C3PRO-IDM-FRONTEND

C3PRO-IDM-FRONTEND is a web-based application that implements a simple Identity and Demographics Manager system for myC3PRO project. It's used to send enrollment invitations to subjects using the mobile iOS app and to link the invitation with the SSSID.

The system manages PHI data, and it's supposed to run in a site's intranet. The system does not access directly any database. Data access is wrapped through C3PRO-IDM_SERVICE system, which publishes a secured API for this purpose.

Configuration and Deployment

Dependencies

C3PRO-IDM_SERVICE: A server deploying this system is needed. The access to C3PRO-IDM_SERVICE api methods can be configured through the config files of the project. See below.

Installing Node.js

The system runs on Node.js and uses npm to start the server. To install the basic tools in a Debian-based Linux distribution:

sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install pkg-config nodejs nodejs-legacy npm

Installing Node.js dependencies

The following command installs all the packages listed in idm/package.json

#!shell
$PROJECT_HOME/idm/npm install

Note that node-qrcode builds node-canvas, which requires Cairo to be present on the system: sudo apt-get install -y libcairo2-dev libjpeg-dev libgif-dev

HTTPS

We set up letsencrypt before starting nginx using a standalone cert server. See here for documentation.

apt-get install letsencrypt
letsencrypt certonly --standalone -d your.domain.io

If you're using Nginx, just drop the file nginx-site.c3-pro-idm-frontend into the machine's /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ folder after adjusting your.domain.io to your (sub)domain.

Don't forget that letsencrypt certificates expire pretty frequently. You should set up systemd or something similar to once or twice daily attempt renewal using letsencrypt renew or certbot renew.

Starting the server

The following command starts the web server on port 8080

#!shell
$PROJECT_HOME/idm/npm start

Deployment modes

The system can be deployed in the following environments: test, dev, qa, prod. It is determined by the value of the system environment variable NODE_ENV. For instance, to run the server in production:

#!shell
$PROJECT_HOME/idm/export NODE_ENV=prod
$PROJECT_HOME/idm/npm start

If NODE_ENV is not defined, the application runs in dev. For development purposes, you may want to use nodemon (or node-supervisor) to have the server auto-restart on file changes:

#!shell
cd $PROJECT_HOME/idm
nodemon app.js

(Install nodemon like so: npm install -g nodemon)

Production

You can let supervisor take care of running the app on production systems. Copy the file supervisor.c3-pro-idm-frontend.conf to /etc/supervisor/conf.d/c3-pro-idm-frontend.conf and reload supervisor:

apt-get install -y supervisor
systemctl enable supervisor.service
systemctl start supervisor

cp supervisor.c3-pro-idm-frontend.conf /etc/supervisor/conf.d/c3-pro-idm-frontend.conf
supervisorctl reload

Property files

Properties for each environment are defined in the following json files:

$PROJECT_HOME/idm/config.dev.json
$PROJECT_HOME/idm/config.qa.json
$PROJECT_HOME/idm/config.prod.json

They specify the host, port, http protocol and end points of the C3PRO-IDM-SERVICE api methods.

The test environment

This environment uses mock services and does not require access to C3PRO-IDM-SERVICE. Is it useful for purely front-end tests and fast demos. The data that appears there is written in static files in the following locations:

$PROJECT_HOME/idm/services/testSubjects.json
$PROJECT_HOME/idm/services/testSubject.json

To run in such environment:

#!shell
$PROJECT_HOME/idm/export NODE_ENV=test
$PROJECT_HOME/idm/npm start

To access the web app: http://localhost:8080

The login is also mocked. Whatever login will be acceptable.