CCAI : Cloudron Custom App Installer

[timconsidine]

Pushed couple more fixes, continuing to test installation of every app

[humpty]

I can confirm all reported bugs are fixed! Thanks Tim!

[timconsidine]

Public service announcement to minimise chance of pulling the rug from under @humptydumpty or others again

Testing of all custom apps in catalogue reveal some stubborn issues on a couple of apps. So ...

Breaking changes to refactor CCAI-P and CustomAppGateway - they are going to go down for a short while

Will post here when back up.

[timconsidine]

CustomAppGateway and CCAI-P back in service.

As part of testing installation of all apps in the catalogue, I discovered gremlins (such as what happens if a source repo becomes unavailable or project abandoned, as well some "bound-to-fail-eventually" parsing and other "cleverness").

So I refactored both projects to be simpler and more robust, which needed them to go down.

I probably should do another round of testing all listed apps install correctly. That's on the ToDo list. I think it is all working (ha ha ha, famous last words).

if you already installed CCAI-P, I strongly recommend you reinstall it from customappgateway.appx.uk

Custom apps already installed should not need re-installation.
It's just the installers which have changed.

[DualOSWinWiz]

@timconsidine i would like to thank you for your efforts and contributions. Please try to do windmill https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill
And Dify

https://github.com/AshleyDelph84/dify-self-host

I spend 2 weekends and still not successful

[timconsidine]

@DualOSWinWiz said in CCAI : Cloudron Custom App Installer:

I spend 2 weekends and still not successful

Well, don't assume I will do better !

Have to finish my VAT return but will look at them afterwards

[crazybrad]

@timconsidine Personally want to thank you for pushing CCAI and moving the development to the point where the Cloudron Team is taking this the next part of journey. In my mind, this makes Cloudron THE platform for hosting custom apps.

[timconsidine]

@crazybrad thank you.
Almost always I am scratching my own itches, but glad to be able to help others in process.

I'm excited to see how Cloudron delivers the functionality, I'm sure it will be more slick than mine.

And I don't think they have ever been 'opposed' to it (it's been in cloudron CLI for yonks), it's just there's always been something more important / higher up on the list. A familiar dilemma.

Even though my project's lifetime will turn out to have short-lived usefulness, it's been a fun project.

[robi]

@timconsidine not sure why it needs to be retired so soon. It can still work as is for many moons.

Perhaps monitoring access would be a better metric for when it becomes obsolete and unused.

[timconsidine]

@robi you're right, and I am not rushing to remove it. Hopefully it is robust enough for a while.

I didn't put any metrics in it, so will have to guess, but maybe I will add some basic traffic analysis on CustomAppGateway .

[girish]

I have done some initial work last 2-3 days, I will create a separate post to discuss it. I don't know all the details about CCAI to give suggestions, but hopefully you can be informed better as to what we are doing.

[LoudLemur]

@timconsidine
Thank you for your work on this. It really leverages Cloudron's capabilities and helps make more applications deployable using Cloudron.

Feedback:

[LoudLemur]

said in CCAI : Cloudron Custom App Installer:
@timconsidine
Thank you for your work on this. It really leverages Cloudron's capabilities and helps make more applications deployable using Cloudron.

Feedback:

Edit /app/data/config.json with your Cloudron URL and a NEW Long-Lived Token.

This part is a bit confusing for me. Let me show why:

1. We create token 1 when we first install CCAI to access our Cloudron.
2. We create token 2 when we install our first application, Application A.
3. After our first application installation is completed, we are asked to update its token, so we create token 3
4. Then we might need to install an additional app, Application B. So we launch the CCAI on our local machine and ... create token 4?

Also:

Should the tokens be read-only or read and write?

Also:

Could we please also include a pretty icon for that specific application so we have one readily available instead of the generic cloudron one in our panel? Perhaps that could be included inline with the apps list on CCAI. As that list grows, it might help people find the ones they want more quickly, too.

[timconsidine]

@LoudLemur thank you

• the tokens : this kinda reflects the "journey" that CCAI went on. Initially it was browser-only ... and not user's site. I acknowledge users' cautions about this. Hence recommending a short-lived token disposable for use in CCAI open browser

Then we had CCAI-P deployed on your own cloudron, and interacting with your own Cloudron. In this case a multi-use long-life token was OK and so recommended. I think the quote you included in your question is from CCAI-P.

Then CustomAppGateway got rid of browsers completely for initial install and you enter a token into the binary on your local device. So not needed to use single-use short-term token. But hey everyone's paranoid these days so no harm in doing so.

I don't recognise the need for a 3rd token, but it might an academic question, as Cloudron 9.1 will make all this redundant. A much smoother and less problematic security approach, because it's all "on platform"

• RO vs RW : it needs to make changes to your Cloudron, so RW.

• pretty icons : that all comes down to the app being deployed. CCAI-P uses a similar but deliberately different logo to Cloudron.
  Let me know which apps are not rendering a nice icon, and I can look at it.

Cloudron :

CCAI / CCAI-P :

[IniBudi]

Hi @timconsidine, thank you for your efforts in making CCAI. However, is there any tutorial video on how to install it and update the application if we use CCAI? So, the newbie like me can understand the whole process.

[humpty]

The launcher guides you through it. Here's a screenshot of the Windows method.

Explanation of the annotated steps:

1. download the windows script thing from here: https://customappgateway.appx.uk/
2. launch the windows script and enter your cloudron domain
3. enter your api token (create one in your CR dash > profile > API Token > Add

4. Enter a domain for the new CCAI-P app (e.g. ccai.domain.com)

Once CCAI-P is installed. Go to the app settings in your dashboard > File manager > /app/data/config.json

Edit the two lines to add your cloudron domain and API token. Example below.

{
  "apiEndpoint": "my.domain.com",
  "token": "sdgkj5437jk43g9u34ijhuvkn23kj5yk43kjokj435ykj"
}

Restart the app. Feel free to browse and install any app from the catalog.

[timconsidine]

@IniBudi I didn’t make a video as the process is simple, and Cloudron 9.1 will take over soon.

As @humptydumpty (thank you for stepping in) said, the process is guided.

Some important points :

• CCAI original version is dead : site now directs you to CustomAppGateway which is the new start point
• CustomAppGateway gives you choice of installing individual apps from there, or installing CCAI-P which is maybe more useful if installing multiple custom apps
• for individual installations, CustomAppGateway shows a catalogue, pick an item, popup shows a description and a curl one line installation command. Copy that and paste into your desktop/laptop terminal. It will :
  • prompt for your Cloudron, e.g. my.domain.tld
  • prompt for a token (create this in your Cloudron dashboard | Profile | Tokens
  • prompt for app location, eg myapp.mydomain.tld
  • invoke the installation : note that it will likely complete quickly but your Cloudron needs another couple minutes to install the app
• for multiple custom apps, use CustomAppGateway to install CCAI-P : same process as above.
  • you will then have an app in your Cloudron which can install further apps (displays the same catalog as CustomAppGateway but no more curl download links)
  • store your creds in /app/data
  • pick an app and watch installation proceed
  • wait for completion notice.

Note : your auth creds are now always input in your control (your desktop or your own Cloudron environment), never in a 3rd party site.

Let me know if any other questions

[robi]

@timconsidine it's gone too soon, was needing to use CCAI today.. can you extend it for another month?

[humpty]

@robi It's not gone gone. 9.1 will take some time. Unless you mean CCAI "app" which got superseded by CCAI-P as the main app.

Main site is: https://customappgateway.appx.uk/

[timconsidine]

@robi sorry for confusion
"CCAI" as a whole is not gone
Just the original browser-centric version requiring users to put auth creds in my site (yuk!)

CustomAppGateway lives on, to install CCAI-P and individual apps.
https://customgateway.appx.uk

This will live for a while, definitely for a month after 9.1 is released, maybe as long as 3-6 months after 9.1.