How add domain using sh script before start app?

modiffer

Hi everyone!

I'm using Indigo for developing web applications on a local server, and I need to automate the process of adding new domains when launching the application. I would like to write a bash (sh) script that adds a new domain and configures it whenever I start Indigo app.

How can I make this script run automatically each time I start Indigo app? And is there a way to ensure that this domain automatically appears in all Indigo interface settings, including the "Hosts" tab and Apache/Nginx configuration file?

I'd appreciate any help or suggestions!

Indigo

Hi @modiffer 🙂 That's a really interesting use-case. I'd love for Indigo to be scriptable one day, to make such scenarios much easier.

For now, I wonder if you could leverage the fact that the stack data storage format is simply json?

eg create a new stack, and configure your required services (apache/nginx/php etc), then configure one simple site in apache/nginx.

Next, in the Finder, open your stack x.indigostack stack config file in a text editor (eg VS Code). This will be located, by default, in ~/Documents/Indigo (but can reside anywhere you like).

In the config.json you will find a sites array containing a single entry, being for the site you configured earlier in the UI. If you programmatically add multiple sites directly in the JSON, when Indigo next launches, all those sites will appear in the UI as if you'd configured them right inside Indigo.

If you change this JSON array whilst Indigo is running, it will detect the change and the new config will take effect. However, it will throw up a dialog which will likely be difficult to close in an automated environment. However if Indigo is not running when the change is made, Indigo should silently effect your programmatic changes without any user interaction required.

Let me know if that makes sense!

modiffer

Thank you so much, this is the file I was looking for. However, I can't seem to find the field for the directory path of each domain. Where can I add the association between the domain and its directory?
(Indigo, Version 1.0.0-rc.8a (116), MacOS 14.4.1, i9)

Indigo

Ohh, rats, you're right 🙁 I couldn't store the filesystem path for each site in this config file, as that file can be shared amongst a team of developers, and they may each store their local copy of the site in different locations on their various Macs.

The path is stored in a file-per-site in files like ~/Library/Application Support/com.marmaladesoul.Indigo/states/nginxsite-B26F.json. The filename draws from the site ID you'll see inside the JSON config file.

Overall I do believe this idea will work, allowing you to create sites outside Indigo ie create the JSON entry as previously discussed and then add a file for each new site, with the correct name in the path mentioned above. The site ID can be anything unique; it doesn't even need to be 4 chars, so you can simply use 0001 and increment it if that's easier.

It occurred to me that a scripting language other than bash might be easier to call out to in order to generate syntactically perfect JSON (Swift is kinda pedantic about the JSON not having trailing commas and the like). Otherwise perhaps ignore the fact it's JSON and just do some clever string manipulation (which again might be easier having your bash script written in PHP or something).

Good luck 🙂

modiffer

Creators, please tell me how best to integrate such a script into the server launch?

Or maybe it will be useful to someone, this is a bash script that automatically creates a domain list based on directories.
For now this is a universal script, later I will try to rewrite it for indigo.
From such a directory map:

/var/sites/test1.dev/www (main domain)
/var/sites/test1.dev/sub (sub domain)
/var/sites/test2.com/dev (ignored because there is no www folder)
/var/sites/test3.com/www (main domain)
/var/sites/test3.com/second/www (first sub domain)
/var/sites/test3.com/second/secondsub (second sub domain)
/var/sites/test4.one/dev (ignored because there is no www folder)
/var/sites/test5.www/dev (ignored because there is no www folder)

It creates such a file:
{ "test1.dev": "/var/sites/test1.dev/www", "sub.test1.dev": "/var/sites/test1.dev/sub", "test3.com": "/var/sites/test3.com/www", "second.test3.com": "/var/sites/test3.com/second/www", "secondsub.second.test3.com": "/var/sites/test3.com/second/one" }
Full script on github because the forum does not allow to paste the entire script.

Indigo

Hi again @modiffer 🙂

Unfortunately there's nothing provided in Indigo's stack startup sequence to trigger a bash script (and by implication wait for it to complete). As per earlier in the thread, I do think it's likely possible to create a script that could programmatically create sites. These changes would be picked up next time the stack is started. To script a restart, something like mkdir mystackname.indigostack/dummyfolder will trigger indigo's stack-changed detection, which will prompt the user to restart the stack. As it stands I can't think of any other options unfortunately.

I've thought about this quite a bit and it does look eminently feasible for me to create a CLI helper tool for Indigo which would allow command line control of Indigo. Off the top of my head, some functions that would be useful and should be possible include:

list all stacks
list the stack(s) that contain a site definition for a given filesystem path
stop / start / restart a given stack
list all services of a given stack, ideally with a filter by service type
add / remove a site from a given stack service

I think with that functionality you'd be able to write a script to achieve exactly what you've described. Thoughts?

I can't wait to release v1.0 very soon so I can get past the release candidate feature freeze and start adding some cool stuff like this!

modiffer

Hi again Indigo ,

Thanks for the detailed response. I think it would be much simpler if you could add a "Run script before server startup" field in the system settings. The application could then wait for the script to finish executing before reading its configuration and displaying settings in other tabs. This way, you’d only need to make minimal changes on your side, and it would give me the flexibility to modify configuration files as needed before startup.

Let me know your thoughts on this approach.

Indigo

Hmm, what you propose definitely could be done. I'm quite appealed by the concept, as it could also enable a bunch of other use-cases eg starting helper binaries for the project (eg build tools such as Vite or Webpack).

However, previous experience coding a Mac app to run shell scripts tells me it's fraught with a whole bunch of unexpected edge-cases that can cause significant issues for script authors. For example, most people are used to running their scripts in an interactive terminal session with TTY, full access to all the usual binaries on their $PATH, ability to sudo etc etc. None of that's available when running the script from Swift's Process, and most of those things have no practical solution.

So to implement a script runner even at a basic level of functionality is a fair bit of work, certainly far more than building a simple helper tool, I think. And the resulting solution will still cause script authors quite a bit of work debugging things that would normally just work.

All that said, I still think it would be valuable, at least for power users. I personally would use it 🙂 I'll have to keep mulling on this.

modiffer

Thank you for considering the idea. I completely understand the challenges you're highlighting with running scripts outside of an interactive terminal session, especially when it comes to managing $PATH and other environment variables.

To simplify things, it would be enough for me if you could add a simple launch/splash window before starting the main application. This window could display a message like "Running script..." along with the result of the script execution. This way, it would provide some feedback without complicating the core functionality too much.

For executing the script or application, it could be done similarly to the example
provided here, where the script runs as a process. This lightweight addition could cover my needs and potentially support other use cases, such as launching build tools like Vite or Webpack, as you mentioned.

Indigo

Love the mockup 🙂 Feels real!

I think you're right, a basic implementation may well cover a lot use cases. In the specific case you mention:

modiffer it would be enough for me if you could add a simple launch/splash window before starting the main application

...I wonder if your particular use-case could be resolved by creating a shell script which does the config preparation as mentioned much earlier in this thread, and when done simply launches Indigo.app (open /Applications/Indigo.app) instead of double-clicking the Indigo app yourself.

modiffer

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing now. The only thing I’m missing is having the domain's home directory settings located together with the list of all domains, instead of being placed separately in another folder. Additionally, it would be great to have the ability to set a "default" PHP version that would apply to all domains, unless a specific domain has other settings.

Thanks again for your help!

modiffer

If anyone finds this helpful, I've uploaded a Python script that automatically updates the Nginx configuration for an Indigo server based on a directory mapping.

The script scans directories, detects domain folders and subdomains, and then updates the Nginx configuration to match the directory structure. It generates individual site configuration files and cleans up outdated ones. You can use it to manage domain configurations easily without having to manually or in app, edit your Nginx setup.

https://github.com/wnikk/domain-scanner/tree/main/indigoStackApp

For the script to work, it is only necessary that the localhost domain be configured based on nginx, all other domains will copy the php version and other settings.