allow plugins to create diagnostic tools that are available via CLI and the web #7235

diosmosis · 2015-02-18T08:47:36Z

To provide tools, both for us to diagnose user problems and for users to attempt to diagnose problems themselves, I think we should provide a method for users to easily create and expose diagnostic tools to their users.

I imagine that the diagnostic tools would be defined similarly to the way plugin settings are defined, by subclassing a base type and defining input metadata. Then Piwik would make the tool available both via CLI and via an admin page (needed since some users do not have the expertise or permissions needed to run CLI commands).

Running the CLI command would allow a user to use -vvv to get full debug output. The webpage should capture full debug output and display it to the user in the UI.

An example of diagnostic tools for the plugin LoginLdap:

The existing command loginldap:synchronize-users can be used to see why a user cannot login.
A tool to run any LDAP search through LoginLdap's code could be used to find compatibility issues w/ the plugin and certain LDAP servers, as well as bugs in the code.

An example of how a diagnostic tool might look like in code:

class MyDiagnosticTool
{
    function configure()
    {
        $option = new ToolOption();
        $option->name = "myoption";
        $option->desc = "...";
        $option->type = "...";
        // ...
        $this->options[] = $option;
    }

    function execute($myoption, $myOtherOption)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

I might also be possible to just use commands and execute them via the browser if those commands implement a certain interface in addition to being a console command.

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mattab · 2015-02-18T11:08:32Z

Related to / could maybe be included in scope of: #6726

tsteur · 2015-02-18T19:46:11Z

So basically said you have a command, and you want to also have it available via UI with some input fields? #6726 is not really in scope

diosmosis · 2015-02-23T01:51:19Z

@tsteur Not really. Making commands available via UI is a way to achieve this, but the idea is to make diagnostic tools (of which Piwik currently has few or none) which would normally be available only through commands available through the UI. In the UI, some extra information should be displayed, for example, getting debug logs and displaying them beside the tool output.

This is mainly to reduce spurious support requests where users could potentially solve it themselves, and aid in debugging technically inept users who won't give us access to their servers. Which I think PRO does quite a bit.

Sidenote: creating an API dedicated to creating diagnostic tools might encourage developers to include them in their plugins. Which might, again, hopefully reduce support requests in the long run.

tsteur · 2015-02-23T01:55:02Z

Would it make sense to maybe split some parts of the PiwikDebugger plugin in a separate plugin PiwikDiagnostics or so? Which would then do this? (in case PiwikDebugger already does something like this I'm not sure)

diosmosis · 2015-02-23T02:23:03Z

Maybe, as long as we can include it in core in live production instances. I think most clients that are hard to debug won't actually install the plugin, even temporarily. At least, the one I recently dealt w/ seems unlikely to.

mattab · 2015-02-24T04:29:22Z

to decide and prioritize this maybe you have some examples of such commands? in general I have the idea of improving the System Check to report such important things that could help us debug, but maybe im missing the advantage or other uses of diagnostic console commands?

diosmosis · 2015-02-24T15:16:24Z

Here are the diagnostic tools I've added or will add to LoginLdap:

the loginldap:synchronize-users can be used w/ -vvv to diagnose why LDAP user => Piwik user synchronization fails.
the new loginldap:count/loginldap:query commands (added for the client) can be used w/ -vvv to determine if the plugin code is incompatible w/ the specific LDAP server being used or if certain queries don't work w/ the current LDAP user. If for example, the command fails, but ldapsearch succeeds, there's something wrong w/ the plugin or PHP's ldap extension.
the loginldap:bind command (will add soon) can be used to check if the plugin can bind to a specific user and if not, what the specific error is
the loginldap:check-ldap-servers command (may never have the time to add) could be used to check whether different configured ldap servers have the same info (in case backup LDAP servers are used). LDAP servers that do not have the exact same entries would result in very strange errors.

Some possibilities regarding Piwik:

a tool to check whether there are duplicate actions (for the whole table or just one table) would be useful (especially to those
a tool that lists scheduled tasks and performs a dry-run of re-scheduling or a dry-run of executing tasks would be useful (w/ of course much better debug logging)
once the archive purging bug is figured out, tools that execute different parts of that system could be used to diagnose future problems. right now since the system is defined in several different parts of Piwik, this isn't exactly do-able.
a tool to check for duplicate/unnecessary archive entries might be useful to diagnose large archive table issues

etc.

diosmosis · 2015-02-24T15:37:09Z

It would be easier to create diagnostic tools if Piwik core's subsystems were more modular.

…tics

mnapoli · 2015-04-17T06:46:16Z

Now that #7646 is merged, should we close this or is there still something to do?

diosmosis · 2015-04-17T07:15:51Z

I'm not sure the Diagnostic interface handles all the use cases in this ticket, eg, diagnostics can't be run through the UI outside of the SystemCheck page (some of the tools I have in mind shouldn't be run on that page, eg, testing an LDAP connection).

mnapoli · 2015-04-17T07:40:27Z

OK I see, but for those use case do we need to standardize it? Plugin developers can create their own custom diagnostics if they need?

diosmosis · 2015-04-17T07:46:55Z

I would say, yes. At least for core + supported plugins.

This was added in response to a support call where the client did not know how to run a bash command, would not give us access to our servers, would not install plugins like PiwikDebugger on a staging server and after using Piwik since version 1.X, still did not know they should not modify global.ini.php. To support debugging these clients' installs, we'd need a very easy way for them to run these sorts of diagnostic tools.

mnapoli · 2015-04-17T09:03:17Z

Maybe we are not talking about the same thing. I meant do we need to (e.g.) create an PHP interface they need to implement, do we need to write any helper class/API for plugin developers, etc?

I don't see the point of that because the current system brings convenience to writing small diagnostics without having to write a page to display them and a cli command to run them.

However for diagnostics that don't fit in this concept (e.g. those that need a whole page, or a whole separate command), then what's the point of writing anything in Piwik? Plugin developers will have to write a UI/command anyway. I don't see any gain for plugin developers as we couldn't imagine a page or CLI command that is generic enough for all diagnostics, and at the same time saves plugin developers some time. So what I'm saying is that in those cases we could let plugin developers write their own UI/CLI command.

But maybe I'm wrong! I'm just not seeing it right now. E.g. could you illustrate what we could add into Piwik for those extended diagnostics?

diosmosis · 2015-04-18T05:10:05Z

I was thinking of something similar to the plugin settings page, ie, each plugin has a section and the UI is auto-generated. So heavier diagnostics could be run when desired.

mattab · 2015-04-20T00:21:15Z

Hi guys, could we close this RFC and create a follow up issue (if applicable?)

diosmosis · 2015-04-20T00:25:18Z

@mnapoli If you don't see a reason to make tools like this easily accessible via web, feel free to close. It's not something I'd probably get to anyway.

mnapoli · 2015-04-20T00:59:12Z

I'm not convinced right now but maybe I'm just not seeing it. Let's close and if the need appears we'll create a new issue with an example and we'll think of a solution

diosmosis added Enhancement For new feature suggestions that enhance Matomo's capabilities or add a new report, new API etc. RFC Indicates the issue is a request for comments where the author is looking for feedback. labels Feb 18, 2015

mattab added this to the Short term milestone Feb 19, 2015

mnapoli self-assigned this Apr 6, 2015

mnapoli modified the milestones: Piwik 2.13.0, Short term Apr 6, 2015

mnapoli added a commit that referenced this issue Apr 8, 2015

ref #7235 Refactored the system check to allow plugins to add diagnos…

9a061c7

…tics

mnapoli mentioned this issue Apr 8, 2015

Refactored the system check to allow plugins to add new diagnostics #7646

Merged

mnapoli added a commit that referenced this issue Apr 14, 2015

ref #7235 Refactored the system check to allow plugins to add diagnos…

3a3978f

…tics

mnapoli closed this as completed Apr 20, 2015

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allow plugins to create diagnostic tools that are available via CLI and the web #7235

allow plugins to create diagnostic tools that are available via CLI and the web #7235

diosmosis commented Feb 18, 2015

mattab commented Feb 18, 2015

tsteur commented Feb 18, 2015

diosmosis commented Feb 23, 2015

tsteur commented Feb 23, 2015

diosmosis commented Feb 23, 2015

mattab commented Feb 24, 2015

diosmosis commented Feb 24, 2015

diosmosis commented Feb 24, 2015

mnapoli commented Apr 17, 2015

diosmosis commented Apr 17, 2015

mnapoli commented Apr 17, 2015

diosmosis commented Apr 17, 2015

mnapoli commented Apr 17, 2015

diosmosis commented Apr 18, 2015

mattab commented Apr 20, 2015

diosmosis commented Apr 20, 2015

mnapoli commented Apr 20, 2015

allow plugins to create diagnostic tools that are available via CLI and the web #7235

allow plugins to create diagnostic tools that are available via CLI and the web #7235

Comments

diosmosis commented Feb 18, 2015

mattab commented Feb 18, 2015

tsteur commented Feb 18, 2015

diosmosis commented Feb 23, 2015

tsteur commented Feb 23, 2015

diosmosis commented Feb 23, 2015

mattab commented Feb 24, 2015

diosmosis commented Feb 24, 2015

diosmosis commented Feb 24, 2015

mnapoli commented Apr 17, 2015

diosmosis commented Apr 17, 2015

mnapoli commented Apr 17, 2015

diosmosis commented Apr 17, 2015

mnapoli commented Apr 17, 2015

diosmosis commented Apr 18, 2015

mattab commented Apr 20, 2015

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mnapoli commented Apr 20, 2015