Designer setup guide
The FLOWX Designer app is made up of a backend microservice and a frontend app. The backend microservice handles saving and editing process definitions. It provides the REST API used by the FLOWX Designer. The processes defined here will be handled by the FLOWX Engine.
Follow to next steps in order to set them up in your environment.
Managing Prerequisites
The backend microservice uses most of the same resources as the FLOWX Engine.
Database - Postgres / Oracle
The backend microservice connects to the same Postgres / Oracle database as the Engine.
Kafka cluster
The backend microservice needs to be able to connect to the Kafka cluster in case you want to use the audit functionality. If connected to Kafka, it will send details about all database transactions on a configured Kafka topic.
NGINX
It would be best if the FLOWX Designer used a separate NGINX load balancer from the Engine. This is used in order to route API calls from the SPA (single page application) to the backend service, to the engine and to various plugins.
This is used in order to route API calls from the SPA (single page application) to the backend service, to the engine, and to various plugins.
The FLOWX Designer SPA will use the backend service to manage the platform via REST calls, will use API calls to manage specific content for the plugins and will use REST and SSE calls to connect to the engine.
Here's an example/suggestion of an NGINX setup:
For routing calls to plugins:
metadata:
annotations:
kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-cors: "true"
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-methods: GET, PUT, POST, DELETE, PATCH
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-origin: "http://localhost:4200,http://localhost:80,http://localhost:8080"
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target: /$2
name: flowx-admin-plugins-subpaths
spec:
rules:
- host: {{host}}
http:
paths:
- path: /notification(/|$)(.*)
backend:
serviceName: notification
servicePort: 80
- path: /document(/|$)(.*)
backend:
serviceName: document
servicePort: 80
tls:
- hosts:
- {{host}}
secretName: {{tls secret}}
For routing calls to the engine
Three different configs are needed:
- For viewing the current instances of processes running in the Engine:
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
annotations:
kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target: /api/instances/$2
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-cors: "true"
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-methods: GET, PUT, POST, DELETE, PATCH
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-origin: "http://localhost:4200,http://localhost:80,http://localhost:8080"
name: flowx-admin-engine-instances
spec:
rules:
- host: {{host}}
http:
paths:
- path: /api/instances(/|$)(.*)
backend:
serviceName: {{engine-service-name}}
servicePort: 80
- For testing process definitions from the FLOWX Designer, we need to route API calls and SSE communication to the Engine backend.
Setup for routing REST calls:
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
annotations:
kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target: /api/$2
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-cors: "true"
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-methods: GET, PUT, POST, DELETE, PATCH
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-origin: "http://localhost:4200,http://localhost:80,http://localhost:8080"
name: flowx-admin-engine-rest-api
spec:
rules:
- host: {{host}}
http:
paths:
- path: /{{PROCESS_API_PATH}}/api(/|$)(.*)
backend:
serviceName: {{engine-service-name}}
servicePort: 80
Setup for routing SSE communication:
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
annotations:
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-headers: "<your_defaultCorsAllowHeaders_value>"
name: flowx-public-subpath-events-rewrite
spec:
rules:
- host: {{host}}
http:
paths:
- backend:
service:
name: events-gateway
port:
name: http
path: /api/events(/|$)(.*)
- For accessing the REST API of the backend microservice
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
annotations:
kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-body-size: "4m"
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-cors: "true"
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-methods: GET, PUT, POST, DELETE, PATCH
nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-origin: "http://localhost:4200,http://localhost:80,http://localhost:8080"
name: flowx-admin-api
spec:
rules:
- host: {{host}}
http:
paths:
- path: /
backend:
serviceName: {{flowx-admin-service-name}}
servicePort: 80
tls:
- hosts:
- {{host}}
secretName: {{tls secret}}
For configuring the SPA:
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
annotations:
certmanager.k8s.io/issuer: letsencrypt-prod
kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
ingress.kubernetes.io/affinity: cookie
name: flowx-designer-spa
spec:
rules:
- host: {{host of web app}}
http:
paths:
- backend:
serviceName: {{flowx-designer-service-name}}
servicePort: 80
tls:
- hosts:
- {{host of web app}}
secretName: {{tls secret}}
Admin configuration
Datasource configuration
To store process definitions the Admin microservice connects to the same Postgres / Oracle database as the Engine. Make sure to set the needed database connection details.
The following configuration details need to be added using environment variables:
SPRING_DATASOURCE_URL
SPRING_DATASOURCE_USERNAME
SPRING_DATASOURCE_PASSWORD
You will need to make sure that the user, password, connection link and db name are configured correctly, otherwise, you will receive errors at start time.
The database schema is managed by a liquibase script provided with the Engine.
Kafka configuration
Kafka is used only for saving audit logs. Only a producer needs to be configured. The environment variables that need to be set are:
KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS - the Kafka bootstrap servers URL
KAFKA_TOPIC_AUDIT_OUT - topic key for sending audit logs. Default value: ai.flowx.audit.log
Redis configuration
The following values should be set with the corresponding Redis-related values:
SPRING_REDIS_HOST
SPRING_REDIS_PASSWORD
Logging
The following environment variables could be set in order to control log levels:
LOGGING_LEVEL_ROOT - root spring boot microservice logs
LOGGING_LEVEL_APP - app level logs
Authorization & access roles
The following variables need to be set in order to connect to the identity management platform:
SECURITY_OAUTH2_BASE_SERVER_URL
SECURITY_OAUTH2_CLIENT_CLIENT_ID
SECURITY_OAUTH2_REALM
A specific service account should be configured in the OpenID provider to allow the Admin microservice to access realm-specific data. It can be configured using the following environment variables:
SECURITY_OAUTH2_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ADMIN_CLIENT_ID - the openid service account username
SECURITY_OAUTH2_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ADMIN_CLIENT_SECRET - the openid service account client secret
Configuration needed to clear the offline sessions of a user session from the identity provider solution:
FLOWX_AUTHENTICATE_CLIENTID
Elasticsearch
SPRING_ELASTICSEARCH_REST_URIS
SPRING_ELASTICSEARCH_REST_DISABLESSL
SPRING_ELASTICSEARCH_INDEX_SETTINGS_NAME
SPRING_ELASTICSEARCH_REST_USERNAME
SPRING_ELASTICSEARCH_REST_PASSWORD
Undo/redo actions
flowx:
undo-redo:
ttl: 6000000 <---- redis ttl for undoable actions by user+nodeid (seconds)
cleanup:
cronExpression: 0 2 * * * * # every day at 2am <---- when to run cleanup marked as deleted
days: 2 <----- marked as deleted will be deleted when older than days number
Steps to deploy Frontend app
The FLOWX Designer is an SPA application that is packaged in a docker image with nginx:1.19.10. The web application allows an authenticated user to administrate the FLOWX platform.
In order to configure the docker image you need to configure the next parameters:
flowx-process-renderer:
env:
BASE_API_URL: {{the one configured as host in the nginx}}
PROCESS_API_PATH: {{something like /engine}}
KEYCLOAK_ISSUER: {{openid provider - ex: https://something/auth/realms/realmName}}
KEYCLOAK_REDIRECT_URI: {{url of the SPA}}
KEYCLOAK_CLIENT_ID: {{client ID}}
STATIC_ASSETS_PATH: {{mediaLibrary.s3.publicUrl }}/{{env}}