How To

Before going any further, you should double check that everything specified in the different check lists provided here is set. From now, it will be assumed that it is the case.

CPS uses a Command-Line Interface (CLI). Therefore, you must be able to use the command-line of the computer hosting CPS (for example via ssh). First, you need do move to the cps direction, the one in which you can see the bin folder:

A list of the argument CPS accepts is given if you simply call it without any arguments: You can also you use the classical one, --help:

Each time it is launched, no matter what the arguments are, CPS creates a log file in the data/log/ directory. You can check it to find more information in case CPS encounters a problem.

CPS provides several fonctions allowing different modules to be checked. You will find below a list of how to perform these checks and how they work. You should perform these tests in the order given below. Indeed, for instance, if --check config says there is a problem, it may be the cause of those you could encounter when asking for --check sql-db.

• config

  To check if the config.xml file contains all the information necessary to continue, you should use this command:

  $> java -cp 'bin/:lib/*' myShell.MainClass --check config
  It will use the Interpreter.checkFile() static method to see if all the nodes are present.

• sql-db

  To check the communication between CPS and the MySQL database, you should use this command:

  $> java -cp 'bin/:lib/*' myShell.MainClass --check sql-db $PASSWORD
  Where $PASSWORD is the password of the MySQL database for the user specified in the config.xml file. It will construct a MySQLbase instance and ask it to create a connection with the database. The output of this command will tell you if everything works fine... or not.

• newjob

  During each splitsort iteration, a new job is created at CrowdFlower by copying the one whose Id is specified in the config.xml file. In order to check if this step can be done without a problem, you should use the following command:

  $> java -cp 'bin/:lib/*' myShell.MainClass --check newjob
  In doing so, you ask CPS to call CrowdManager.createNewJob(), which will... create a new job. Again, to see if everything worked well, look at the output or at the log file.

• final-email

  When the splitsort is over, CPS asks (via an HTTP request) the antechamber to send you an e-mail with the results.xml file as an attachment. In order to test this feature, you should use this command:

  $> java -cp 'bin/:lib/*' myShell.MainClass --check final-email
  If the mail address you gave in the antechamber is correct and if the address of the antechamber set in the config.xml file is correct, you should receive very soon an email containing fake results.

All right, everything works fine and you have triple checked your check lists? Then it is time to talk business: in this part, you will see how to place your media along the axes you want.

• First, you must start the splitsort. For this, you must you the following command:

  $> java -cp 'bin/:lib/*' myShell.MainClass --new $PASSWORD
  Where $PASSWORD is the password of the MySQL database for the user specified in the config.xml file.

  This will perform the first half of a splitsort iteration. For more details on what exactly happens here, you can check the UML diagramms in this page.

• Now that a new splitsort started, you will have to perform iteration. These are manually launched, so you will have to run other commands. You will eventually receive an e-mail asking you to start a new iteration when results are ready to be downloaded. Well, provided that you correctly configured the antechamber...

  Once you have received this e-mail from CPS, you should run the following command:

  $> java -cp 'bin/:lib/*' myShell.MainClass --iteration $PASSWORD
  This will start a complete iteration: downloading of the results, interpretation, quicksort iteration, generation of new comparisons, generation of the data for the corresponding job, creation of a new job and upload of data to feed it. Once it is done, all you have to do is waiting for another e-mail telling you that you have to launch a new iteration (or that it is over). Again, more details can be found here and there.

• You will know that the splitsort is finished when you receive an email from CPS containing a results.xml file. If, for some reason, you can not read the attachment, an address from which you can download this file will be given in the mail. You will be able to find it here.