Iguana 6 Channel Importer

This is something we are building out incrementally with customers migrating to Iguana X. It’s evolving and proving very helpful in helping us figure out how we can streamline the conversion process through finding the key use case patterns and how they can be brought over in a smooth and safe fashion.

Reminder: Reach out to work with us - support@interfaceware.com. We’ve successfully helped a few customers use the converter. It’s been extremely helpful in quickly identifying issues we need to address to help them port over.

You'll need 10.1.81 or newer - this video shows how the converter is meant to run

converter.mp4

STEP 1: Add Iguana 6 Channel Importer to IguanaX using + Component

Click the Iguana 6 Channel Importer and ADD.

STEP 2: Edit the custom GitRepo component property to point to a channel export from Iguana 6

You can test with the default repo included in the component OR you can import your own channels by using your own repository with Iguana 6.1 channels exported!

Edit the GitRepo custom field with your Git repository link. Click the check mark to save your change.

Tip! To get your git repository link from Bitbucket, click clone and copy the SSH link provided.

STEP 3: Run the component to import and convert all the Iguana 6 channels into components.

It should generate and link a number of components corresponding to the channels in the repository.

All components imported with contain the #imported tag. Use this to filter your dashboard and view all imported components.

Inside the Channel Importer Tool:

From reading the code of the converter, how could a more detailed map of LLP server components be done?

You can see clearly how the channel structure is converted into Iguana X components in the CHAN library.

Go have a look at CHAN/CHANllpSource.lua. This code has the mapping of configuration information from Iguana 6 into Iguana X.

How does the iguana_shim module work?

The shim module in the CHAN library allows us to simulate API functions which don’t exist under Iguana X that used to be under Iguana 6.

This includes things like iguana.channelName() which don’t make sense for Iguana X which no longer has channels. See Shim functions.

How can we deal with obsolete Iguana 6 APIs?

Since the shim module is designed to be a temporary solution during your migration, what are some strategies to deal with the missing obsolete Iguana 6 APIs in your new Iguana X environment?

Our team is experimenting with streamlining this with A library to recreate Iguana 6 APIs for easier porting of code.

How do we convert legacy python based VMDs?

The Channel Importer tool uses our vmd_tool to convert legacy VMDs to an XML format Iguana X can ingest. If you are migrating any Iguana v6 legacy channels that use VMDs, you’ll need to ensure you have the Iguana 6.1.5 installed on the server as the vmd_tool is packaged within.

See How to convert legacy Python Based VMD channels.

Evolving the Channel Importer Tool

We are optimistic we can automate most of the work in converting Iguana 6 to Iguana X code. Doing the conversion in this way is very powerful since it will give final control to each customer to go the last mile in terms of doing the conversion in manner which helps you each get the best conversion possible.

It makes it possible to customize the script to target specific problems that might only have an impact on your use cases of Iguana.

For now we are working with a number of customers to use this tool to accelerate the process of identifying and eliminating gaps and making Iguana X a practical platform to migrate to.

Scaling out channel conversion.

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