Runtime Modes and Environment Variables

The application can be run in different runtime modes and with different environment variables.

We distinguish between runtime modes and environment files. The former are defined using docker-compose.yml files, the latter are defined inside environment files (.env.*).

Runtime modes and environment Variables may influence the behaviour of the application.

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The default runtime mode is local-dev with it's associated configuration file .env.local-dev.

It enables hot reloading/rebuilding, which is useful to develop the application.

Available Runtime Modes - How the Application is Launched

Runtime modes are defined using docker-compose.yml files. They define how the application is launched.

Runtime Modes may change the behaviour of the application. An incomplete list of affected parts consists of the following:

• whether hot reloading/rebuilding is enabled or not
• if the application is run in using a nginx server instead of the angular's built-in development server

The following runtime modes are available:

Environment	Purpose	Default Domain Binding
prod-latest	Production runtime environment, as hosted on map.cevi.tool.	map.cevi.tool
prod-dev	Same as production mode but with different environment variables and image tags. As hosted on dev.map.cevi.tool.	dev.map.cevi.tool
local-dev	Development runtime environment with enabled hot reloading/rebuilding usefully to develop the application	localhost
ci-testing	Used to test the application. We are using cypress for testing.	localhost

To specify a mode, you can extend the docker-compose command with the -f flag, specifying an additional docker-compose.*.yml file.

For example, to launch the prod-dev runtime environment, you can use the following command:

docker-compose \
  -f docker-compose.yml \
  -f docker-compose.prod-dev.yml up [--build]

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--build is optional and forces docker to rebuild the containers.

Environment Variables - How the Application Behaves

Each runtime mode has its own environment file assigned. The environment file contains environment variables, which are used to configure the application and change its behavior. The environment file is loaded by docker-compose and passed to the application.

Environment variables may change the behaviour of the application. An incomplete list of affected parts consists of the following:

• the logging level
• the port and domain the application uses to call the backend
• the build mode and compression of the Angular frontend

Domain Binding - Running on Localhost

Depending on the runtime environment, you must overwrite the environment variable BACKEND_DOMAIN to localhost if you want to run the application on your local machine. Setting BACKEND_DOMAIN to http://localhost:5000 will cause the application to bind to localhost:5000 instead of the default domain binding listed above.

Alternatively, you can force the application to bind to a specific domain by setting BACKEND_DOMAIN to the domain, you want to bind to. This is useful if you want to run the application on a different domain than the default domain binding.

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The URL must not contain a trailing slash but include the protocol (e.g. http:// or https://). E.g. specified as http://localhost:5000 or https://map.cevi.tool.

To force the prod-latest runtime environment to run on localhost, you can use the following command:

docker-compose \
  -f docker-compose.yml \
  -f docker-compose.prod-latest.yml \ 
  -e DOMAIN=localhost up [--build]

Runtime Modes

Runtime Mode: prod-latest

The production environment is the environment, which is used to host the application on map.cevi.tool. You can use the following command to start the application in production mode:

docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.prod-latest.yml up --build

In this mode all webservers use a nginx server to serve the application.

Environment Variables

The production environment is configured as follows:

ANGULAR_BUILD_MODE=production
BACKEND_DOMAIN=https://map.cevi.tools

Which causes the following behaviour:

• Optimized Build: In the production environment the application runs in optimized mode, which means that the frontend is compressed and minified.
• Logging Level: The logging level is set to warn.
• Domain Binding: The backend domain is set to https://map.cevi.tools.

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You can force the application to bind to a specific domain by setting the environment variable DOMAIN. See Domain Binding.

Docker Image Tags

The docker images are tagged in the following way:

registry.cevi.tools/cevi/awt_{{service name}}>:latest

Runtime Mode: prod-latest

Similar to the production environment, but with different environment BACKEND_DOMAIN and image tags.

Docker Image Tags

The docker images are tagged in the following way:

registry.cevi.tools/cevi/awt_{{service name}}>:dev

Runtime Mode: local-dev

In this mode the application is run using the Angular development server. This mode is useful to develop the application and enables hot reloading/rebuilding. Reloading is also enabled for the backend and documentation server.

To start the application in local-dev mode, you can use the following command:

docker-compose up --build

Docker Image Tags

Docker images are not tagged in this mode.

Runtime Mode: test

This mode is used to test the application. We are using cypress for testing. More information about testing can be found in the testing section.

To start the application in test mode, you can use the following command:

docker-compose \
  -f docker-compose.yml \
  -f docker-compose.ci-testing.yml \
  up --build

Docker Image Tags

Docker images are not tagged in this mode.