Make simple API

[BlurakLP]

Background:
I built a simple model of a ray source and a parabolic mirror that focusses light on an absorber and detector. Now I want to see how the amount and distribution of the "captured" light changes as the angle of the light source changes. I could do that manually (changing the light source, calculating angle, writing down the displayed value or exporting the detector file), but thats a tedious task to do that could be automated easily.

Idea:
Simple API that makes it possible to send the setup JSON and as response get the "sensor data" of the detectors as JSON back.
This would allow advanced users to....

1. make the rough setup easily with the grapic editor
2. Get the JSON of the setup
3. Make code in e.g. Python that changes parameters (like the angle of the light source)
4. send the changed JSON to the API and get the JSON-output of the API
5. the user could then analyze the output (e.g. in matplotlib) by himself in the external code

This would expand the possibilities for advanced users with limited effort needed on the simulators end.

[ricktu288]

See https://github.com/ricktu288/ray-optics?tab=readme-ov-file#use-as-a-node-module

With node.js, you can even directly manipulate the objects in the scene without directly writing the JSON format.

For how to read the detector data output using the node module, see the code in the automated test

ray-optics/test/scenes/helpers/sceneTestHelper.js

Lines 240 to 242 in 61ef235

	const rows = detector.binData.map((value, i) =>
	`${i * binSize},${value / binSize}`
	);

I am not familiar with how to call a node.js module from Python, though. But I believe that modern day AI tools can help with this.

When writing the documentation I didn't know how many users may need this feature. If it is required by many, I will possibly make it more easy to use and possibly provide a Python binding.

[ricktu288]

Implemented.
See https://github.com/ricktu288/ray-optics/tree/dist-integrations