Simplify Hosting Configuration

[tobiasschweizer]

When setting up Knora on a server that has an own domain (non localhost), a bunch of (partially redundant) modifications has to be made. Some of them are URLs with or without the port, some of them are just a domain name (without http:// or port):

• webapi/src/main/resources/application.conf:
  • app.http.interface: Knora API URL
  • app.http.port: Knora API port
  • app.http.base-salsah-url Salsah webapp URL + port
  • app.tmp-datadir
  • app.datadir
  • app.sipi.url: Sipi URL
  • app.sipi.port: Sipi port
• salsah/src/main/resources/application.conf:
  • app.http.base-knora-url: Knora API URL + port
• salsah/src/main/scala/org/knora/salsah/Main.scala:
  • val (host, port) = ("mySalsahDomain", mySalsahport)
• salsah/src/public/js/00_init_javascript.js:
  • var API_URL = 'myKnoraAPIURL:myport';
  • var SIPI_URL = 'mySipiURL:myport';

Can we simplify that and make it more consistent?

[loicjaouen]

here are a handful of suggestions of how to avoid direct configuration file editing without using puppet or another configuration management system.

delegate config to docker command line

• use stock docker images
• keep default config values
• delegate config to the docker start command...

by mapping directories to mount points in the docker instance, and proxying local ports to hosted ports in the docker instance.

proxy web services

As it is all web-services, they are easy to proxy.

if you have to edit, edit once

heart of a release process:

git stash
git pull
git stash apply

reality

I described earlier the set-up we use here, in a now non-readable form (because I didn't use plain text mail): https://www.maillist.unibas.ch/pipermail/knora-user/2016-July/000079.html

it is a mix of apache web-proxy and git-stash for release (but we plan on using docker).