Spotter-VM/_doc/existing/tech-overview.md

Overview of technological requirements

Basic system

Components which are installed directly as part of the basic virtual machine.

Alpine linux

• General description: Operating system
• Tech. description: Lightweight linux distribution based on musl C libraries
• Depends on: -
• Used by: Everything
• Related skills: EXTLINUX / ISOLINUX, git, linux administration (cron, filesystems, iptables, networking, user/group mgmt etc.), LUKS, LVM, OpenRC init system, POSIX standards, s6 init system, shell scripting

Acme.sh

• General description: Certificate renewal tool
• Tech. description: Shell-based Automated Certificate Management Environment client
• Depends on: -
• Used by: nginx, VMMgr
• Related skills: shell scripting, SSL/TLS

Nginx

• General description: Web server
• Tech. description: Lightweight HTTP server
• Depends on: -
• Used by: All application containers, VMMgr
• Related skills: HTTP (proxying, rewriting)

LXC

• General description: Container virtualization host
• Tech. description: Operating system-level container virtualization host
• Depends on: -
• Used by: All containers
• Related skills: container virtualization fundamentals, linux kernel (cgroups, overlayfs, seccomp), shell scripting

Postfix

• General description: Mail server
• Tech. description: Outbound mail transfer agent
• Depends on: -
• Used by: All application containers
• Related skills: SMTP

VMMgr

• General description: Virtual machine and application manager web interface
• Tech. description: In-house Werkzeug-based virtual machine and application manager WSGI application
• Depends on: Nginx, LXC, Python 3
• Used by: User
• Related skills: JSON, python 3 frameworks and modules (cryptography, jinja2, requests, subprocess, werkzeug), shell scripting, WSGI application development

Runtimes

Components which are supplied as LXC overlay layers but don't run as standalone containers

Java

• General description: Java runtime environment
• Tech. description: Java OpenJDK 8 runtime environment
• Depends on: -
• Used by: ActiveMQ, FrontlineSMS, Tomcat, CrisisCleanup, MifosX, Motech, OpenDataKit, OpenMapKit, Sigmah, Solr
• Related skills: -

Node.js

• General description: JavaScript runtime environment
• Tech. description: Server-side Node.js 8 JavaScript runtime environment
• Depends on: -
• Used by: CrisisCleanup, GNU Health, Odoo, OpenDataKit Build, OpenMapKit
• Related skills: HTTP (proxying), JavaScript (language overview)

PHP

• General description: PHP 7 runtime environment
• Tech. description: PHP 7 hypertext preprocessor scripting runtime
• Depends on: -
• Used by: KanBoard, SeedDMS, Ushahidi
• Related skills: HTTP (proxying), PHP 7 (language overview), PHP-FPM

Python 2

• General description: Python 2 runtime environment
• Tech. description: Python 2 runtime environemnt and standard libraries
• Depends on: -
• Used by: CKAN, CKAN DataPusher, CTS, OpenMapKit, Sahana Eden
• Related skills: linux compilation toolchain (header files, gcc, make etc.), pip, python (language overview)

Python 3

• General description: Python 3 runtime environment
• Tech. description: Python 3 runtime environemnt and standard libraries
• Depends on: -
• Used by: GNU Health, Odoo, Pan.do/ra, SeedDMS, VMMgr (doesn't use container)
• Related skills: linux compilation toolchain (header files, gcc, make etc.), pip, python (language overview)

Ruby

• General description: Ruby runtime environment
• Tech. description: Ruby 2.4 runtime environment and gem package installer
• Depends on: -
• Used by: CrisisCleanup, OpenDataKit Build
• Related skills: linux compilation toolchain (header files, gcc, make etc.)

Tomcat

• General description: Lightweight Java application server
• Tech. description: Java application JSP and servlet container
• Depends on: Java
• Used by: MifosX, Motech, OpenDataKit, Sigmah
• Related skills: JVM tuning, shell scripting

Components

Components which are supplied as LXC containers required by other applications but aren't exposed directly to the end user

ActiveMQ

• General description: Message broker middleware
• Tech. description: Java-based message broker and messaging server
• Depends on: Java
• Used by: Motech
• Related skills: JVM tuning, XML

MariaDB

• General description: MySQL database server
• Tech. description: MySQL-compatible relational database management system
• Depends on: -
• Used by: MifosX, Ushahidi
• Related skills: SQL (language overview)

Postgres

• General description: PostgreSQL database server
• Tech. description: PostgreSQL relational database management system
• Depends on: -
• Used by: CKAN, CrisisCleanup, CTS, GNU Health, KanBoard, Motech, Odoo, OpenDataKit, OpenDataKit Build, OpenMapKit, Pan.do/ra, Sahana Eden, SeedDMS, Sigmah
• Related skills: SQL (language overview)

RabbitMQ

• General description: Message broker middleware
• Tech. description: Erlang-based message broker and messaging server
• Depends on: -
• Used by: Pan.do/ra
• Related skills: -

Redis

• General description: Key-value NoSQL database server
• Tech. description: In-memory NoSQL key-value data structure object store
• Depends on: -
• Used by: CKAN
• Related skills: -

Solr

• General description: Full-text search server
• Tech. description: Apache Lucene-based full-text search and indexing platform
• Depends on: Java
• Used by: CKAN
• Related skills: shell scripting, JVM tuning

Applications

Components which are supplied as LXC containers exposed directly to the end user

CKAN

• General description: Data management and data store system
• Tech. description: Flask-based data store application
• Depends on: CKAN DataPusher, Postgres, Python 2, Redis, Solr
• Used by: User
• Related skills: PostGIS, python frameworks and modules (flask, paster, setuptools), Solr core configuration

CKAN DataPusher

• General description: Data file parser for CKAN
• Tech. description: Python-based data file parser service for CKAN
• Depends on: Python 2
• Used by: CKAN
• Related skills: MIME types identification, WSGI application development

CrisisCleanup

• General description: Disaster response and relief coordination
• Tech. description: Ruby-on-Rails-based application with Node.js-generated frontend assets
• Depends on: LibXML, Node.js, Postgres, Ruby
• Used by: User
• Related skills: Node.js build systems (npm, yarn), Ruby build systems and frameworks (Bundle, Devise, Gems, Rails, Rake)

CTS

• General description: Commodity tracking system
• Tech. description: Django-based forms applicaton
• Depends on: Postgres, Python 2
• Used by: User
• Related skills: python frameworks (Django), WSGI application development

FrontlineSMS

• General description: Bulk text messaging
• Tech. description: Spring-based application for modem device access
• Depends on: Java
• Used by: User
• Related skills: Java build systems and frameworks (grails, Spring), Jetty, linux modem/tty handling, Xorg (X server)

GNU Health

• General description: Hospital information system (ERP)
• Tech. description: Tryton-based form application RPC backend with Node.js-based frontend
• Depends on: Node.js, Postgres, Python3
• Used by: User
• Related skills: Node.js build systems (grunt, npm), python modules (setuptools, virtualenv)

KanBoard

• General description: Kanban project management
• Tech. description: Symfony-based forms application
• Depends on: PHP, Postgres
• Used by: User
• Related skills: PHP build systems and frameworks (Composer, Symfony)

MifosX

• General description:
• Tech. description: Spring-based forms application RPC backend with Node.js-packed frontend
• Depends on: MariaDB, Tomcat
• Used by: User
• Related skills: Java frameworks (Spring), Node.js and JavaScript development (Angular, Bower, Grunt)

Motech

• General description:
• Tech. description: Apache Felix-based forms application
• Depends on: ActiveMQ, Postgres, Tomcat
• Used by: User
• Related skills: Java frameworks (Apache Felix, Spring)

Odoo

• General description:
• Tech. description: Werkzeug-based forms application RPC backend with Node.js-based frontend
• Depends on: Node.js, Postgres, Python 3
• Used by: User
• Related skills: WSGI application development

OpenDataKit

• General description:
• Tech. description: Spring and OpenRosa-based data store application
• Depends on: Postgres, Tomcat
• Used by: User
• Related skills: Java build systems and frameworks (Gradle, Spring)

OpenDataKit Build

• General description:
• Tech. description: Ruby-based forms application with Node.js-based data converter
• Depends on: Node.js, Ruby
• Used by: User
• Related skills: Node.js build systems (npm), Ruby build systems and frameworks (Bundler, Rake)

OpenMapKit

• General description:
• Tech. description: Node.js-based forms application with python2 dependencies
• Depends on: Node.js, Postgres, Python 2
• Used by: User
• Related skills: JavaScript development, Node.js build systems (Yarn)

Pan.do/ra

• General description:
• Tech. description: Python-based media store with Javascript-based frontend
• Depends on: Postgres, Python 3, RabbitMQ
• Used by: User
• Related skills: ffmpeg, imagemagick, JavaScript development (oxjs)

Sahana Eden

• General description:
• Tech. description: Web2py-based forms application
• Depends on: Postgres, Python 2
• Used by: User
• Related skills: PostGIS, python frameworks and modules (requests, selenium, Web2py)

SeedDMS

• General description:
• Tech. description: PHP-based data store application with Lucene-based fulltext index
• Depends on: PHP, Postgres
• Used by: User
• Related skills: Apache Lucene, ghostscript, LibreOffice (unoconv), imagemagick, MIME types identification

Sigmah

• General description:
• Tech. description: Apache Commons-based forms application
• Depends on: Postgres, Tomcat
• Used by: User
• Related skills: Java development (hibernate, log4j)

Ushahidi

• General description:
• Tech. description: Laravel-based RPC backend with Angular-based frontend
• Depends on: MariaDB, PHP
• Used by: User
• Related skills: JavaScript build tools and frameworks (Angular, Babel, WebPck), PHP build tools and frameworks (composer, Laravel, phinx)