ComCom InputSlot

InputSlots; are in short, ways to stream data into ComCom. When creating an InputSlot there are required fields and then there are extra fields that are needed based on the type of data stream that you wish the InputSlot to work with. The ComCom InputSlot is a base class which then employs a specialized listener class which runs infinitely in a process to continually poll for new data, and add that data to a queue.

Relevant InputSlot Functions

The interact with a ComCom its best to utilize the COMCOMClient which is a part of the IA-SDK. It includes a collection of functions which interfact with ComCom to perform any necessary operation such as creating, deleting, and modifying InputSlots.

The most relevant functions when it comes to InputSlots are in the table below:

Function Name	Function Description
`connect_input_slot()`	Function call which takes in config data to create a new input slot in COMCOM.
`disconnect_input_slot()`	Function call which takes in an InputSlot name and deletes it from ComCom.
`modify_input_slot()`	Complex function call which can modify the input_slot according to the modification type.
`toggle_input_slot()`	Function which negates the active status of the input_slot with passed name.
`query_input_slot()`	Function to have an input_slot retrieve a singular piece of data. Currently only a COMCOMDarkAgent can perform this action.
`clear_input_slots()`	Function call that tells COMCOM to clear all input slots from its system. input slots from its system.
`list_input_slots()`	Function call to list all input_slots in COMCOM.
`get_input_slot_data()`	Function call to get detailed information about input_slot with passed input_name.
`synchronize_input_slots()`	Function call to synchronize two or more input_slots.
`desynchronize_input_slots()`	Function call to desynchronize two or more input_slots.

Types of InputSlots

COMCOMDDSListener

An InputSlot can be made with a COMCOMDDSListener by setting the input_type parameter in connect_input_slot() to stream. This will create a DDS listener which listens to a topic of the same name as what was assigned to the InputSlot. The config option input_message_type controls which DDS message dataclass to expect. To get a list of the available DDS dataclasses that are supported in COMCOM, you can call the get_dds_message_types() from COMCOMClient, which will output the DDS dataclasses with their supported names, and their structures.

Note

It is crucial that the input_name and input_message_type match to what the DDS streaming process is utilizing. Otherwise data reading will fail, and no data will be read.

COMCOMFileHandler

An InputSlot can be made with a COMCOMFileHandler by setting the input_type parameter in connect_input_slot() to file. This will create a “listener” which iterates through lines in a file and passes data line by line into connected pipelines. Currently COMCOMFileHandler has two different modes which is chosen based on the passed input_message_type.

input_message_type	Description
`basic`	Used when the file exists in the COMCOM filesystem, and can be read.
`ftp`	Will attempt to connect to a ftp session, and download the file requires `ftp_url`, `ftp_username`, and `ftp_username` be passed with config

Note

Once a file has been fully read. The COMCOMFileHandler will stop processing and only go through the file again if the stream is explicitly reset to read from line one again.

COMCOMWebListener

An InputSlot can be made with a COMCOMWebListener by setting the input_type parameter in connect_input_slot() to socket. This will create a server socket which will accept connections from other sockets, and read in null terminated data. Currentl COMCOMWebListener always utilizes a tcp port, which must be exposed to COMCOM when it is spawned.

Note

When configuring a COMCOMWebListener, a web_address and web_port must be passed in; which then gets bound to that COMCOMWebListener. Afterwards the COMCOMWebListener will continually listen for connections and read in bytes data until the ‘0’ character is encountered.