[GRASS-dev] Try GRASS GIS online: rollApp - rollapp.com

[Vaclav Petras]

Dear all,

Following posts on Binder - mybinder.org [1] and CoCalc - cocalc.com [2,
3], I would like to introduce also rollApp - rollapp.com, another
alternative for "Try online" link. It is a freemium service providing
access to many (mostly) open source applications through a web browser
(i.e., in cloud). You need to log in (e.g., with Google Account) to access
it and you can't save data without purchasing a plan, but you can run
applications and access the Internet. (With a plan, you can connect
different storage such as Drobox or Google Drive.)

It can run GRASS GIS for couple years already. You can try it here:

https://www.rollapp.com/app/grassgis (page with a Launch button)
https://www.rollapp.com/launch/grassgis (direct link with possibly
sub-optimal results)

[1] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-dev/2019-August/093053.html
[2] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-dev/2019-August/093058.html
[3] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-dev/2019-December/093910.html

Right now, it would not work well as a "try online" tool, but it could.
Continue reading if you want to know details.

I worked with them in the past I bit and made some fixes in GRASS GIS which
helped rollApp to start GRASS GIS.

https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/70461
https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/70335
https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/70336
https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/70450
https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/70357

Some additional commits since then (for example, removal of tput) also
improved start in environments such as rollApp.

https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/commit/5c46b130ea50df148ebc73699974c2a621e15e4b

One ongoing issue (which is possibly relevant to CoCalc, too) is that GRASS
GIS can start only with terminal. You can reproduce the issue locally on
Linux using `nohup grass` or, at least on Ubuntu with Unity, by pressing
Ctrl+F2 and typing "grass".

https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/3295

Nevertheless, you can start GRASS GIS even with free account, in the
startup screen change the database directory to /tmp, download a sample
location, and start GRASS GIS. I think the GUI is little bit faster than in
CoCalc. The command line is worse than what you have in CoCalc (fixed size
xterm versus in-browser one).

There is couple things which can be done in GRASS GIS or in rollApp to make
this a great "try online" option (even perhaps as a secondary one in case
we want to favor an open source platform). In any case, I would like to
find a place on the new website to have rollApp listed as one option for
using GRASS GIS online.

Let me know what you think,
Vaclav
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