configuration.rst

Configuration

Before running the server, there are some options you may want to tune. Those options can be specified either on the command-line or in a configuration file (that should be specified on the command-line).

Available options

Here are the three more important options:

configuration

This option allows to specify a configuration file in JSON format.

environment

This option sets the environment to use. By default, the development environment is used. Unless you want to debug Dashkiosk, this is not what you want. You can use any other keyword. Use production if you don't know.

port

The port to listen to. Quite important.

If you want to be able to use Chromecast devices, you also need to set:

chromecast.enabled

Enable Chromecast support. Disabled by default.

chromecast.receiver

The URL to the receiver. This is used to tell Chromecast devices where to find the receiver. The default value is unlikely to work. You should put the URL to access Dashkiosk and ends it with /receiver. For example, put something like http://dashkiosk.example.com/receiver.

The Chromecast custom receiver is hosted on GitHub. If you want to modify it or to host it yourself, you need to register a new application in the Google Cast SDK Developer Console and report the provided application ID as chromecast.app.

The remaining options can usually be left untouched unless you decided to not use the integrated SQLite database.

path.static

Path where the static files to be served for the receiver and the integrated dashboards are located. Unless you moved them to some other location, there is no need to change this.

db.database

Database name. This is not needed if you kept the default SQLite database.

db.username

Username to access the database. This is not needed if you kept the default SQLite database.

db.password

Password to authenticate with the above username. This is not needed if you kept the default SQLite database.

db.options.dialect

Dialect to use for the database. This can be sqlite, mysql, mariadb or postgres.

db.options.storage

Location of the SQLite database. Not used for other databases.

db.options.hostname

Hostname (or IP) where the database is located. This is not needed for SQLite.

log.level

Log level to use for logging messages. Use either info or debug.

log.file

Location of a log file where to write logs in JSON format. By default, no such file is generated.

Command-line or configuration file

On the command-line, the options are specified using the classic GNU long option style by prepending them with --. For example:

--port 8087 --environment production

JSON configuration file

Alternatively, you can specify a JSON configuration file with --configuration. In this case, the options with a dot should be understood as being a sub-object. For example, to configure a PostgreSQL database:

{
    "environment": "production",
    "db": {
        "username": "dashkiosk",
        "password": "dashkiosk",
        "database": "dashkiosk",
        "options": {
            "host": "172.17.42.1",
            "dialect": "postgres"
        }
    },
    "log": {
        "file": "/var/log/dashkiosk.log"
    }
}

Reverse proxy

You may want to put a reverse proxy in front of Dashkiosk. You should know that it uses Socket.IO whose preferred backend is WebSocket. Some reverse proxy may not like it.

Here is a configuration for nginx:

upstream dashkiosk {
        server localhost:9450;
        server localhost:9451;
}

server {
   listen 80;
   listen [::]:80;
   server_name dashkiosk.example.com;

   location / {
     proxy_pass http://dashkiosk;
     proxy_http_version 1.1;
     proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
     proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
     proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
   }
}

Setting X-Forwarded-For header allows Dashkiosk to display the IP address of each display in case you want to log on it to debug it.