Licas

Product Details

An overview of the system is provided on the sourceforge site, from where the open source version can be downloaded. The sourceforge download includes a stand-alone server and the additional packages (AI heuristics, text processing and problem solver). The system is Java 7 and Android compatible.

The All-in-One GUI is available from the download section of this page and can be used both for applications or as a test platform. It provides a lot of functionality, including some security and admin features. The licas server features are listed on the sourceforge site, where the main GUI features are as follows:

1. Configure and load networks of (autonomic) service-based components.
2. View and interact with local or remote servers, link and display networks of servers.
3. Local or remote communications.
4. A set of business applications, including instant messaging, file server, web services, information resources.
5. The GUI doubles for running either business or scientific applications.
6. A distributed or a centralised problem-solving framework can be setup and run from the scientific panels, giving access to all of the AI algorithms and features.
7. Add your own modules as jar files, to load in your own classes, for particular functions or types.
8. The server is Android compatible.
9. See the sourceforge site for the main server features, including security and other.

User Guides

Listed here are some of the user guides for the system. Browsing through these will show you the main system features. Additional documents are included with the sourceforge download and give further details, particularly for programming with the system.

• The main system's getting started guide will show you how to quickly install and run the software, or setup a server and start using it.
• The All-in-One GUI guide for basic functionality and services can be read here.
• The services guide describes the free business and scientific applications in more detail.
• The javadoc for the main source packages can be viewed online or downloaded from the sourceforge site.

Beyond Java 8

The system runs off Java 8 without needing to do anything. Java 11, for example, does not come packaged with JavaFX and so you may need to download the JavaFX package from here. The licas GUI installer has added the sdk jar files but a path needs to be set to the 'lib' folder in the download. After downloading the JavaFX package, add the path 'javafx-sdk-11/lib' to the PATH environment variable. Then the GUI should run as normal.

Service Platform and All-in-One GUI

The system is a self-contained SOA platform that you can run your own services on and make them available through the server. The All-in-One GUI application provides all of the required functionality. It comes as a windows installer that installs all of the necessary components and folders, into 'DCS' and 'licasData' folders in your root user directory. Each service that you load can be managed through its own GUI interface. This allows you to use the GUI as an OS for running apps, for example, or as a test platform. The modules page describes how you can add your own modules to the system.

The default communication protocol inside of licas itself is an XML-RPC mechanism, but the REST interface is now also fully integrated. Dynamic invocation of Web Services and AJAX interfacing is also possible. The jar file sizes and memory footprint are also quite small. 50 test services running in the GUI, used only up to 20M or so. But the CPU time can be costly, especially if the services communicate through the remote message-passing mechanism.

Web Based

The server has a limited Browser-based interface for returning HTML or other, directly from an HTTP address. This can then be converted and read, as a standard web server would provide. Currently, only HTML and image files can be displayed, with CSS or Javascript needing to be embedded in the HTML file.

Scientific Platform

The server packages include a lot of AI algorithms and processes. Some of these help the system to run properly and some can be used to carry out more scientific types of testing. As this has resulted in essentially a second system, the scientific panels are hidden initially, but can be opened through the GUI menu. The scientific page gives details on on how the use the GUI and all of the server AI features to run scientific tests.

Gallery

The figure below shows the main GUI as the minimised service console, with some of the bespoke services and you can hover over a gallery square to see the services again.

Instant Messenger.

Get live feeds filtered with your query.

Setup a viewer for pictures or text.

Get notifications when new emails arrive.

Web Query using the SPARQL query language.

File Service for downloading and uploading files remotely.

Invoke a Web Service and email a reply if successful.

Hover over a square to view a licas service image.

Tutorial Videos

Some help videos may be found here:

Download

You can download the open source server from sourceforge.net. A windows installer for the free All-in-One GUI is available from here. You can also unpack the zip client version and it may run on any OS, although screen resolution can be a problem. The system can also run on 32 bit computers, but the computer should have at least 2GB RAM. There has been over 10000 downloads of the software.

License

The All-in-One GUI is provided for your own personal use. You can load and run your own modules, but you cannot change it for commercial reasons. The rest of the system is released under the GPL licence. This includes the open source server, services and problem solving code. You can again use them for free, when you will need to give your own program the same rights. If you want to use the code for commercial purposes, then please send an email request. The modules page describes how easy it is to install a new module.