Allow the user to choose a server in the front end

[tameware]

He should be able to pick from a list or enter a URL of his own.

The setting should be unobtrusive - most users will just connect to our production service.

The initial choices might be:

• local
• dev
• test
• prod

[suokko]

Can we make it automatically detect correct service?

Example would be:

• file:// url then use localhost:5000 to connect a local service started with python3 -m src.api
• https:// url would request a hostname file from server to use for service

This assumes we would write the hostname information when deploying frontend. This idea depends on decision how we deploy front end code. Firebase might be the best fitting google product because it offers CDN and easy version management. https://cloud.google.com/solutions/web-serving-overview

[tameware]

I like the idea of using localhost by default if the URL is file:// or localhost://. It's not foolproof, though, since the frontend can run locally but still connect to a remote server.

I've never used Firebase. From the description you linked to, it looks promising. Let's try it instead of an AppEngine front end!