Configuring FlowForge

Configuring FlowForge

The base configuration of the FlowForge platform is provided in the file /opt/flowforge/etc/flowforge.yml. This assumes the default install location of /opt/flowforge.

To run a local install, you can use the default options. This section describes the options available in the configuration file.

Server configuration

Option	Description
host	The address to serve the web ui on. This defaults to localhost which means the ui will only be available when browsing from the same server that is running the platform. To make it accessible to other devices on the network, set it to 0.0.0.0. NOTE: If host is changed, please also update base_url to match e.g. http://[ip-address-of-host]:3000 NOTE: We do not support changing the host value once you have created a Node-RED instance.
port	The TCP port the platform serves its web ui. Default: 3000
base_url	The url to access the platform. This defaults to http://localhost:3000 which means a number of internally generated URLs will only work when browsing on the same device as is running the platform. To be able to access the platform remotely, replace localhost with the ip address of the device running FlowForge. IMPORTANT: This should not be changed after starting Node-RED instances as it is used by the instances to find the core platform.
support_contact	a URL or string with contact details for the administrator e.g mailto:support@example.com or https://support.example.com . Defaults to the email address of the first admin user or the administrator if no email address set.

Database configuration

FlowForge supports sqlite and postgres databases.

Option	Description
db.type	The type of database to use. Default: sqlite.

SQLite configuration

Option	Description
db.storage	Path to the SQLite Database file to use, relative to /opt/flowforge/var/. Default: forge.db.

Postgres configuration

Option	Description
db.host	Hostname of the Postgres Database. Default: postgres.
db.database	Database name on Postgres Server. Default: flowforge.
db.user	Username used when connecting to Postgres Server.
db.password	Password used when connecting to Postgres Server.

Node-RED Driver configuration

This configures how Node-RED instances are run by the platform.

Option	Description
driver.type	The type of deployment model to use. Default: localfs

Localfs Driver options

Option	Description
driver.options.start_port	The port number to start assigning to Node-RED instances as they are created. Default: 12080
driver.options.node_path	The path to find the node.js executable - useful if Node.js has been installed with nvm so isn't necessarily on the system path.

Docker Driver options

Option	Description
driver.options.socket	The path to the Docker control unix domain socket. Default /var/run/docker.sock

Kubernetes Driver options

Option	Description
driver.options.namespace	The namespace to run Node-RED instances in. Default: flowforge
driver.options.cloudProvider	Enables specific options for certain platforms e.g. aws. Default: not set
driver.options.projectSelector	A YAML object containing node annotations to use to filter which nodes Node-RED instances run on. Default: role: projects

MQTT Broker configuration

By default, the platform runs without an MQTT broker. This restricts some features in the platform, such as the Project Nodes.

If a broker has been setup in the platform, the following configuration is required:

Option	Description
broker.url	The url for the platform to access the broker. For example: mqtt://localhost:4800.
broker.public_url	The url used by devices to connect to the broker, if different to broker.url. For example, this may require devices to use WebSockets instead: ws://localhost:4881.

Email configuration

By default, email is disabled. This restricts some features in the platform around inviting new users to join.

Option	Description
email.enabled	Enables the email sending functionality of the platform. Default: false
email.from	Sets the address email will appear from. Default: "FlowForge Platform" <donotreply@flowforge.com>
email.smtp.host	Hostname of the SMTP server to send email through. Default: localhost
email.smtp.port	Port of the SMTP server to send email through. Default: 587 if secure is false, 465 otherwise
email.smtp.secure	Whether to use TLS to connect to the SMTP server. Default: false
email.smtp.auth.user	Username to authenticate the connection with. Default: unset
email.smtp.auth.pass	Password to authenticate the connection with. Default: unset
email.debug	If set to true, it will log the full content of emails it tries to send. Default: false

See here for example configuration with common email providers.

Telemetry configuration

By default, the platform will send anonymous usage information back to us at FlowForge Inc. This can be disabled via the Admin Settings in the UI, or turned off in the configuration file with the telemetry.enabled option. IMPORTANT: Licensed installations cannot disable telemetry

Additionally, you can configure your own instance of FlowForge to report back to you on how users are using your instance of FlowForge. FlowForge supports integration with two different services:

• PostHog (recommended): You will require your own API key to pass into the yml, which will begin the logging of user interactions.
• Plausible: (deprecated since 0.9 and will be removed in the future): You can setup your own account, and pass the relevant domain to the yml in the telemetry configuration

For more information about this feature, see here

Option	Description
telemetry.enabled	Enables the anonymous usage telemetry of the platform. Default: true
telemetry.frontend.posthog.apiurl	The API URL for PostHog, either 'https://app.posthog.com' or 'https://eu.posthog.com'. Default: https://app.posthog.com
telemetry.frontend.posthog.apikey	The API key provided to you from your own PostHog account. Default: null
telemetry.frontend.posthog.capture_pageview	FlowForge is designed as to provide custom posthog $pageview events that provide more detail on navigation than the default, and suit a single page application better. As such, we recommend setting this to false in order to prevent duplicate pageleave/pageview events firing. Default: true

Support configuration

It is possible to add a HubSpot Support Widget into FlowForge. This will appear as a floating chat bubble on the bottom-right corner of the screen. To enable this, you'll need to provide the

Option	Description
support.enabled	Enables the chat support widget in the UI. Default: false
support.frontend.hubspot.trackingcode	The numerical identifier within your HubSpot Tracking Code. Default: null

MQTT Broker configuration

The platform depends on the Mosquitto MQTT Broker to provide real-time messaging between devices and the platform.

This is currently an optional component - the platform will work without the broker, but some features will not be available.

Option	Description
broker.url	The full url to the platform broker. This is used by the platform and Node-RED instances to connect to the broker. For example: mqtt://localhost:1883.
broker.public_url	If set, this is the url provided to Devices to connect to the broker with. When running in a Docker or K8S environment, this url should be the externally addressable url the broker is provided on. This could be via WebSockets, for example: ws://example.com:1884

Logging configuration

By default the forge app is set to info level logging, with the HTTP routes logged at warn

Option	Description
logging.level	Change the default logging level. Default: info
logging.http	Change the default HTTP route logging level. Default: warn

Setting logging.http to info will log every HTTP request and response details.

File storage

FlowForge includes a service that can be used by Node-RED instances to read and write files in their flows as well as providing persistent storage for flow context information.

Details of configuring the File Storage service are available here.

The main flowforge.yml file needs to contain the following properties so it can access the File server.

Option	Description
fileStore.url	The URL of the FlowForge File Server to use. Default: not set