The most noticeable addition to Hydra recently has been the addition of the Flex UI. Flex is an open source Flash framework from Adobe that allows for rapid development of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). Behind the Flex UI is the powerful Twisted framework that powers the data back end. Communication between Flex and Twisted is handled by the PyAMF library. PyAMF is an implementation of Adobe’s Action Message Format (AMF) for Python. This library allows for data to be exchanged in a binary form which is many times faster than the traditional XML mechanism.

Enough talk, lets get to the show! Here is a shot of the CPE LiveGrid module from Hydra. LiveGrid handles adding, searching, modifying, and deleting of CPE’s and assets withing the system. This module was originally based on an XML API, however, after changing to PyAMF speeds over doubled when running:

The second example here is of the CPE LiveDiag module. This allows for real time graphing and analysis of a CPE’s performance in the network and will allow network administrators to make faster diagnostics when problems occur. This module was also a port from its original XML interface to the PyAMF library:

These are just a few of the new interfaces coming in the release of Hydra EMS.