io.Connect Configuration Service Example

⚠️ Warning: This is a sample implementation intended for demonstration purposes only. Several aspects would require enhancement for production use in a multi-user environment. Most notably, this sample lacks proper user management and authentication. In a production system, requests should be segregated by user identity, ensuring users can only access their own layouts and data. Currently, this example returns all layouts to any connecting user regardless of identity, which would be inappropriate for a secure multi-user application.

io.Connect Desktop uses application, layout, system and other configurations defined on the local machine, but can also be reconfigured to fetch them from a REST service.

This example project shows how to run a Node.js REST service that provides configuration stores for io.Connect Desktop.

Configuration and Start

To start:

# install the dependencies
$ npm i           

# development
$ npm run start

# watch mode
$ npm run start:dev

# production mode
$ npm run start:prod

This will start the service on port 8004 (by default). You can override the port by setting the SERVER_PORT environment variable, as described later in the document.

REST API Documentation

Once the server is running, you can:

• view the Swagger UI by opening http://localhost:8004/api
• view the Swagger definition by opening http://localhost:8004/api-json or http://localhost:8004/api-yaml

io.Connect Desktop Configuration

To enable fetching configuration definitions from the REST service, you need to edit your local configuration files located in the %LOCALAPPDATA%\interop.io\io.Connect Desktop\Desktop\config folder.

Applications

To enable fetching application configurations from the REST store, find the "appStores" top-level key in the system.json file and add a new entry (or replace existing entries) with the following configuration:

{

    "appStores": [
        {
            "type": "rest",
            "details": {
                "url": "http://localhost:8004/apps/"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Layouts

To enable fetching layouts from the REST store, find the "layouts" top-level key in the system.json file and edit the "store" property - change the "type" to "rest" and assign the URL of the service to the "restURL":

{
    "layouts": {
        "store": {
            "type": "rest",
            "restURL": "http://localhost:8004/"
        }
    }
}

Application Preferences

To enable reading and storing application preference from the REST store, find the "applicationPreferences" top-level key in the system.json file and edit the "store" property - change the "type" to "rest" and assign the URL of the service to the "restURL":

{
    "applicationPreferences": {
        "store": {
            "type": "rest",
            "restURL": "http://localhost:8004/prefs"
        }
    }
}

System and Other Configurations

To enable io.Connect Desktop to fetch system configurations from a remote location, use the "remoteConfig" top-level key of the gilding.json configuration file:

{
    "remoteConfig": {
        "enabled": true,
        "url": "http://localhost:8004/configs",
        "wipeFolder": true
    }
} 

REST Service Env Variables

• SERVER_PORT - The port on which the REST service will run. Defaults to 8004
• APPS_FOLDER - Specifies the directory containing application definitions in JSON format. By default, it points to the configuration\apps folder, but the environment variable APPS_FOLDER can be used to override * this setting.
• LAYOUTS_FOLDER - Specifies the directory for reading and storing layout definitions. By default, this is set to the configuration\layouts folder, but the environment variable LAYOUTS_FOLDER can be used to override this setting.
• PREFS_FOLDER - Specifies the directory used for reading and storing application preferences. By default, it points to the configuration\prefs folder, but the environment variable PREFS_FOLDER can be used to override this setting.
• CONFIGS_FOLDER - Specifies the directory for storing system configurations. By default, it points to the configuration\configs folder, but the environment variable CONFIGS_FOLDER can be used to override this setting.