

PowerNet is the most powerful plug-in included in VEGA ZZ because it's a bridge between VEGA ZZ and the other applications trough the TCP/IP protocol. These applications can run on the local machine:

Local TCP/IP connection

or on remote machine:

Remote TCP/IP connection

PowerNet adds to VEGA a TCP/IP port that is usable to send and receive command-line instructions, working in the same way of a POP3 server. An interface application example is the REBOL scripting language that is useful to create simple scripts to automate the most common procedures. PowerNet allows to communicate virtually with all applications that include a minimalist TCP/IP client. PowerNet includes the access control in order to protect your system by hacking attacks from Internet.

 

12.7.2 Configuration

The configuration interface can be displayed from the main menu clicking on Tools -> Plugin configuration -> PowerNet, or using the plug-in manager (Tools -> Plugin configuration -> Manage). The configuration parameters are stored in the Plugins\plugins.ini file.

 

Telnet tab

Default settings:
- Telnet service enabled
- Port number: 2000
- No password check

  

12.7.2.1 Telnet tab

In this tab, you can enable/disable the TCP/IP port (Enable telnet service), change the port number, enable/disable the password check, specify the user name and its password. Please remember that you can't change the port number if the telnet service is enable. You must disable it before setting the new port number. The default TCP/IP port number is 2000 and it can be automatically increased by PowerNet if the port is already in use by other applications or by other VEGA sessions. In this way you can start more than one VEGA sessions without conflicts. Please remember that if the telnet service is disabled, no local or remote connection are possible (e.g. REBOL can't work).

 

12.7.2.2 Clients tab

With this tab, you can enable the remote access granting the VEGA control by other PCs.

WARNING:
It's strongly recommended to activate the password check and to put the user name and the password, when you enable the remote access.

You can permit or deny the access of specific hosts putting their IP in the IP fields and clicking the Add button. On the left of each IP added in the list is present a checkbox. If it's checked the host access is granted, otherwise it's dined. Each entry can be moved in the list using the Up/Down buttons and removed pressing the Remove button. In the IP addresses, can be used the wildcards in order to control the access of more than one host. A good idea is to grant the access of all host in your domain (e.g. 192.168.0.XXX), adding the 192.168.0.* entry.

    Clients tab

Default settings:
- Remote access disabled
- No IP filtering

 

Default settings:
- Logging disabled
- Clear the file when VEGA starts enabled
- Log file name points the VEGA installation directory

   

12.7.2.3 Log Tab

In order to check the TCP/IP connections and the script execution, it's possible to enable the PowerNet event logging. The log is a text file containing the client information, the time of each event, the submitted commands, its results and the encountered errors.
This file can be cleared at each VEGA run or kept appending the new information (see Clear the file when VEGA starts checkbox). It's possible type  the log file name, using the specific field .

 

12.7.2.4 PDB Tab

PowerNet adds to VEGA the capability to connect to PDB archives and to download directly the structures from these databases (click here for more information). In this tab, you can specify your preferred PDB server and  the string required to query the database. The downloaded files can be removed from the disk immediately after the download or stored in a specified folder (Store directory) in order to build a personalized local database. Special tags can be used in these fields that can be automatically completed by PowerNet:

%PDBID% = PDB entry ID.
%PROGDIR% = VEGA installation directory.
%SERVER% = PDB server.

 

   

Default settings:
- PDB server: www.rcsb.org
- Database string: http://%SERVER%/pdb/cgi/
export.cgi?format=PDB&compression=gz&
pdbId=%PDBID%
- Store directory: %PROGDIR%\Molecules
- Remove PDB files after download.

 

REBOL tab

Default settings:
Interpreter: %REBOLDIR%\rebol.exe
Script path: %PROGDIR%\Scripts

  

12.7.2.5 REBOL tab

PowerNet adds to VEGA the capability to manage REBOL scripts trough the graphic interface (see script section). In this tab you can change the REBOL interpreter and the directory path in which the REBOL scripts are placed. PowerNet includes the REBOL/core package but you can use other distributions with more features like the REBOL/view that can be used to create in simple way graphic interfaces for your scripts. For more information about REBOL and REBOL/view please click here.

 

12.7.3 Testing the configuration

In order to check the TCP/IP configuration, you can use a simple telnet client (e.g. telnet.exe included in Windows), follow this procedure:

 

12.7.4 PDB database interface

Another PowerNet feature is the interface to download the PDB structures directly into the VEGA framework. To set  this service, please refer to the configuration section. Picking the PDB download item from VEGA File menu, you can access to the interface window:

PDB download

In the PDB Id field you must put the PDB entry code and when done, you must press the Download button. PowerNet before starting a new download from PDB, checks if the molecule is already present in the local database and ask you to proceed with the new download or to use the local file (see the configuration section to create a local PDB database). The status bar indicates the download progress and if an error occurs. When the download ends, the structure is automatically loaded in the VEGA workspace.

 

12.7.5 How to run a script

At the present time, PowerNet supports the direct execution of DOS and REBOL scripts only, but in the future can be added the integration with other languages. The scripts files must be placed in the scripts directory (or in its subdirectories), as explained in the configuration section. The scripts can be managed selecting Run script from the VEGA File menu:

Script manager

This dialog box allows to create, edit, run, rename, delete and move your scripts. The structure of the Scripts directory is shown as a tree that can be explored with the keyboard (cursor arrows, home, end, pg. up, pg. down and enter keys) and with the mouse:

Exploring the scripts directory

Selecting a script, you can run it pressing the Run button or double clicking on it. The right mouse button shows the context menu:

Context menu

By the context menu, you can run and Edit the selected script, Rename, Delete and create (New) scripts and folders. You can move scripts and directories from a folder to another also trough drag & drop operations. The Update item is useful to refresh the script list.
Clicking on the small > button at the left, you can expand the window, showing the description of the current script:

Expanded view

Showing the context menu on the description box, you can Add, if it's not already present, Edit with WordPad, Delete and Print the description:

Context menu

The description box can be closed clicking the < button and the context menu functions are duplicated in the menu bar.

 

12.7.6 Description file format

The description files are stored in the same directory in which the script is placed. When a script is moved, renamed or deleted, its description file is moved, renamed or deleted also. They are in Rich Text Format (RTF) and they have the .rtf file extension. It's strongly recommended to not use Microsoft Word to crate or modify them, because it adds some codes that aren't recognized by PowerNet and it increase the file size.