{% extends "help_page.html" %}
{% block help_content %}

<h2 class="mt-4 mb-4">How to use Spothole</h2>
<p>There are a number of different ways to use Spothole, depending on what you want to do with it and your level of
    technical skill:</p>
<ol>
    <li>You can <b>use it on the web</b>, like you are (probably) doing right now. This is how most people use it,
        to look up spots and alerts, and make interesting QSOs.
    </li>
    <li>If you are using an Android or iOS device, you can <b>"install" it on your device</b>. Spothole is a
        Progressive Web App, meaning it's not delivered through app stores, but if you open the page on Chrome
        (Android) or Safari (iOS) there will be an option in the menu to install it. It will then appear in your
        main app menu.
    </li>
    <li>You can <b>embed the web interface in another website</b> to show its spots in a custom dashboard or the
        like. The usage is explained in more detail on the <a href="/help/usage/embedding">Embedding Spothole in
            Another Website</a> page.
    </li>
    {% if telnet_server_enabled %}
    <li>You can use it as a traditional telnet-based source of spots, similar to DXSpider and other software, <b>in
        your desktop logging application</b>. To do this, set up your logger with the server address
        <code>{{ telnet_server_address }}</code> and port <code>{{ telnet_server_port }}</code>. You can also access
        it from a terminal with <code>telnet {{ telnet_server_address }} {{ telnet_server_port }}</code>.
    </li>
    {% end %}
    <li>You can <b>write your own client using the Spothole API</b>, using the main Spothole instance to provide
        data, and do whatever you like with it. The <a href="/help/usage/clients">Writing your own Client</a> page
        contains guidance on how to do this, and the full API docs can be found <a href="/apidocs">here</a>. You can
        also find reference implementations in the form
        of Spothole's own web-based front end, plus my other two tools built on Spothole: <a
                href="https://fieldspotter.radio">Field Spotter</a> and the <a href="https://qsomap.m0trt.radio">QSO
            Map Tool</a>.
    </li>
    <li>If you want to <b>run your own version of Spothole</b> so you can customise the configuration, such as
        enabling sources that I disable on the main instance, you can do that too. The <a
                href="/help/usage/running">Running your own Copy</a> page explains how to set up Spothole, and
        there are further pages on how to get it <a href="/help/usage/systemd">auto-starting with systemd</a>,
        <a href="/help/usage/nginx">using an nginx reverse proxy and setting up HTTPS support with certbot</a>, or
        <a href="/help/usage/docker">running it using Docker</a>.
    </li>
    <li>Finally, you can of course download the source code and <b>develop Spothole to meet your needs</b>. Whether
        you contribute your changes back to the main repository is up to you. The <a
                href="/help/usage/modifying">Modifying the Source Code</a> page contains some advice on the
        structure of the repository, and how to get started writing your own spot provider.
    </li>
</ol>

{% end %}