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In the recent years, usability of web applications has significantly improved, approaching that of rich desktop applications. Example applications are numerous, e.g., many different web applications from Google. The enabling driver for these developments is the AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) architecture. Canone, originally a PHP web interface for Tango control system developed at Elettra, is one of the first attempts of long-distance interaction with the control system via Web. Users with suitable privileges can create panels consisting of various graphical widgets for monitoring and control of the process variables of the control system online. Recently, Canone was extended to interact with a control system through an abstract DAL (Data Access Layer) interface, making it applicable to EPICS and TINE as well. Also, the latest release of Canone comes with drag'n'drop functionality for creating the panels, making the framework even easier to use. This article discusses the general issues of the web-based interaction with the control system such as security, usability, network traffic and scalability, and presents the approach taken by Canone.
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