Be able to run Rotki in a headless machine like Avado/Dappnode

[LefterisJP]

Abstract

It would be nice to be able to run Rotki in a headless machine as explained in the discussion of this issue so that it can run on Dappnode/Avado Server among other things.

Task

This is a meta issue which will require the completion of the following sub-issues:

• Have a dockerized version of Rotki
• Replace zerorpc with a normal webserver
• Allow Rotki frontend to connect to a backend running in another machine
• Update endpoints and frontend to upload/download files outside of electron
• Also check the places that we use links. most of them should work outside of electron in the same way but it would be better to make sure.

[kelsos]

@LefterisJP We should also evaluate if it is possible (it should be) to run this version without any need for electron directly from the browser.

So you can either connect to the remote rotki backend that runs on hosted using the electron app or you could access the rotki frontend directly from the hosted environment inside your browser.

[LefterisJP]

@kelsos What would that require? Shouldn't be that hard to achieve, right? Essentially it should all work from the browser too.

[kelsos]

Some parts might not work in the browser. For example, any node filesystem interactions might need some different handling in the browser. eg. CVS export of the report in the browser should be treated as a download.

[LefterisJP]

Yeah that makes sense. But the first step would be to make the electron app connect to the backend in another machine and then we can see about browser support. As you point out there is gonna be subtle differences so we should go step by step.

[froid1911]

Hello everyone,
i just setup my dappnode and dont have much time, but i want to push this issue and contribute.
anything I can do?

[LefterisJP]

Hey @froid1911 the first thing we need done for this is to allow rotki to run in a docker with all features exposed. That means to run in a browser and not electron. The one issue remaining for this is to update our code (both backend and frontend) to work with file upload and download when it's not electron, instead of using the filesystem: #1611

[LefterisJP]

@kelsos what is the status here? Have you not already competed all the steps for this? What is missing?

[kelsos]

@LefterisJP Well we have this point to connect to a custom different backend do we want it currently or is it out of scope for this issue?

[LefterisJP]

I guess we want it. What is missing for this? Is it a lot of work?

[kelsos]

It shouldn't be much I will pick it up after finishing with the existing issues so we can completely close this