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Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] UI Proposal for better Analysis for Android devices

From: Bálint Réczey <balint@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2015 12:35:34 +0100
2015-12-31 0:10 GMT+01:00 Anders Broman <a.broman58@xxxxxxxxx>:
>
> Den 30 dec 2015 17:01 skrev "Graham Bloice" <graham.bloice@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>
>>
>>
>> On 30 December 2015 at 10:52, VIKRAM VENKATESH HEGDE
>> <vikram.h@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sure, will submit the feature in patches may be will start doing so by
>>> next week.
>>>
>>> Thanks for the support.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks & Regards,
>>>
>>> Vikram
>>>
>>>
>>
>> FWIW, I have a different opinion than Anders regarding the UI.   Qt "is"
>> the Wireshark UI toolkit, GTK is legacy, and Qt is better supported on our
>> target platforms, especially OSX.  I think any new UI development should be
>> for Qt first, then if developer cycles are available, it can be ported to
>> GTK.
>
> As I understand it in this case the GTK code exist and the Qt does not. Not
> accepting it would slow progress and accepting it might speed up the port to
> Qt and sort out any problems or design flaws early. IMHO
I agree that we should not reject UI patches because they improve the GTK+
implementation only.

I would prefer having Wireshark development guided by users' needs and
contributions
rather than pushing devs' choices very hard [1].

Cheers,
Balint

[1] In Debian we have the social contract clarifying that:
...
4. Our priorities are our users and free software
We will be guided by the needs of our users and the free software
community. We will place their interests first in our priorities. We
will support the needs of our users for operation in many different
kinds of computing environments. ...
...
(From: https://www.debian.org/social_contract)

> Regards
> Anders
>
>>
>>> ------- Original Message -------
>>>
>>> Sender : Anders Broman<anders.broman@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>
>>> Date : Dec 30, 2015 16:59 (GMT+09:00)
>>>
>>> Title : RE: [Wireshark-dev] UI Proposal for better Analysis for Android
>>> devices
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> From: wireshark-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> [mailto:wireshark-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of VIKRAM VENKATESH
>>> HEGDE
>>> Sent: den 29 december 2015 06:57
>>> To: wireshark-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Subject: [Wireshark-dev] UI Proposal for better Analysis for Android
>>> devices
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear All,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Its my pleasure to contribute to Wireshark Open Source community. Off
>>> late our team is contributing to Zigbee cluster dissectors.
>>>
>>> We have a UI feature proposal to contribute to open source which will
>>> result in improved and better analysis of issues with respect to android
>>> devices also providing user with a good use experience. Below are the
>>> details of the proposed solution, also attached are the screenshots of the
>>> idea in which one reflects the existing flow graph available in Wireshark,
>>> and the other screenshot represents the change we are proposing to enhance
>>> the UI and separate packet  and system logs and show the system logs in
>>> separate panel:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Title
>>>
>>> UI Feature in Wireshark for better analysis
>>>
>>> Abstract
>>>
>>> The proposed solution addresses enhancement of UI for GTK, in which
>>> unlike the existing Wireshark, the logs which are generated from the android
>>> device connected via usb to system and the packet data are separated out to
>>> show it in different panes. Thus providing an additional functionality of
>>> viewing the log data and packet data separately and also having a time
>>> synchronization functionality to map the packet data with the log entry and
>>> vice-versa. This will be useful for user to analyze the particular scenario
>>> in more depth as the user will be able to analyze whether the issue lies in
>>> network based on the packets or whether the issue lies in the device
>>> software implementation based on the system logs.
>>>
>>> Background (if necessary)
>>>
>>> The code contribution is an enhancement of existing Wireshark to provide
>>> user with more functionality and better analysis of the issues. Also
>>> enhancing the user experience by showing the log data and packet data
>>> together and mapping functionality based on the time.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Detailed Description
>>>
>>> Added the below functionalities:
>>>
>>> v  Modified the UI to show device system logs and packet logs separately.
>>>
>>> v  Time Synchronization and mapping between packet data and system logs
>>> so that user can get the issues addressed more clearly.
>>>
>>> The system logs that are captured using the existing android dump are
>>> shown in the form of packets along with the other network traffic in the
>>> Wireshark main packet window.  This implementation adds large number of
>>> additional packets in the Wireshark packet window as every log line is shown
>>> as a packet. To reduce this overhead we are segregating the log viewer and
>>> the network traffic by adding additional UI component Logviewer. The log
>>> viewer will display the system logs as simple text data . The user can map
>>> between the log viewer window and main packet pane by selecting a packet in
>>> the Wireshark main packet panel or selecting a line in the log window by
>>> which the other window corresponding entry will be highlighted.  Our
>>> implementation requires a few modification in the existing code of the
>>> Wireshark so as to fit our new component log viewer as a part of Wireshark.
>>> To feed the data in the logviwer we are adding  an additional interface in
>>> the androiddump which will be listed along with the other interfaces in the
>>> Wireshark interface list. The capture filter option  in the interface can be
>>> used to specify the logtags.  We are also providing the facility of storing
>>> the logdata  for the offline use.
>>>
>>> The logviewer functionality is similar to the flow graph that assist user
>>> in seeing whether there are any issues on the network such as dropped
>>> frames, timeouts or dropped connections. Flow graph  also provide the time
>>> mapping functionality similar to the logviewer window.
>>>
>>> If the feature looks promising then we would like to open source this.
>>> Please let me know if the feature looks interesting. If so would send more
>>> details and the changes involved in architecture and also some addons which
>>> we would be contributing along with the main UI enhancement..
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks & Regards,
>>>
>>> Vikram
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Yes it looks interesting, the best would be to upload the code changes to
>>> gerrit so we can have a look at it. Note that GTK is being deprecated so
>>>
>>> The GUI part has to be ported to Qt too otherwise the functionality may
>>> be lost when GTK is removed. But in my opinion we could integrate the GTK
>>> version
>>>
>>> First and worry about the GUI part later. If it’s possible to add the
>>> feature as a series of smaller patches that would make the review easier
>>> rather than
>>>
>>> A humongous patch adding all at once.
>>>
>>> Best regards
>>>
>>> Anders
>>>
>>>