Installation¶

Tip

The backend develop on nodejs, so it can be deployed on multi platform.

Requirements¶

The most important requirements are:

Nodejs >= 7.10.1
MariaDB >= 5.5.56
pm2 >= 2.6.1

You can visit Nodejs official website and MariaDB to download.

Follow the pm2 document to install it after installed nodejs.

Fundamental Installation¶

Note

The backend requires ffmpeg and sharp plugin for videos and image processing.

First you need to install ffmpeg to settle all videos before store it in server. You can download it in official website

Please follow the link to install ffmpeg can run with nodejs.
Backend need to process uploading image and save it. So, it use sharp plugin to do image processing.

Please follow the link to install environment for it.

Tip

Just follow the Prerequisites in the link
Setup active directory (AD).

User authentication will call AD API to verify all users when they are trying to login by mobile or website. So, the backend will connect to AD and get user account and user group.

AD API run on internet infomation services (IIS). It is installed as normal website in IIS.
- Configuration in AD API:
  
  AD API will check the clientId when receiving a request, if the clientId match with the Id in configuration file the request is validate. Otherwise, it will failed.
  
  In Web.config, at <appSettings> section, change clientId with whatever clientId you want.
```
<add key="clientId" value="here is the cliendId"/>
```
- Configuration AD in backend:
  
  Fill in all AD API infomation in the default.json of backend.
```
"ADSettings": {
            "isUsing": true,
            "url": "the hosting of AD API",
            "port": port of the host (it is a number),
            "clientId": "here is the cliendId that defined in AD API"
        }
```

Setup backend¶

Backend has 2 environments, one for testing and the other is for production. It can enable or disable production in index.js. Just comment out the code process.env.NODE_ENV = "production"; to run it in testing environment.

Configuration consist of default and production. When it is in production environment, some of configuration sections in the default will be replaced by production.

It is simply to configuration backend, there many sections in configuration file.

AppSettings: it is basic configuration for application

restAPIPort: the port of the backend.

loginExpire: it is the time out of user. the default is 1 day.. You can select other.
"appSettings": {
    "secretKey": "you can ignore it if don't want to change",
    "applicationVersion": "1.0.0",
    "restAPIPort": "it is the port of the backend will run on",
    "loginExpire": "1d" // 1d, 10h, 2.5 hrs, 2 days, 1m, 5s, 1y, 100 (time formats to milliseconds)
}
Tip

Keep it as default if you don’t want to change.
Database: the configuration for database server (MariaBD)

ADSettings was mentioned above.
AppVersion: When the mobile app has new release, it will be upload to the folder and user can install new version.

defaultName: the intaller file name.

uploadFolder: the folder for uploaded intaller file.

downloadLink: the link user can access and dowload new release.
"AppVersion": {
    "defaultName": "EmpApp-Install",
    "uploadFolder": "/your/upload/folder/here",
    "downloadLink": "https://www.yourhost/download"
}

Start and restart backend¶

After you have done all parts above. You are almost done. The last step is running it.

Execute the command to start the backend.
pm2 start index.json --name "backend service"
Execute the command to restart the backend if need
pm2 restart [index]
[index] can find by pm2 list command.

Tip

You can learn more about pm2 by following the link.