spothole/templates/help/using.html

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

    <h2 class="mt-4 mb-4">Using 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 in the <a
                    href="https://git.ianrenton.com/ian/spothole/src/branch/main/README.md">README file</a>.
        </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 README contains guidance on how to do this, and the full API
            docs are linked above. 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 README contains not only
            advice on how to set up Spothole but how to get it auto-starting with systemd, using an nginx reverse proxy,
            and setting up HTTPS support with certbot.
        </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. As usual, the README file contains
            some advice on the structure of the repository, and how to get started writing your own spot provider.
        </li>
    </ol>

{% end %}