Licas

Gui Version 5.38

The licas (lightweight internet-based communication for autonomic services) system is an open source framework for building p2p service-based networks, similar to what you would do on a platform for SOA / Microservices / IoT. The framework comes with a server for running the services on, mechanisms for adding services to the server, mechanisms for linking services with each other, and mechanisms for allowing the services to communicate with each other. The lightweight architecture and adaptive capabilities through AI and text processing add something new that is not available in other systems. The free All-in-One GUI provides a basic operating environment and a suite of business services.



Product Details

The open source code is now hosted on GitHub. There is still a sourceforge page that provides another overview of the system. The download includes a stand-alone server and the additional packages (AI heuristics, text processing and problem solver). The system is Java 8 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.




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.




Download

Please uninstall the current version first and then delete the folder 'C:\DCS'. The new version installs to the Program Files directory. The web folder has been moved to the 'licasData' directory.
You can download the open source server from GitHub. 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 some configuring may be necessary. The computer should have at least 2GB RAM. There has been over 10000 downloads of the software.


Java Runtime

The open source server is extendible and can run on any java platform. The GUI is a bit bootstrapped to Java 8 and so to avoid any compatibility issues, please install the Bellsoft JRE before running the program. It is an up-to-date version and you only need to install it once for both of the DCS products. Simply run the installer once.



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.