configuring-the-application.md

Configuring the application

• Configuring the application
  • Configuration options
  • domain
  • Data Formats
    • imageFormats, audioFormats, videoFormats
    • documentFileExtensions
    • transcriptionFileExtensions
  • service.search and service.api
  • Indexer Metadata Namespace
  • introduction, explore, header, footer
  • renderers

The application takes a single configuration file - configuration.json - which defines how it will behave. A simple generic configuration file can be seen at ./configuration/generic-configuration.json.

In production, you will need to create that file and place it into the document root of the webserver. Have a look at the configuration of the ui container in docker-compose-production.yml to see an example configuration.

Configuration options

domain

If you want to lock the viewer instance to a specific domain then set the domain property. This results in shortened URLs without the domain name. For example, setting the domain to paradisec.org.au results in '/view/AC1/001' instead of '/view/paradisec.org.au/AC1/001'. The application still assumes the content being served has the domain name but it will insert it where required in order to map the route path to the content that needs to be loaded.

Data Formats

These options determine the content that gets extacted from the hasPart property of the ro-crate file. You probably don't want to change these unless you've revised the respective components to handle the new data types you've added.

imageFormats, audioFormats, videoFormats

The media formats the application will try to display. Ensure that whatever you put here is supported by all browsers.

documentFileExtensions

These are the extensions supported by google document viewer. See: https://gist.github.com/tzmartin/1cf85dc3d975f94cfddc04bc0dd399be for more information.

transcriptionFileExtensions

You probably don't want to change this.

service.search and service.api

API is currently not used. service.search tells the application where to find elastic. In development you should leave as http://localhost:9200 whilst in prod it's likely to be something like /search (assuming you've set up a proxy path via your nginx server to elastic - which you absolutely should do)

Indexer Metadata Namespace

Is configured as:

"indexerMetadataNamespace": "ocfl-indexer:meta"

Don't change this as it needs to match the configuration used by the OCFL tools

introduction, explore, header, footer

These configuration options tell the app which component to use for that specific view. In the absence of this property or am empty definition the shell component will try to load a generic view.

IMPORTANT Given the way the renderer components are loaded you MUST define it as a path relative to the relevant folder. Defining it any other way will result in the component failing to load.

renderers

The renderers configuration option allows you to define how the content will be rendered. You can match on the domain of the data or the domain and type and / or additionalType of the data. In the absence of a specific renderer for a given piece of data the application will load the GenericViewer.component to display the basic metadata.

The renderers property must be an array of objects keyed on type and component. The application will then iterate over that array and the first that matches the type of the ocflObject will be used as the renderer for that object. So, say you have a renderer for an item and a Dataset defined. You should define the item renderer before the Dataset renderer in the configuration as that is the more specific one, ensure it will be used for items in preference to the (potentetially) more generic Dataset renderer.

IMPORTANT Given the way the renderer components are loaded you MUST define them as paths relative to the view folder. Defining them any other way will result in the component failing to load.