CCAI : Cloudron Custom App Installer

[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.

[humptydumpty]

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.