Motorcortex.io

Store your Motorcortex projects on motorcortex.io and deploy their packages to a controller.

  2 minute read  

motorcortex.io is the portal where you store your Motorcortex projects, configure them and deploy them to a controller. This section has two parts:

  • Portal basics: find your way around the portal, with its projects, virtual machines, asset store, tools and your account.
  • Project packages: what goes into each package of a project.

How a project reaches the controller

A project is made of packages. A Motorcortex application needs three of them: a binary package, a config package and a GRID package. When you deploy a package, the portal transfers its files to the controller, and a service on the controller puts them in place. Click a package to open its page.

On motorcortex.io On the controller Your project Controller deploy deploy deploy Open the Binary package page Binary package › Debian packages (.deb): the application and its libraries Installed with apt The controller updates its package lists, then installs every .deb in the package, on every deploy. Open the Config package page Config package › motorcortex.conf, config.json and the files config.json names /etc/motorcortex/apps-available/<package>/ /etc/motorcortex/config becomes a link to this folder, then Motorcortex restarts with the new configuration. Open the GRID package page GRID package › .grid files, images, 3D models and the other files they use /var/www/motorcortex/grid/projects/<project>/<package>/ The GRID runtime in /var/www/motorcortex/grid lists every .grid file it finds under projects/.

<package> is the package name, its version and a timestamp, joined with dashes, so each version you deploy gets a folder of its own. <project> is the project title. Deploying a new config package leaves the earlier folders in apps-available; only the /etc/motorcortex/config link moves.

How the packages work together

At startup the motorcortex serviceThe system service on the controller that starts the Motorcortex application at boot, and that the config deploy restarts. reads /etc/motorcortex/config/motorcortex.conf, from the active config package. That file names the executable, installed by the binary package, and the options to start it with, including the config.json to load. The standard robot configuration has:

EXECUTABLE_PATH="/usr/local/bin/"
EXECUTABLE=motorcortex-robot
OPTIONS="-c /etc/motorcortex/config/config.json"

The GRID package does not change what runs on the controller. It holds the user interface that you open in your browser, and that talks to the running application.

To deploy the packages of a ready-made application step by step, follow Deploy an application.