App development in Open OnDemand

Setup ( one-off)

A sandbox directory must be provisioned to enable app development in Open OnDemand (OOD).
First, we need to allow the user to create sandbox apps by creating a symlink to point to the homedir:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/ood/apps/dev/<USERNAME>
cd /var/www/ood/apps/dev/<USERNAME>
sudo ln -s /home/<USERNAME>/ondemand/dev gateway

User using <NAME>@agreserch.co.nz would use

sudo ln -s /home/agresearch.co.nz/<NAME>/ondemand/dev gateway

Once complete, the enabled user can try a tutorial, e.g. https://osc.github.io/ood-documentation/latest/tutorials/tutorials-interactive-apps/add-jupyter/copy-app.html to become familiar with the sandbox environment and the steps to clone an app from a repo.

https://openondemand.org/run-open-ondemand#enabled-applications is a catalogue of OOD apps available.

Developing an app

Developing an app can be done on either on OOD web interface OR develop it on Github/Gitlab first and then clone it as per Step 3 under Adding an existing Github/lab repo. We recommend latter for better tracking and transparency over building it directly via the interface.

1. Github vs Gitlab

   • We have started building few staging apps on https://gitlab.com/nesi1 but attempts to clone it to OOD interface failed ( time outs,etc)

   • Therefore, switched to Github ( https://github.com/nesi public repo) which we think is a better choice anyway as it will allow us to get assistance from OOD community when needed. Also, app configs don’t have any sensitive information in general which eliminates it’s requirement to be on https://gitlab.com/nesi1 private group. Having said that, if there are any cluster specific configs which should not be in public domain, build the app in https://gitlab.com/nesi1 ( we can’t host private repositories on NeSI GH) and we can try to sort of the issues related to cloning

2. Naming convention for a Repo OR a branch

   • It should be clustername-ood-appname-app OR machinename-ood-appname-app OR servicename-ood-appname-app . For an example, RStudio app for eRI is eri-ood-rstudio-server-app and for Mahuika mahuika-ood-rstuido-server-app. ( Refer to https://github.com/nesi/eri-ood-rstudio-server-app )

   • If the repository is a template for all clusters/machines and we need separate branches for cluster/machine specific configs , name the branch after the cluster/machine/service name

Adding from an existing Github/lab repo

Delete an exiting App

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