The testing of running the application factory application in a Windows environment was done using Windows 10 running in a VirtualBox virtual machine. The user involved had administration access. The exercise was done to identify any application issues when running in Windows as a precursor to running the application using IIS.

The setup of a Windows 10 machine consisted of four configuration areas:

1. VirtualBox virtual machine
2. Services REST API
   2a. Postgresql Database
3. Vue Web Application

The Windows 10 appliance was setup using an existing Windows 10 VM and the steps to create a Windows VM will not be covered here.

Two way access is necessary between the Host machine and the guest (Windows) machine so that the browser can be run in the host machine accessing the Vue and Services applications on the guest machine while also allowing the guest machine's service application to access a Postgres database running on the host. Doing this simulated the Postgres database running on a separate server and allowed the re-use of application data without the need to configure another Postgres database.

The two way communication was setup by defining the VM's network with the host machine. The VM was connected to a host-only network adpator for communication between the host and guest machines and a NAT adaptor for Internet access.

Host-only Networking Description

With host-only networking, virtual box doesn't try to use a physical network adapter on the host. Instead in VirtualBox you can create one or more (up to 8) virtual adapters for connections between the host and virtual machines created in VirtualBox on the host.

A VirtualBox host-only adapter can also function as a DHCP server to assign ip addresses to VirtualBox virtual machines. The host machine (and other virtual machines if any) can then connect to the virtual machines using these ip addresses using ssh or sftp (provided an ssh server is running on the virtual machine).

The host-only network was created when the Windows VM was created, but can be checked by selection File/Host Network Manager from the VirtualBox toolbar. The 'vboxnet0' adaptor was set to the following:

Two 'Adaptors' are configured on the guest machine using the Settings dialog and going to the Network tab.
Host-only Adapter Configuration

Internet Configuration

Once the virtual machine can connect to the Internet it is possible to install Node, Git, and Webstorm (IDE) on the virtual machine.

• Install NPM/Node from https://nodejs.org/en/download/ (.msi)
• Install Git by downloading from https://git-scm.com/downloads and running the installation.
• Install an IDE (Webstorm in this example)

Disk shares are set to allow access of data on the host from the guest. These can be used to access downloads and provide areas where data can be stored on the host. However, the 'volumes' share is critical in providing a place to store attachments and query results which will be accessed using the APPFACTORY_VOLUME_PATH environment variable.
Shared Folders

• Clone services repo and run npm install

mkdir \workspace  
cd \workspace
git clone https://github.com/gmarshall142/appfactory-services.git
rd appfactory-services services
cd services
npm install
npm run build

• Set git global attributes

git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
git config --global user.name "gmarshall142" 
git config --global user.password "*******"

• Setup a debug configuration that will run the services application (Webstorm example) This configuration will run the services application in debug mode. Prior to starting the service the project build script is run.
  Services Debug Config
  Services Debug Config Build Step
  

• Obtain the IP addresses for both the host and guest machines Host IP

~ $ ifconfig | grep 192.168
	inet 192.168.1.4 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
	inet 192.168.56.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.56.255

Guest IP

C:\Users\gmarshall>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration


Ethernet adapter Ethernet 2:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::cc77:2181:e856:4438%3
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.56.101
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Ethernet 3:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : home
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::59a0:e201:c7f5:60cf%9
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.3.15
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.3.2ipconfig

• Environment Variables Environment variables are used to set values in the application such as user, password, host, port, etc. The following environment variables are set in the GUEST machine:
• NODE_ENV=development
• POSTGRES_HOST=host IP
• POSTGRES_NAME=appfactory
• POSTGRES_PORT=5432
• POSTGRES_PSWD=postgresql database user password
• POSTGRES_USER=appuser
• VUE_APP_REST_HOST=guest IP
• VUE_APP_REST_PORT=3000
• APPFACTORY_VOLUME_PATH=w:\

The Postgresql database runs on the HOST and is accessed using the POSTGRES_* environment variables. In addition to using the environment variables to set connection variables it is also necessary to take steps on the HOST to allow the database connection from a machine other than the HOST machine. The access is configured by modifications to the following configuration files on the HOST:

• modify postgresql.conf file to allow connections using IP address; add the following 'listen_addresses' line:

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# CONNECTIONS AND AUTHENTICATION
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# - Connection Settings -
listen_addresses = '*'

• modified postgresql pg_hba.conf file to allow requests to IP address by adding a line referencing the HOST IP

# IPv4 local connections:
host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            trust
host    all             all             192.168.1.4/24          trust

cd \workspace
git clone https://github.com/gmarshall142/appfactory.git
cd appfactory
npm install

• Install Vue CLI

npm install -g @vue/cli

Environment variables are used to set development variables and the application protocol to use:

• VUE_APP_EMAIL=default user email
• VUE_APP_PSWD=default user password
• VUE_APP_MODE=DEV
• VUE_APP_LEVEL=debug
• VUE_APP_PROTOCOL=http

• VUE_APP_WEB_HOST=guest IP
• VUE_APP_WEB_PORT=8080