Using the Reader Simulator

Using the Reader Simulator

The following sections describe using the WebLogic RFID Edge Server Reader Simulator:

Reader Simulator Overview

Your WebLogic RFID Edge Server installation includes a Reader Simulator. The Reader Simulator is a graphical Java application that provides a minimal simulation of a ThingMagic Mercury4 reader or, with minor configuration, a minimal simulation of a Printronix printer.

The simulator can mimic reading and writing both Gen1 and Gen2 tags, and supports the following tag formats:

In order for the RFID Edge Server and the Reader Simulator to communicate, they must be configured to use the same host and port, and the device that the simulator is mimicking must be the device the RFID Edge Server is configured to see. By default:

There are two ways to modify the behavior of the Reader Simulator: by providing optional command-line arguments when running the Reader Simulator startup script (RunReaderSim), or by modifying the script itself. For information of configuring the simulator, see Configuring the Reader Simulator.

There are two ways to modify how the Edge Server views the default Reader Simulator device, SimReadr: the Administration Console or the RFID_EDGE_HOME/etc/edge.props file (where RFID_EDGE_HOME is the directory where you installed the WebLogic RFID Edge Server software). The default at installation time is to configure readers by using the Administration Console. For information on how to modify the reader type and properties associated with a Reader Simulator device, see Configuring the RFID Edge Server View of the SimReadr Device.

The best way to learn about the capabilities of the Reader Simulator is to experiment with it. After you become familiar with this manual, a good hands-on introduction is to run the sample programs in RFID_EDGE_HOME/samples that use the Reader Simulator. See the Sample Java Applications section of the Programming with the ALE and ALEPC APIs manual for descriptions of these sample programs and the procedures for using them.

Starting and Stopping the Reader Simulator

Prerequisite: WebLogic RFID Edge Server must be installed on your system. See Installing WebLogic RFID Edge Server.

Starting the Reader Simulator

It is best to start the Reader Simulator, RFID Edge Server, and RFID Edge Server Administration Console at the same time. If you run the Reader Simulator without also starting the RFID Edge Server, the simulator will wait for a connection that never comes. And, because the Administration Console uses the Edge Server as an intermediary for all communication with the simulator, you generally start all three programs at the same time.

You start the programs by invoking scripts in the RFID_EDGE_HOME/bin directory. Start one program per Console window so that you can see any messages the programs write. For example, for an installation on a Linux platform where RFID_EDGE_HOME is /usr/local/bea/rfid_edge20, using a separate window for each program:

# cd /usr/local/bea/rfid_edge20/bin

# ./RunReaderSimulator.sh

# ./RunEdgeServer.sh

# ./RunAdminConsole.sh

It makes no difference in which order you start the three programs. If you start the Edge Server when the simulator is already running, the Edge Server will connect immediately. If you start the simulator after the Edge Server, the Edge Server will connect to the simulator whenever an application attempts to connect to the simulator, for example, when you run the RunQuickTest script.

If you look at the Reader Simulator GUI after the Edge Server connects to it, you will see that the simulator's Reader Status has changed to Connected.

Stopping the Reader Simulator

In the Reader Simulator, select File Exit.

Reader Simulator Screen and Menus

The Reader Simulator has one main screen which contains:

Tag definitions are configured on the main screen, and status messages are displayed on this screen. The following tables describe the main screen and the menus:

This list describes the Gen2 attributes you can set in the Advanced dialog box for each tag:

Locked checkboxes simulate password protecting memory fields. A memory field can be locked or unlocked. Note that the Gen2 specification lists four different states: unlocked, permanently unlocked, secured, and permanently secured. The Reader Simulator simulates two of those states: unlocked and secured; there is no simulation for permanently unlocked or permanently secured. Also locking is supported only for three of the memory fields: there is no simulated locking for the Access Password and Kill Password fields.

Refer to the Gen2 specification for detailed information about the exact meaning of the different lock types.

Configuring the Reader Simulator

You can use command-line options to configure the Reader Simulator behavior, or edit the RunReaderSim script in your RFID_EDGE_HOME/bin directory. Editing the RunReaderSim script provides more configuration options:

Using Command-Line Options

You can use the following command-line options when you invoke the RunReaderSim script:

These options are described in Table 2-5.

For information on how to configure the Reader Simulator to emulate a Printronix printer, see Configuring the Reader Simulator as a Printer.

Editing the RunReaderSim Script

Here is the RunReaderSim script that is installed on a Linux system (line breaks inserted for readability). The Windows script provides the same set of variables.

#!/bin/sh

# Copyright (C) 2003-2006 by BEA Systems, Inc.
# All rights reserved; use is subject to license terms.
# US and international patents pending.

RFTA_ROOT=${RFTA_ROOT-`dirname $0`/..}
JAVA_HOME=${CT_JAVA_HOME-/usr/local/bea/jdk150_06}

READER_PORT=${READER_PORT-5050}
TAG_COUNT=${TAG_COUNT-7}
ANTENNA_COUNT=${ANTENNA_COUNT-2}
EPCINDEXTABLEURL=
${EPCINDEXTABLEURL-"http://onsepc.com/ManagerTranslation.xml"}

exec "$JAVA_HOME/bin/java" -jar "$RFTA_ROOT/lib/readersim.jar"
-epcIndexTableURL "$EPCINDEXTABLEURL" "$@" $READER_PORT $TAG_COUNT
$ANTENNA_COUNT

This script is preconfigured at installation to use your system's JVM and to point to the RFID_EDGE_HOME/lib directory to find the Java classes needed by the simulator.

Table 2-5 describes the variables defined in the script. In addition, because you can insert the printer options in the script, those options are also repeated in this table.

Configuring the Reader Simulator as a Printer

Table 2-5 describe the -printer and -printerPort options. This section provides some additional information about using the Reader Simulator as an RFID printer:

The following lines demonstrate how to edit the RunReaderSim script to include the -printer property and to use -printerPort to specify a port other than 9100:

The following commands demonstrate how to perform the same function from the command line:

To use the Reader Simulator as a printer:

Configuring the RFID Edge Server View of the SimReadr Device

From the WebLogic RFID Edge Server point of view, the Reader Simulator is just another reader. You can configure how the RFID Edge Server views the Reader Simulator device, SimReadr, using either the Administration Console or the RFID_EDGE_HOME/etc/edge.props file. These methods are mutually exclusive; see Two Approaches to Configuring Readers: edge.props or Administration Console in Installing WebLogic RFID Edge Server for a discussion about the two methods. The default at installation time is to configure readers using the Administration Console.

Using the Administration Console

The following procedure provides a short-hand introduction to the steps for using the Administration Console to modify the RFID Edge Server's view of the Reader Simulator. For more information about configuring readers via the Console, see Configuring and Monitoring Readers in Using the Edge Server Administration Console.

Using edge.props

The default edge.props file that is installed on your system contains the following block of properties definitions, which defines the Reader Simulator, SimReadr, as a ThingMagic Mercury4 reader with two antennas running on your local system and listening on port 5050.

com.connecterra.ale.reader.SimReadr.class =
 com.connecterra.ale.readertypes.ThingMagicMercury4PhysicalReader
com.connecterra.ale.reader.SimReadr.hostname = localhost
com.connecterra.ale.reader.SimReadr.port = 5050
com.connecterra.ale.reader.SimReadr.defaultRate = 0
com.connecterra.ale.reader.SimReadr.uhf2LogicalReaderName = ConnecTerra2
com.connecterra.ale.reader.SimReadr.uhf1LogicalReaderName = ConnecTerra1

If you are configuring the Edge Server's view of readers through edge.props rather than the Administration Console, edit these properties to change how the Edge Server views the Reader Simulator device.

Configuring Multiple Reader Simulators

This section shows you how to create a second Reader Simulator. You can extend this paradigm to create as many reader simulators, or as many printer simulators, as you want.

You should now see two Reader Simulators. Because they have the same number of antennas, the windows will be identical; there is no way for you to change the banner at the top of a simulator window. However, you can keep track of the windows by where you put them on your screen. For example, you could place each simulator window on top of its Console window.

Using the Reader Simulator with the QuickTest Utility

The Post-Installation Information section in Installing WebLogic RFID Edge Server describes how to use the QuickTest utility and the Reader Simulator to verify that the installation procedure succeeded. In the following steps, you observe the interactions of the QuickTest utility and the Reader Simulator to become familiar with some basic WebLogic RFID Edge Server features.

To gain more experience, try using various combination of tags and antennas. You can also vary the Reliability % on the simulator, and see the change reflected in how many tags are read.