AmigaMapPing / 2021-01-30 09:37:48

My friend maw2k has been developing and maintaining the excellent AmigaMap since 2011 . AmigaMap was two things (1) a database to collect information about Amigas outhere and (2) a map showing these Amiga. The map was passive, showing the registered Amigas, whether or not they were actually on-line... Here comes the idea of AmigaMapPing!

In a Nutshell

With maw2k providing REST-like APIs, I wrote a small Amiga program that can "ping" regularly a live version of AmigaMap to let it know that the Amiga on which it's running is alive and kicking... and connected to the Internet! You can see this live map at https://live.amigamap.com/.

AmigaMapPing quite simply uses an HTTP client (the same as AmiModRadio) to call REST-like APIs. It knows which is your Amiga in the AmigaMap database via its tool-type ID. You can get this ID from AmigaMap when viewing your contributions overthere. (AmigaMapPing also works without ID, then showing an "anonymous" Amiga.)

Requirements

AmigaMapPing depends on various AmigaOS components to work, which must be present/started for it to run properly:

  • Workbench and Kickstart v2.04 or more;
  • A TCP/IP stack, e.g., MiamiDX.

Availability and Downloads

AmigaMapPing is open source. Its source code and binaries are available on SourceForge and BitBucket ! Manual and other resources are available here . AmigaMapPing binaries are also available here:

  • 21/01/30, v0.9: second release, the complete AmigaMapPing, which fixes some bugs (like the window opening multiple times from Exchange ) and provides all the tool types described below. It's now a true Commodity that can be run from and "forgotten" in the WBStartup!
  • 21/01/24, v0.5: first release of AmigaMapPing! The core features are there: it opens a small, light window, contacts the server to retrieve some information, and, then, pings the server every 15 minutes. It's not yet a real Commodity and immediately exits if it cannot connect to the Internet...

Usage

AmigaMapPing is controlled by its tool-types, which work also the same on the command line. It understands:

  • ID=XXX

Where XXX is the ID of your Amiga computer on amigamap.com. If XXX is valid on amigamap.com, then AmigaMapPing displays some of the information that you provided on amigamap.com, e.g., your Amiga model, its Kickstart...

  • LOCATION=ANONYMOUS|STATIC|GEOIP

To show your location as the country in which your Amiga lives, or based on the postal code/coordinates given to amigamap.com, or using the geolocation of your public IP address.

  • CX_POPUP=YES|NO

To show or not the window at startup. If you put AmigaMapPing in your WBStartup, it is probably best to use CX_POPUP=NO.

  • CX_PRIORITY=NNN

Where NNN is the priority of AmigaMapPing over other commodities. Can be safely ignored or set to CX_PRIORITY=0.

  • WIN_LEFT=XXX
  • WIN_TOP=YYY

Where XXX and YYY are the x and y coordinates of the top-left corner of the window. The window positions are also saved (as tool types) automatically when stopping AmigaMapPing.

If you put AmigaMapPing in your WBStartup, do not forget to add DONOTWAIT.