OSG Usage Chrome App¶
The OSG Usage App provides an interface into the OSG‘s accounting system. It also features:
- Sharing of collections of graphs with other users.
- Refining of graphed data.
A great way to start using the OSG Usage App is to follow the OSG Chrome App Tutorial.
The code is hosted on Github. As well as the issue tracker.
Table of Contents:
OSG Chrome App Tutorial¶
This tutorial will step you through running the Chrome App. The first step is installation.
Installing¶
To install the Chrome app, download it from the Chrome App Store. The app is free, and should install quickly. Once it is installed, you can launch in one of two ways:
- When opening a new tab, click the Apps button at the top. This will bring you to the Chrome application list, where you can find the newly installed OSG Usage Viewer application.

Chrome App Launcher in the top bar of a new tab page.
- Using the Chrome App Launcher, which is installed with Chrome on Mac and Windows.
Initial Setup¶
When you first start the App, it will show a dialog to pick a profile. This dialog shows a list of predefined profiles for you. Choose the one most appropriate for you. For example, if you are an OSG user, you would choose the OSG User profile. Or, if you are a Resource Owner, choose that profile. Further descriptions of the initial profiles are availble on the profiles page.
After selecting a profile, enter a small amount of information required to restrict what the graphs will show. Below is an example for a Nebraska resource owner (administrator):
After you have entered the information, click the Add button. The graphs will load and you will be displayed with the main screen.
Refining the Graphs¶
Each graph can be edited by either changing the Profile’s parameters, or each graph’s individual parameters. We will continue with the previous example of being an adminstrator at Nebraska.
Nebraska has many resources, but the graphs are only showing the usage from one of our clusters. We wish to add our other clusters to all of the graphs. We can change all of the graphs simultanously by selecting the Edit Graph Properties button from the top navigation, under Graph.

Graph dropdown for manipulating the profile’s graphs.
In this dialog, we can add more clusters into the resources box. We add Crane and Tusker clusters.

Graph edit dialog
Once you have finished, click Refine, or hit Enter. All of the graphs in the current profile will be refreshed with the new parameters.
Further Reading¶
You may use more advanced features of the App such as:
Profiles¶
A profile is a collection of graphs grouped together. A profile may define refining parameters which are applied to each of the graphs in the profile.
It is often useful to have mutiple profiles that can show you different information. One profile could show usage over the last 2 weeks for the Nebraska resources. While another profile could show the usage over the last year of the HCC VO.
Template Profiles¶
Three template profiles are provided when the app first starts.
- OSG User
- A profile meant for users of the OSG. Specifically, it is designed for Glidein users of the OSG, such as those using the OSG-XSEDE resource, or any of the other available glidein submission hosts. It can be filtered by User and/or Project.
- Resource Owner
- Meant for owners of computational resources, this profile highlights who is running on the resources and how many hours are being consumed on the filtered resources. It can be filtered by Resource Name.
- VO Manager
- Meant for the manager of a Virtual Organization (VO). This profile highlights the VO’s usage. Both, who is using resources on behalf of the VO, and on what resources the VO is running. It can be filtered by VO name.
Adding new Profiles¶
To add a new profile, click on the profile dropdown in the top right of the navigation bar. Then, click on the Create New option.

Dropdown box for profile creation.
The new profile dialog will appear, which will be the same as the first time you created a profile.
Enter the appropriate information for your new profile, or enter the URL for a shared profile.
Graphs¶
Graphs are the heart of the OSG Usage App. You can add them, remove them, and refine the graph’s displayed data.
Adding new Graphs¶
Adding a new graph is done in the graph dropdown box in the navigation bar.

Graph dropdown box showing the Add Graph option.
After opening the dialog, enter the graph name and description. Both of these attributes are arbitrary and will be used only for display purposes.
The Base Graph URL refers to the URL of the graph from gratiaweb. A list of availble graphs are availble in the gratiaweb backpage. Select any of these graphs, then copy / paste the URL from the website into the Base Graph URL.

URL copy of the graph from gratiaweb.
The App will parse the URL and determine if the graph can be retrieved. If it is successful, it will add the graph to the profile.
Get Links to Graphs¶
The links are intended to be used to directly view the Gratiaweb backend pages for the graph. The backend pages include many more parameters that can be configured than are built into the Chrome App.
Warning
Not all graphs will work with the share link. The backend page names do not always match with the image name, therefore the linked backend page is not always correct.
Sharing Profiles¶
The OSG Usage App provides a service to share profiles (collections of graphs) with other uses easily.
Sharing your Profile¶
The OSG Usage App has the ability to generate a link that can be used by others to load the profile. A simple web service stores the profiles when you click on the sharing link, and can be retrieved by others when creating a new profile.
After you have created a profile that you would like to share, click on the Share button in the top navigation bar. It will open a dialog to fill in attributes that you would like to assign to the profile, such as Name and Description.
Once you have entered these values, click on the share button. It will generate a URL that you can copy into an email, or IM, and can be used by another user to load the profile.
Profiles save everything, including:
- All graphs that are in the profile.
- The refine parameters for the profile and each graph.
- Any graphs that where added by you.
Note
The remote user will not receive updates if you change a previously shared profile.
Developer Documentation¶
Frameworks¶
- AngularJS
- Bootstrap
- UI Boostrap (Boostrap written for AngularJS)
Data Structures¶
Built-in Data¶
Sharing Framework¶
The sharing framework is hosted on Google App Engine. It provides a REST / JSON interface to store and retrieve profiles.