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For a quick start using Docker, download
the Docker Compose service file
as docker-compose.yml, and run the following:
docker-compose --profile with-deps upPoint your browser at http://localhost and create an account using email admin@localhost.
You also want to setup outgoing mail, read the Email section.
If you wish to host it on your domain other than localhost, read the DNS section and then
setup SSL/TLS certificates.
There are several dependencies that you can swap out for ClearFlask:
- AWS DynamoDB or Localstack or API-compatible alternative (ScyllaDB is not fully compatible)
- MinIO or AWS S3 or API-compatible alternative
- One of:
- MySQL or Aurora
- ElasticSearch or OpenSearch
- Email service via SMTP or AWS SES
And a few optional:
- Google ReCaptcha
- Let's Encrypt automagic certificate management
- CloudFront as a CDN (Use in front of
clearflask-connect)
You can spin up all dependencies via Docker.
Simply add the --profile with-deps to your docker-compose command when starting ClearFlask.
All database content will be persisted to local filesystem under data folder.
For production workload, you will want to spin up these dependencies yourself and point ClearFlask to their endpoints.
For AWS services, clearflask-server auto-detects Access Keys using either a configuration property or the default
locations. If you are running in EC2 or ECS, keys detection is automated, you just need to create the appropriate IAM
role.
Provide IAM access including create table permission as table is created automatically by ClearFlask on startup.
IAM actions:
- CreateTable
- BatchGetItem
- GetItem
- Query
- BatchWriteItem
- DeleteItem
- PutItem
- UpdateItem
Create a private bucket with IAM access to ClearFlask.
IAM actions:
- ListBucket
- GetObject
- DeleteObject
- PutObject
You can also use an API-compatible alternative service such as Wasabi, MinIO...
Recommended is AWS ES, give the proper IAM access
IAM actions, all in these categories:
- List
- Read
- Write
- Tagging
Alternatively you can deploy it yourself (cheaper) or host it on Elastic. Or you can choose to use MySQL/Aurora as a cheaper alternative.
In order to setup SES, you need to seek limit increase via AWS support.
Change the config property ...EmailServiceImpl$Config.useService to ses and give the proper IAM access.
IAM actions:
- SendEmail
- SendRawEmail
Alternatively use any other email provider and fill out the SMTP settings
ClearFlask consists of two components:
- Tomcat application for serving API requests
- NodeJS for SSR, dynamic cert management and serving static files
- Download the Docker Compose service file
- Run it with
docker-compose --profile with-deps upwhich creates few configuration files in your local directory - Carefully read and modify
server/config-selfhost.cfg. - Carefully read and modify
connect/connect.config.json. - Adjust the Docker Compose service file to add/remove dependencies if you are hosting them outside of Docker
By default, email is configured for AWS SES pointing to your Localstack (which doesn't do anything).
You can choose to setup your own SMTP server or use AWS SES.
Change the configuration to SMTP:
com.smotana.clearflask.core.push.provider.EmailServiceImpl$Config.useService:smtp
Then you need to gather your SMTP settings and fill out the following:
com.smotana.clearflask.core.push.provider.EmailServiceImpl$Config.smtpStrategy:SMTP_TLS(SMTP_TLS, SMTPS, SMTP)com.smotana.clearflask.core.push.provider.EmailServiceImpl$Config.smtpHost:smtp.gmail.com(e.g. smtp.gmail.com)com.smotana.clearflask.core.push.provider.EmailServiceImpl$Config.smtpPort:587(587 for SMTP_TLS, 465 for SMTPS, 25 for SMTP)com.smotana.clearflask.core.push.provider.EmailServiceImpl$Config.smtpUser:[email protected](e.g. [email protected])com.smotana.clearflask.core.push.provider.EmailServiceImpl$Config.smtpPassword:asdfqwerzxcvasdf(To get this working, you need to enable IMAP if not enabled. If you use 2FA, you need to generate an app password and use it here)com.smotana.clearflask.core.push.provider.EmailServiceImpl$Config.emailDisplayName:ClearFlask(e.g. 'ClearFlask for MyCompany')com.smotana.clearflask.core.push.provider.EmailServiceImpl$Config.fromEmailLocalPart:my.name(first part of your email, for [email protected], it would be 'my.name')com.smotana.clearflask.core.push.provider.EmailServiceImpl$Config.fromEmailDomainOverride:gmail.com(domain part of your email, for [email protected], it would be 'gmail.com')
Change the configuration to SMTP:
com.smotana.clearflask.core.push.provider.EmailServiceImpl$Config.useService:ses
Then fill out the SES settings:
com.smotana.clearflask.core.email.AmazonSimpleEmailServiceProvider$Config.region:us-east-1com.smotana.clearflask.core.email.AmazonSimpleEmailServiceProvider$Config.serviceEndpoint: (Leave blank, unless you need to override)
By default, everything is assumed to be on localhost. If you wish to host your portal on yoursite.com
or 192.168.1.123, set the following properties:
connect.config.json:parentDomain:yoursite.comconfig-selfhost.cfg:com.smotana.clearflask.web.Application$Config.domain:yoursite.com
If you wish to have certificates fetched and renewed for you automagically using Let's Encrypt, ensure your DNS is correctly pointing to your server, it is publicly accessible, and set the following config parameters:
connect.config.json:disableAutoFetchCertificate:falseconnect.config.json:forceRedirectHttpToHttps:trueconfig-selfhost.cfg:com.smotana.clearflask.web.security.AuthCookieImpl$Config.authCookieSecure:true
Once you load your site for the first time, a Certificate is auto-magically fetched for you.
If you wish to use your own certificate, set the following properties:
connect.config.json:disableAutoFetchCertificate:falseconnect.config.json:forceRedirectHttpToHttps:trueconfig-selfhost.cfg:com.smotana.clearflask.web.security.AuthCookieImpl$Config.authCookieSecure:trueconfig-selfhost.cfg:com.smotana.clearflask.security.CertFetcherImpl$Config.staticCert:<SEE BELOW>
For the staticCert property value, this has to be a JSON object with the following structure, but you need to put it
in a single line:
{
"cert": {
"cert": "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nMIIFFjCC...",
"chain": "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nMIIE/jCC",
"subject": "feedback.example.com",
"altnames": [
"feedback.example.com"
],
"issuedAt": 1709572939000,
"expiresAt": 1741108939000
},
"keypair": {
"privateKeyPem": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nMIIEvwIB..."
}
}Note that you have to put this into a single line. The cert, chain and keypair will replace any literal \n into a
newline.
This approach is not recommended as you will have to update this certificate manually.
If you are managing TLS certificates behind a reverse proxy, redirect all http requests to https, set the following
config:
connect.config.json:disableAutoFetchCertificate:trueconnect.config.json:forceRedirectHttpToHttps:trueconfig-selfhost.cfg:com.smotana.clearflask.web.security.AuthCookieImpl$Config.authCookieSecure:true
Although discouraged, you can run ClearFlask over HTTP only. Ensure these settings are set:
connect.config.json:disableAutoFetchCertificate:trueconnect.config.json:forceRedirectHttpToHttps:falseconfig-selfhost.cfg:com.smotana.clearflask.web.security.AuthCookieImpl$Config.authCookieSecure:false
For you to manage the dashboard, you need to whitelist an email to be able to create a super-admin account:
config-selfhost.cfg:com.smotana.clearflask.web.security.SuperAdminPredicate$Config.superAdminEmailRegex: ^[email protected]$
After you sign-up, disable further signups using:
config-selfhost.cfg:com.smotana.clearflask.web.resource.AccountResource$Config.signupEnabled: false
- Run
docker-compose upordocker-compose --profile with-deps upto also start dependencies. - Point your browser at
http://localhostor if you configured your DNShttps://yoursite.com. - Create an account using
admin@localhostemail or based on your configuration ofsuperAdminEmailRegex.
Source of truth data is stored in a NoSQL DynamoDB compatible database. For searching/filtering, you have a choice of using a separate database:
ElasticSearch:
- Intended for large projects
- Searching is great (example: searching for 'Johnny' will find 'Jonathan')
MySQL:
- Intended for small projects
- Lightweight
- Cheap to host
- Searching is idential match only (example: searching for 'Jon' will find 'Jonathan')
To check what you are using now, open your configuration file config-selfhost.cfg for the
property com.smotana.clearflask.web.Application$Config.defaultSearchEngine. If you can't find it, the default value
uses ElasticSearch.
You will need a JMX client such
as jconsole probably already bundled
with your JRE/JDK on your system or VisualVM. To connect to your running instance, you
need to enable port forwarding in your docker-compose.yml file by uncommenting the JMX ports and restarting. Then
you can connect to service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://localhost:9950/jmxrmi without credentials and without SSL.
During the migration, you should be checking the logs for any warnings or errors. Especially when starting up or invoking a JMX method. If you run in to issues, document it, open an issue on GitHub and optionally rolback by undoing all the steps in reverse order.
- Double check you are using MySQL, you should have this property
set:
config-selfhost.cfg:com.smotana.clearflask.web.Application$Config.defaultSearchEngine:READWRITE_MYSQL - Edit
docker-compose.yml:- Uncomment
clearflask-servercontainer's JMX ports9950:9950and9951:9951 - Uncomment
elasticsearchcontainer - Restart the server
- Uncomment
- Using JMX, invoke
com.smotana.clearflask.web.resource.ProjectResource.createIndexes(true,false); On failure, check the logs - Edit
docker-compose.yml- Change
com.smotana.clearflask.web.Application$Config.defaultSearchEnginetoREAD_MYSQL_WRITE_BOTH - Restart the server
- Change
- Using JMX, invoke
com.smotana.clearflask.web.resource.ProjectResource.reindexProjects(true,true,false) - At this point you are using both ElasticSearch and MySQL but reading only from MySQL. To test a single project with
ElasticSearch, as super admin open
https://<your_domain>/dashboard/settings/project/advancedand at the bottom of the page force override the search engine to ElasticSearch. Remember to unset this property before continuing. - Edit
docker-compose.yml- Change
com.smotana.clearflask.web.Application$Config.defaultSearchEnginetoREAD_ELASTICSEARCH_WRITE_BOTH - Restart the server and ensure every project is working well.
- Change
- Edit
docker-compose.ymland changecom.smotana.clearflask.web.Application$Config.defaultSearchEnginetoREADWRITE_ELASTICSEARCH - Edit
docker-compose.yml:- Comment out
mysql-dbcontainer to prevent it from starting up. - Comment out
clearflask-servercontainer's JMX ports9950:9950and9951:9951 - Restart the server
- Comment out
- Remove the leftover data stored by the now non-functional MySQL container.
- Double check you are using ElasticSearch, you may have this property
set:
config-selfhost.cfg:com.smotana.clearflask.web.Application$Config.defaultSearchEngine:READWRITE_ELASTICSEARCH. If it is missing, the default is ElasticSearch - Edit
docker-compose.yml:- Uncomment
clearflask-servercontainer's JMX ports9950:9950and9951:9951 - Uncomment
mysql-dbcontainer - Restart the server
- Uncomment
- Using JMX, invoke
com.smotana.clearflask.web.resource.ProjectResource.createIndexes(false,true); On failure, check the logs - Edit
docker-compose.yml- Change
com.smotana.clearflask.web.Application$Config.defaultSearchEnginetoREAD_ELASTICSEARCH_WRITE_BOTH - Restart the server
- Change
- Using JMX, invoke
com.smotana.clearflask.web.resource.ProjectResource.reindexProjects(true,false,true) - At this point you are using both ElasticSearch and MySQL but reading only from ElasticSearch. To test a single
project with MySQL, as super admin open
https://<your_domain>/dashboard/settings/project/advancedand at the bottom of the page force override the search engine to MySQL. Remember to unset this property before continuing. - Edit
docker-compose.yml- Change
com.smotana.clearflask.web.Application$Config.defaultSearchEnginetoREAD_MYSQL_WRITE_BOTH - Restart the server and ensure every project is working well.
- Change
- Edit
docker-compose.ymland changecom.smotana.clearflask.web.Application$Config.defaultSearchEnginetoREADWRITE_MYSQL - Edit
docker-compose.yml:- Comment out
elasticsearchcontainer to prevent it from starting up. - Comment out
clearflask-servercontainer's JMX ports9950:9950and9951:9951 - Restart the server
- Comment out
- Remove the leftover data stored by the now non-functional ElasticSearch container.
Your contributions are very much appreciated. Please see here on how to contribute to our codebase.
- Generally following the Google Java Style Guide
- IntelliJ Recommended: Code style formatting is in
.ideafolder - It is expected to write a test for each functionality.
- VisualCode recommended: code formatting and properties are defined in
.vscodefolder - We are yet to establish a proper test framework. A proposal would be welcome.
Development has been done under Mac, Linux, and Windows (with WSL)
The following requirements are a minimum:
- Java 11
- Maven
- Makefile (for local and production deployment)
- Docker
- FFmpeg and ffprobe (For
babel-plugin-transform-media-imports) - OpenSSL (For local deployment's self-signed certs)
brew install maven ffmpeg make opensslPlease let us know if we missed anything.
Building is straightforward and can be done by running:
mvn clean installAdd -DskipTests or -DskipITs to skip all tests or just Integration tests respectively.
For developing integration tests, you may want to start a local instance of ClearFlask and run integrations directly from your IDE. Otherwise you will have to alwasy spin up all dependencies.
There are several ways to run locally depending on what you want to test.
Ideal for fast-iteration on frontend changes. Changes to code take effect immediately.
make frontend-startOpen browser at http://localhost:3000.
Intended for testing Connect and SSR. For code changes to take effect, you must rebuild clearflask-frontend.
make connect-startOpen browser at http://localhost:9080.
Intended for testing the whole deal before deployment. For code changes to take effect, you must completely rebuild clearflask.
make local-up
make local-downOpen browser at https://localhost.
Intended for testing self-host deployment, uses locally built Docker images rather than officially released images. For code changes to take effect, you must completely rebuild clearflask.
make selfhost-up
make selfhost-downOpen browser at https://localhost.
When running a local deploy, you can debug various components:
For debugging clearflask-server running on Tomcat, point IntelliJ IDEA or your favourite IDE to remote JVM debug
on localhost:9999.
For changing configuration parameters or running exposed operations, connect via JMX using your favourite tool (
JVisualVM, JConsole, ...) on localhost:9950 without credentials and without SSL.
To look at the ES cluster and run commands, point your browser at http://localhost:5601.
To look at the billing sysstem, point your browser at http://localhost:8081.
Credentials are admin/password and API key and secret is bob/lazar.
If you are debugging an Integration Test, a log line will reveal the API key and
secret: KillBill test randomized apiKey {} secretKey {}.
You can use regular AWS command line tool and point it to our mocked up LocalStack services:
aws --endpoint-url=http://localhost:4566 ...The following is a production deployment of ClearFlask. It was once scribbled down during a conversation and now it's an official architecture diagram until we have a better replacement.
Contains OpenAPI definition for communication between frontend and backend. Also includes definition of project settings.
Client side React application containing the Landing page, customer dashboard and portal. Entry point is index.ts.
Also contains a NodeJS server nicknamed Connect that serves static files, Server-Side Rendered page as well as
handling dynamic TLS certificate issuing for customers. Entry point is connect.ts.
Resource module containing Privacy Policy and Terms of Service documents.
Server logging module used for formattinbg logs as well as sending criticial emails to SRE of any warnings or errors. It
is a separate package since it's used by both clearflask-server as well as KillBill servers.
ClearFlask official vector logo and resources.
Server implementation of the OpenAPI definition to serve requests from clients. Uses several dependencies:
- DynamoDB: Most data is stored in this NoSQL database for fast access and scalability
- ElasticSearch: For relevant results and searching, data is replicated to ES for fast searching.
- S3: User uploaded images are served directly from S3.
- KillBill: For payment processing and billing management, KillBill is used.
Intended for ClearFlask developers, this guide is for making a release of ClearFlask to create Docker images and Maven artifacts.
You need credentials for uploading to GitHub Packages repository for both Docker and Maven.
In GitHub personal settings create a PAT with read:packages, write:packages, and delete:packages scopes.
For Docker registry, run this command and input your PAT as password:
docker login ghcr.io -u USERNAMEThen fill out the following with your PAT and put it under ~/.m2/settings.xml:
<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0
https://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">
<servers>
<server>
<id>github</id>
<username>matusfaro</username>
<password>~~INSERT PAT TOKEN~~</password>
</server>
</servers>
<profiles>
<profile>
<id>github</id>
<repositories>
<repository>
<id>central</id>
<url>https://repo1.maven.org/maven2</url>
</repository>
<repository>
<id>github</id>
<url>https://maven.pkg.github.com/OWNER/*</url>
<snapshots>
<enabled>true</enabled>
</snapshots>
</repository>
</repositories>
</profile>
</profiles>
<activeProfiles>
<activeProfile>github</activeProfile>
</activeProfiles>
</settings>To perform a release, decide which version to increment and run the following Makefile target:
make release-<patch|minor|major>If the perform:prepare Maven target failed, you can re-run the whole release again from beginning.
If the perform:release Maven target failed, you can resume it by:
cd target/checkout
mvn deploy -P docker-images-push -rf clearflask-<module-to-resume>Please report to [email protected] for all vulnerabilities or questions regarding security. We will issue a bounty for useful vulnerabilities to pay for your contribution, however we do not have a set standard on the amount and type of vulnerabilities at this time.
![dependabot[bot] avatar](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/29110?v=4 "dependabot[bot]")
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