Overview and installation

This article introduces Stackbuilder, a visual authoring tool that allows you to create your own stack blueprints. This information is intended to be supplemental to one-on-one consultations with your Interstacks support engineer. 

For advice on blueprint creation, hardware selection, or to discuss a project, email us at info@interstacks.com.

Stackbuilder Overview

The Stackbuilder authoring tool allows you to create a stack blueprint (“program a stack”) by dragging and dropping hardware and software blocks into the blueprint area, and then drawing lines (channels) between the input and output terminals of those blocks.

Each block has input and output terminals that send or receive messages. Messages can be numbers, characters, strings, binary data, or other data structures like lists (e.g. [ 2, 4, 6, 8] ) and Python dictionaries. The channels you draw define where messages sent from output terminals are delivered. You can draw as many channels in to, or out of, a terminal as you want. Creating these channels defines the asynchronous message flow that will run inside a stack.

By allowing multiple stacks to communicate with each other and/or the internet, you can build sophisticated, large scale distributed systems.

Installing Stackbuilder

You must already have Interstacks hardware purchased and available to connect to a computer to get started with Stackbuilder. Follow the steps below to get started:

• Contact your support engineer or email info@interstacks.com for a link to download the Stackbuilder visual authoring tool.
• Launch Stackbuilder, create an account, and click through the confirmation email in your inbox.
• Plug in power for your stack using the included AC power adapter.
• Connect your stack to your computer using the included USB cable between your stack and computer.
• Hardware blocks (corresponding to the physical blocks sold on our website) can be found in the “Hardware” tab in the right rail.
• Built-in software blocks can be found in the “Library” tab, or you can use the “My Blocks” tab to code your own software blocks in Python.
• Example projects are available under the “Projects” tab, in the “Demo Projects” category.

Proceed to the next article, Interface Breakdown, for a detailed explanation of the interface and tools available.