Controlling EPICS from a Web browser

An alternative to using a large graphical display manager like MEDM to interface to a control system, is to use individual control objects, such as text boxes, meters, etc., running in a browser. This paper presents three implementations of this concept, one using ActiveX controls, one with Java applets, and another with Microsoft Agent. The ActiveX controls have performance nearing that of MEDM, but they only work on Windows platforms. The Java applets require a server to get around Web security restrictions and are not as fast, but they have the advantage of working on most platforms and with both of the leading Web browsers. The agent works on Windows platforms with and without a browser and allows voice recognition and speech synthesis, making it somewhat more innovative than MEDM.