The 3D Web Coder

Roomedit3d Viewer Extension, POST and Socket

I returned from the Barcelona Forge Accelerator, where I started an exciting new project connecting BIM and the cloud demonstrating two cool possibilities to enhance interaction with the View and Data API, a viewer extension enabling interactive model modification, i.e., translation of selected elements, and a real-time communication of the modification back to the source CAD system – It's Read-Only! How can it be Read-Write? – Genealogy or Where to Start? – Capturing the TransformTool Selection – Determining the TransformTool Translation Vector – POST From Viewer to Server – Broadcast via Socket.io – Desktop Notification Connection and Subscription – Demo Recording – Download and Diff – To Do... Read more →

FireRatingCloud Query Retrieving Updated Docs

Yesterday, I added a timestamp to my FireRatingCloud mongodb documents with the intention of retrieving only documents modified after a specific moment. Today, let's look at filtering for and retrieving just those. Here are the steps to achieve that – A MongoDB query and express route using $gt – C# REST API client accessing the new route – Download and diff... Read more →

FireRatingCloud REST API Batch Upload and Windows Client

Before getting technical, let me mention that I had a great time with Markus and Wolfgang on ski tours climbing a couple of mountains around the Gemmipass last weekend. Back to the technical stuff, I implemented a batch upload functionality for the FireRatingCloud C# .NET Revit API add-in REST API MongoDB client over a month ago, in Madrid, during the BIM Programming workshop, together with Jose Ignacio Montes of Avatar BIM. Jose noted that uploading the data for all doors in a large building model to the cloud database consumed a significant amount of time, whereas downloading the modified data for the same doors is almost instantaneous... Read more →

CompHound on iPad Chrome and Node Env

I returned from my vacation in Andalusia. So far, I spent much too much time this week working on Revit API issues and getting ready for the Revit Technology Conference. I managed to squeeze in a few enhancements to the CompHound component tracker project as well – Cyrille's error handling and handlebars fixes – Report the NODE_ENV setting – Heroku NODE_ENV defaults to production – Updating the LMV viewer version – Obsolete iPad hardware – CompHound running on iPad in Chrome – Regular ordinary Swedish meal time... Read more →

CompHound Viewer and Authorisation Service

I continued working on my CompHound component tracker and now successfully integrated the viewer – CompHound updates and the LMV viewer – Authorisation token server – LMV consumer key and secret environment variables – Client-side auth code provider – Viewer set-up – Wrap-up and next steps... Read more →

CompHound Instance View

I worked through parts of the nice comprehensive beginner’s guide to ReactJS. When I tried to implement selecting a database row to populate the react component from outside, I discovered that "You're never supposed to set a component's state outside of the component." That turned me off any further investigation and I took resort to jQuery instead, where I made much faster progress... Read more →

Lunar Eclipse, CORS Workaround, CompHound

This weekend, I wanted to add an additional field to the component occurrences in the CompHoundWeb database, which led me to discover and fix a trivial yet serious error in my C# client. Also, let me mention a CORS workaround pointed out by my colleague Cyrille Fauvel and my night out to watch the lunar eclipse: – Lunar eclipse – Fed up with CORS? – CompHound Updates... Read more →

CompHound Heroku Deployment, Urban Farming

Yesterday, I discussed the CompHound datatable implementation. Today, let's deploy to Heroku for you to try it out right away – Cloud9 – Easy github.io domain rerouting – CompHound deployment to Heroku – Heroku requires HTTPS – Recent CompHound commits – Try it out live – CompHound road map – Self-sufficient urban farming on 1/10 of an acre... Read more →

The CompHound Mongoose DataTable

I continued working on the CompHound component tracker project. To-do: – Implement a datatable view – Post the server live to Heroku – Add a View and Data API viewing component – Reroute the comphound.net domain... The solution was easy – Hooking up the mongoose-datatable – Implementing a row clicked event handler... Read more →

Towards a CompHound Mongo Database Table View

We are already more than halfway through the Cloud Accelerator in Prague. – Steps towards the CompHound Mongo database table view – Express, ES6, React and more crash courses and best practices – A real scalable server side mongo database table view – CompHound road map... Read more →

Mongodb Upsert

Last week, I searched for and struggled to implement an upsert call for my CompHound and FireRating samples, i.e. a REST PUT call that does both PUT to update the data of an existing record as well as POST to create a new record, if none exists. I ended up calling the mongoose findOne function and then selecting either update or create based on whether an existing record is found. Luckily, a much easier solution exists, adding an argument specifying the options {upsert:true} to the update call... Read more →

CompHound, RestSharp, Mongo PUT and POST

I spent a few exciting and satisfying hours last night cleaning up my C# REST API client to use RestSharp instead of HttpWebRequest and the node.js mongo web server to enable PUT to create as well as update a record – Use percent for CSS font-size font sizing – The CompHound component tracker – GET, PUT and POST stupidity creating versus updating a record – Enabling PUT to create as well as update – Using RestSharp instead of HttpWebRequest – No need to format data as JSON... Read more →

FireRatingCloud Heroku + Mongolab Deployed

Fully and completely deploying the FireRatingCloud support database on the cloud was much easier than expected. Please refer to the fireratingdb node.js web server and FireRatingCloud Revit add-in GitHub repositories for an overview of the exploration and project evolution. I already moved the database off-site to the mongolab host yesterday, but I still had the node web server running locally. To do so, I created a new Heroku app and linked it to the existing fireratingdb GitHub repo. I asked... Read more →

FireRatingCloud Round Trip and on Mongolab

I completed the initial FireRating conversion to the cloud. Here are the steps it took to reach that point: Revit project identification Complete Revit Add-in Implementation Demo Run Log Demo Video Mongolab – really in the cloud Postman does more than cURL Wrap-up, Download and Outlook It now runs full circle, storing Revit building model door instance fire rating values for multiple projects in a cloud-based mongo database. It implements the same three commands as the original FireRating SDK sample... Read more →

Populating MongoDB via C# .NET REST API

I discussed some manual testing of the REST API and the PUT, POST and Delete HTTP action implementations. I also promised some live testing from a C# .NET desktop app. In this case, it means adding documents to the fireratingdb node.js mongo web server via the REST API. We'll take a look at that today: Installing MongoDB on Windows Running MongoDB and the node.js web server on Windows Storing a document in mongo via REST API from C# .NET Generating... Read more →

Put, Post, Delete and Curl Testing a REST API

I continued the cloud-based FireRating project by equipping my node.js mongoose-driven mongoDB database web server with a REST API. Let's discuss and test the PUT, POST and DELETE implementation. For the sake of future-proofing, I also added a version prefix to the routing URLs: Add version prefix to routing URLs. Test REST API using browser and cURL. Put – update a record. Post – add a record. Delete – delete a record. Wrapping up for today. So far, we already... Read more →

Starting to Implement the FireRating REST API

Let's equip our node.js mongoose-driven mongoDB database web server with a REST API. To be precise, I will: Define a URL route schema to map requests to application actions. Implement controllers to handle each action. Add interfaces to store, access and modify data. I already discussed the over-all goal and what to store, namely building project models, door instances living in those models, and each door's fire rating value. Next, we looked at how to identify projects and maintain the... Read more →

Implementing Mongo Database Relationships

Let's look at how to implement relationships in a mongo database. Yesterday, I made my very first steps exploring mongoDB to implement a mongoose based node.js database web server. The example I am using is a hopefully simple project to implement a cloud-based multi-project version of the Revit SDK FireRating sample. The relationships we are dealing with here are as trivial as they get: we are looking at doors in a building, represented by door family instances in a Revit... Read more →

My First Mongo Database

Allow me to present a partial log of my very first experiments with mongoDB. My ultimate (short-term) goal is to convert a very simple Revit SDK sample called FireRating to a cloud-based multi-project implementation. The existing sample is a Revit add-in implemented in C# .NET that exports the following data for all door instances in a building model to an Excel spreadsheet, enables the user to edit the external fire rating values, and reimports the modified data to the corresponding... Read more →

Node.js REST API Workshop Part One

As mentioned, I am preparing a Node.js REST API class for the Milano WebGL workshop end of this month. I will also need this material – and much more – for my RTC Europe and AU classes, assuming my proposal for the latter is accepted. Let's finally get going with it. My plan is to create a node server using Express, implement a REST API for it, and drive a simple mongodb database. I covered lots of preliminary explorations for... Read more →