[Chimera-users] non-GUI use of Chimera

[Randy Heiland]

Thanks for the reply Dan.  Yes, I was familiar with the 3 options you
describe and none of them really do what I want, although, I guess, the
'interactive nogui' mode you hinted at would be closest.  In short, I'd
like server-side Chimera functionality; I don't want users to have to
download/install Chimera.

--Randy

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Daniel Greenblatt [mailto:dan at cgl.ucsf.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 1:59 PM
> To: Randy Heiland
> Cc: chimera-users at cgl.ucsf.edu
> Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] non-GUI use of Chimera
> 
> Hi Randy,
> 
> > I am evaluating Chimera as a tool for providing (pseudo-interactive)
vis
> > functionality from a web server and therefore would like to use it
in a
> > non-gui mode.
> 
> I'm not completely clear on what you mean by this.
> Exactly what type of functionality do you want to provide?
> Do you plan on using Chimera on the server-side, or client-side?
> 
> There are several different [potential] solutions here, depending on
> what it is you want to do:
> 
> (1) Chimera as a web-browser client
>    A locally installed copy of Chimera can be used as a
>    web browser 'helper application', responding to certain
>    links clicked on in a web browser. These links contatin information
>    about files to open, and commands or python code to execute in
>    Chimera (Chimera runs in its own window -- not embedded in the
> browser).
>    See
> 
>
http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/webdata/webdata
.h
> tml
>    for more information.
> 
> (2) The IDLE interpreter
>    Currently, the only way to access Chimera's Python API in an
>    interactive fashion is through the IDLE window
>    (Tools->Programming->IDLE) from within Chimera. This, of
>    course, requires having Chimera running in normal (i.e. not
'nogui')
>    mode. If there is sufficient demand, we may include an 'interactive
>    nogui' mode, that gives you access from the shell.
> 
> (3) chimera --nogui
>    As you already know, Chimera can be started with the '--nogui'
flag,
>    which doesn't bring up any graphics windows, and is used mainly for
>    carrying out molecular calculations. Since there is no graphics
window,
>    it is not possible to do any visualization (including saving
images).
> 
> This sounds like an interesting problem - please let us know if any of
> these solutions are appropriate, or require further explanation.
> 
> 
> --Dan Greenblatt
> 
> 
> ----------------------------
> Daniel Greenblatt
> UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
> dan at cgl.ucsf.edu
>