Smokeping::sorters::base(3)        SmokePing       Smokeping::sorters::base(3)



NAME
       Smokeping::sorters::base - Base Class for implementing SmokePing
       Sorters

OVERVIEW
       Sorters are at the core of the SmokePing Charts feature, where the most
       interesting graphs are presented on a single page. The Sorter decides
       which graphs are considerd interesting.

       Every sorter must inherit from the base class and provide it's own
       methods for the 'business' logic.

       In order to maintain a decent performance the sorters activity is split
       into two parts.

       The first part is active while the smokeping daemon gathers its data.
       Whenever data is received, the sorter is called to calculate a 'value'
       for the present data. On every 'query round' this information is stored
       in the sorter store directory. Each smokeping process stores it's own
       information.  Since smokeping can run in multiple instances at the same
       time, the data may be split over several files

       The second part of the sorter is called from smokeping.cgi. It loads
       all the information from the sorter store and integrates it into a sin-
       gle 'tree'. It then calls each sorter with the pre-calculated data to
       get it sorted and to and to select the interesting information.

DESCRIPTION
       Every sorter must provide the following methods:

       new

       The new method expects hash elements as an argument eg
       new({x=>'\d+',y=>'\d+'},x=>1,y=>2). The first part is a syntax rule for
       the arguments it should expect and the second part are the arguments
       itself. The first part will be supplied by the child class as it calls
       the parent method.

       Desc

       Simply return the description of the function. This method must be
       overwritten by a children of the base class.

       SortTree

       Returns an array of 'targets'. It is up to the sorter to decide how
       many entries the list should contain. If the list is empty, the whole
       entry will be supressed in the webfrontend.

       The methode gets access to all the targets in the system, together with
       the last data set acquired for each target.

       CalcValues

       Figure out the curent sorting value using te following input.

        $info = { uptime => w,
                  loss   => x,
                  median => y,
                  alert  => z, # (0/1)
                  pings  => [qw(a b c d)] }

       The output can have any structure you want. It will be returned to the
       sorter method for further processng.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (c) 2007 by OETIKER+PARTNER AG. All rights reserved.

LICENSE
       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
       Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
       option) any later version.

       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
       WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER-
       CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General
       Public License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
       with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
       675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

AUTHOR
       Tobias Oetiker <tobi@oetiker.ch>



2.4.2                             2007-01-15       Smokeping::sorters::base(3)
