SlicOps controls particle accelerators and beamlines. The web interface is comprised of Sliclets, componentized applications, which allow operators to read and write EPICS controls. The Python library can be used standalone to control accelerators and beamlines programmatically.

Key features:

1. Modern, responsive Web UI
2. Fully asynchronous client and server
3. Flexible middle layer for use by ML, UI, scripts, etc.
4. YAML-specified UI objects and layout
5. Python UI logic and event handling
6. Minimal interfaces to reduce coupling and improve compatibility

In development, SlicOps uses three servers:

• sim - ADSimDetector simulates a camera called DEV_CAMERA.
• vue - vite serves the browser Vue.js in development mode.
• api - slicops.pkcli.service.ui_api is the web server to connect to, which serves APIs, communicates with ADSimDetector, and proxies vite.

The steps below will create a slicops conda env, and your own sif file, if they are not found on your path. Creating a sif file can take up to 45 minutes.

Note: these instructions are intended for use at SLAC, but probably work elsewhere. Non-SLAC developers may need to install Apptainer or Conda.

If you are at SLAC, add this to your ~/.bashrc:

export SLICOPS_APPTAINER_SIF=/sdf/group/ad/org/lfd/hla/apptainer/slicops.sif

If you are not at SLAC, slicops.sif will get built when you install (below).

First step is to clone this repo. We use ~/src/slaclab/slicops in these examples, but any directory is fine. All the software operates relative to the repo:

mkdir -p ~/src/slaclab
cd ~/src/slaclab
git clone https://github.com/slaclab/slicops

The first time run this command, which will allocate a port.

$ bash etc/run.sh install
<installing conda env, node, python, etc.>

Created <your home>/src/slaclab/slicops/run/bashrc.sh
which sets:

export SLICOPS_BASE_PORT=<your port>

You can also put this value in your ~/.bashrc.

Add this to your ~/.bashrc, and then remove the file run/bashrc.sh. Source your bashrc before starting other servers.

You will need to tunnel this port if you are using ssh. Logout of ssh, and login again with:

ssh -L <your port>:localhost:<your port> <dev host>

You can also add a the forwarding to ~.ssh/config:

Host <dev host>
    LocalForward <yourport> localhost:<your port>

Once installed, start sim (simulated EPICS area detector):

$ bash etc/run.sh sim
/home/vagrant/src/slaclab/slicops/slicops/pkcli/epics.py:75:_log log: /sdf/home/n/nagler/sim_detector.log
/home/vagrant/src/slaclab/slicops/slicops/pkcli/epics.py:98:sim_detector started pid=200; sleep 2 seconds
/home/vagrant/src/slaclab/slicops/slicops/pkcli/epics.py:101:sim_detector initializing sim detector
/home/vagrant/src/slaclab/slicops/slicops/pkcli/epics.py:103:sim_detector waiting for pid=200 to exit

$ bash etc/run.sh vue
<some output and then>
  VITE v6.3.5  ready in 701 ms

  ➜  Local:   http://localhost:<your port + 1>/
  ➜  Network: use --host to expose
  ➜  press h + enter to show help

$ bash etc/run.sh api
Ignore error about caRepeater couldn't be located.

Connect to: http://localhost:<your port>

<noise about import pkg_resources>
../../../../miniconda3/envs/slicops/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pykern/pkasyncio.py:61:_do name=None ip=127.0.0.1 port=<your port>

If everything is set up and tunneling is working, you can visit http://localhost:<your port> in the browser.

If conda is not installed, run:

curl -L https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh > x.sh
bash x.sh
rm x.sh
source ~/.bashrc
# Accept their license agreements
conda tos accept --override-channels --channel https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main
conda tos accept --override-channels --channel https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r

SLAC developers will not needs this. If apptainer command is not found, install:

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apptainer/apptainer/main/tools/install-unprivileged.sh | \
    bash -s - ~/apptainer
cat >> ~/.bashrc <<'EOF'
if [[ ! :$PATH: =~ :$HOME/apptainer/bin: ]]; then
    PATH=$HOME/apptainer/bin/apptainer:$PATH
fi
EOF
source ~/.bashrc

Repository: https://github.com/slaclab/slicops

Documentation: https://slicops.readthedocs.io

License: http://github.com/slaclab/slicops/LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2024 The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, through SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (subject to receipt of any required approvals from the U.S. Dept. of Energy). All Rights Reserved.