B4J Question PHP - some guidance required

[JackKirk]

I am trying to programmatically control a Netonix WISP switch ( https://www.netonix.com/wisp-switch/ws-8-150-dc.html ) at a remote location.

Specifically I want to be able to turn PoE on selected ports on and off under certain circumstances from an AWS EC2 instance.

But I am not having much luck doing it with B4J.

I've made an earlier probe on this subject in the forums here:

https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/sshj-ssh-scp-sftp-for-java.88615/page-2#post-586467

But I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that it might not be easy or even possible to do with B4J alone.

After much digging around I have found PHP code here:

https://forum.netonix.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2657&p=18570&hilit=php+poe#p18579

that looks like it could be adapted to do what I want:

#!/bin/php
<?php
function help() {
 print "\r\n** Syntax error - You must supply all of the following options:\r\n\r\n";
 print " h <host> The hostname or IP address for the Netonix\r\n";
 print " n <portnumber> The port number that you wish to alter\r\n";
 print " v <value> The value for the PoE, off, 24V, 24VH, 48V, 48VH\r\n";
 print " u <username> The username to use for logging in\r\n";
 print " p <password> The Password used to log into the switch\r\n";
 print "\r\n";
 exit(1);
}

$options = getopt("h:u:p:n:v:");
if((!isset($options['h'])) || (!isset($options['u'])) || (!isset($options['p'])) || (!isset($options['n'])) || (!isset($options['v']))) {
 help();
}else{
 $host = ($options['h']);
 $username = ($options['u']);
 $password = ($options['p']);
 $port = ($options['n']);
 $poe = ($options['v']);
}
print "Setting PoE to $poe on port $port of $host\r\n";

// Setup the SSH connection
$connection = ssh2_connect($host);
ssh2_auth_password($connection, $username, $password);

$shell=ssh2_shell($connection, 'switch');
fwrite( $shell, 'conf'.PHP_EOL);
fwrite( $shell, 'interface port '.$port.PHP_EOL);
fwrite( $shell, 'poe '.$poe.PHP_EOL);
fwrite( $shell, 'exit'.PHP_EOL);
fwrite( $shell, 'exit'.PHP_EOL);
sleep(1); // wait for the confirm prompt
fwrite( $shell, PHP_EOL); // send ENTER to confirm
fwrite( $shell, 'exit'.PHP_EOL); // exit the CLI which will terminate the SSH session

// Turn on blocking so it doesn't disconnect between multiple commands
stream_set_blocking($shell, true);

// Display any output
echo 'Output: '.stream_get_contents($shell)."\r\n";

// Close the connection
fclose($shell);

?>

My untrained eye sees statements like ssh2_shell in this PHP that I haven't seen in any other environment so maybe PHP is unavoidable?

However, I have never touched PHP in my life and would prefer not to at this point.

I would be interested in any suggestions, guidance, pointers etc of how to proceed.

Thanks in anticipation...

 

[OliverA]

It looks like the library wrap does not expose the startShell(), getInputStream(), getOutputStream() and getErrorStream() methods. With those in hand, you might be able to reproduce the above.

 

[DonManfred]

I would be interested in any suggestions, guidance, pointers etc of how to proceed.

maybe you can get using the jkSSH2 Library.

 

[OliverA]

jkSSH2 Library

That library suffers from the same issue. Looks like the project it is based on has been dormant since end of 2006 (http://www.ganymed.ethz.ch/ssh2/). It's interesting that the code base looks very similar to the newer code base of the sshj library (https://github.com/hierynomus/sshj). Another library that is build on interactive shell communication (and it's based on sshj) and may be worth wrapping is ExpectIt (https://github.com/Alexey1Gavrilov/expectit).

 

[JackKirk]

Thanks for all the interest and suggestions.

Firing another rocket blind into the ether...

From my PuTTy and associated plink rummaging so far, I can reproduce, in PuTTy, this bit of the above PHP code:

$shell=ssh2_shell($connection, 'switch');
fwrite( $shell, 'conf'.PHP_EOL);
fwrite( $shell, 'interface port '.$port.PHP_EOL);
fwrite( $shell, 'poe '.$poe.PHP_EOL);
fwrite( $shell, 'exit'.PHP_EOL);
fwrite( $shell, 'exit'.PHP_EOL);
sleep(1); // wait for the confirm prompt
fwrite( $shell, PHP_EOL); // send ENTER to confirm

the "switch" shell provides a new command line interface on which you drop "conf", "interface port .." etc

This delivers the desired result - except I can't automate it.

It appears plink does not work because it is not interactive and therefor you can't have a command line interface.

I guess this reinforces Oliver A's first post in this thread.

 

[JackKirk]

@mindful has upgraded his SSHJ library:

https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/sshj-ssh-scp-sftp-for-java.88615/page-2#post-587213

with a Shell method that has solved all my problems - bliss.