Guide

Introduction

This guide shows the first steps on how to develop OCF content for Capact. We will show how to:

• define new Types and Interfaces,
• create Implementation for the Interfaces,
• use other Interfaces in your Implementations,
• test the new manifests on a local development Capact cluster.

As an example, we will create OCF manifests to deploy Mattermost with a PostgreSQL database.

Prerequisites

To develop and test the created content, you will need to have a Capact environment. To set up a local environment, install the following prerequisites:

• Docker
• kind
• kubectl
• Capact CLI
• populator - For now, you need to compile it from source

Also, clone the repository with the Capact manifests:

git clone [email protected]:capactio/hub-manifests.git

Some other materials worth reading before are:

• Mattermost installation tutorial - Learn how to execute actions in Capact.
• Argo Workflows documentation - Capact action syntax is based on Argo workflows, so it's highly recommended you understand what is Argo and how to create Argo workflows.
• Capact runners - Understand, what are Capact runners.
• Capact CLI validate command - Learn how to validate your manifests syntax.

Types, Interfaces and Implementations

If you have some software development experience, concepts like types and interfaces should be familiar to you. In Capact, Types represent different objects in the environment. These could be database or application instances, servers, but also more abstract things, like an IP address or hostname. An actual object of a Type is called a TypeInstance.

Interfaces are operations, which can be executed on certain Types. Let's say we have a Type called postgresql.config, which represents a PostgreSQL database instance. We could have an Interface postgresql.install, which will provision a PostgreSQL instance and create a TypeInstance of postgresql.config.

Interfaces can be grouped into InterfaceGroups. InterfaceGroups are used to logically group the Interfaces. This is mostly used for presentation purposes, like to show the user all Interfaces, which operate on PostgreSQL instances. So if you have two Interfaces: postgresql.install and postgresql.uninstall, you can group them into postgresql InterfaceGroup.

Of course, there are multiple ways to create a PostgreSQL instance: you can create it on a public cloud or on-premise, and you could deploy it as a virtual machine or as a Kubernetes StatefulSet. To cover these scenarios, Capact allows defining multiple Implementations of some Interfaces. For example:

• aws.postgresql.install Implementation of the postgresql.install Interface will deploy AWS RDS instances, whereas
• bitnami.postgresql.install Implementation will deploy a PostgreSQL Helm chart on Kubernetes.

Define your Types and Interfaces

Let's try to create manifests required to define a capability to install Mattermost server. We will need to create the following entities:

• mattermost.config Type - Represents a Mattermost server.
• mattermost.install-input Type - Represents input parameters needed to install a Mattermost server.
• mattermost InterfaceGroup - Groups Interfaces from the mattermost group, e.g. if you have mattermost.install and mattermost.upgrade Interfaces.
• mattermost.install Interface - An operation, which installs Mattermost servers. You can think of it as a function:

  mattermost.install(mattermost.install-input) -> mattermost.config

Create the Interface Group manifest

First, we need to create an InterfaceGroup manifest, which groups Interfaces corresponding to some application. Let's create a InterfaceGroup called cap.interface.productivity.mattermost, which will group Interfaces operating on Mattermost instances.

In manifests/interface/productivity/, create a file called mattermost.yaml, with the following content:

manifests/interface/productivity/mattermost.yaml

ocfVersion: 0.0.1
revision: 0.1.0
kind: InterfaceGroup
metadata:
  prefix: cap.interface.productivity
  name: mattermost
  displayName: "Mattermost"
  description: "Mattermost is an open source collaboration tool for developers."
  documentationURL: https://docs.mattermost.com/
  supportURL: https://docs.mattermost.com/
  iconURL: https://docs.mattermost.com/_static/images/Mattermost-Logo-Blue.svg
  maintainers:
    - email: [email protected]
      name: your-name
      url: your-website

Create the Interface manifest

After we have the InterfaceGroup, let's create the Interface for installing Mattermost. Create the directory manifests/interface/productivity/mattermost.

Inside this directory, create a file install.yaml with the following content:

manifests/interface/productivity/mattermost/install.yaml

ocfVersion: 0.0.1
revision: 0.1.0
kind: Interface
metadata:
  prefix: cap.interface.productivity.mattermost
  name: install
  displayName: "Install Mattermost Team Edition"
  description: "Install action for Mattermost Team Edition"
  documentationURL: https://docs.mattermost.com/
  supportURL: https://docs.mattermost.com/
  iconURL: https://docs.mattermost.com/_static/images/Mattermost-Logo-Blue.svg
  maintainers:
    - email: [email protected]
      name: your-name
      url: your-website

spec:
  input:
    parameters: # the Interface requires `input-parameters` of Type "cap.type.productivity.mattermost.install-input"
      input-parameters: 
        typeRef:
          name: cap.type.productivity.mattermost.install-input
          revision: 0.1.0

  output:
    typeInstances: # the Interface outputs TypeInstance of Type "cap.type.productivity.mattermost.config"
      mattermost-config: 
        typeRef:
          path: cap.type.productivity.mattermost.config
          revision: 0.1.0

The spec.input property defines inputs, required by the Interface. There are two types of inputs:

• spec.input.parameters - User provided input parameters, i.e. these could be configuration parameters required by the operation,
• spec.input.typeInstances - input TypeInstances, i.e. a PostgreSQL database, which is needed for an application.

The spec.output property defines the TypeInstance, which this Interface returns.

Although Mattermost needs a database, we don't specify it as an input argument here. That is because, we leave selecting a database to the Implementation.

Create the Type manifests

Now we need to define the two Types, which we use in our Interface: cap.type.productivity.mattermost.install-input and cap.type.productivity.mattermost.config.

manifests/type/productivity/mattermost/install-input.yaml

ocfVersion: 0.0.1
revision: 0.1.0
kind: Type
metadata:
  name: install-input
  prefix: cap.type.productivity.mattermost
  displayName: "Mattermost install input"
  description: Defines installation parameters for Mattermost
  documentationURL: https://docs.mattermost.com/
  supportURL: https://docs.mattermost.com
  maintainers:
    - email: [email protected]
      name: your-name
      url: your-website

spec:
  jsonSchema:
    value: |-
      {
        "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema",
        "type": "object",
        "title": "The schema for Mattermost configuration",
        "required": [
            "host"
        ],
        "definitions": {
          "hostname": {
            "type": "string",
            "format": "hostname",
            "title": "Hostname"
          }
        },
        "properties": {
          "host": {
            "$ref": "#/definitions/hostname"
          }
        },
        "additionalProperties": true
      }

manifests/type/productivity/mattermost/config.yaml

ocfVersion: 0.0.1
revision: 0.1.0
kind: Type
metadata:
  name: config
  prefix: cap.type.productivity.mattermost
  displayName: Mattermost config
  description: Defines configuration for Mattermost instance
  documentationURL: https://docs.mattermost.com/
  supportURL: https://docs.mattermost.com/
  iconURL: https://docs.mattermost.com/_static/images/Mattermost-Logo-Blue.svg
  maintainers:
    - email: [email protected]
      name: your-name
      url: your-website

spec:
  jsonSchema:
    value: |-
      {
        "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema",
        "type": "object",
        "title": "The schema for Mattermost configuration",
        "required": [
            "version"
        ],
        "definitions": {
          "semVer": {
            "type": "string",
            "minLength": 5,
            "pattern": "^(0|[1-9]\d*)\.(0|[1-9]\d*)\.(0|[1-9]\d*)(?:-((?:0|[1-9]\d*|\d*[a-zA-Z-][0-9a-zA-Z-]*)(?:\.(?:0|[1-9]\d*|\d*[a-zA-Z-][0-9a-zA-Z-]*))*))?(?:\+([0-9a-zA-Z-]+(?:\.[0-9a-zA-Z-]+)*))?$",
            "title": "Semantic Versioning version",
            "examples": [
                "1.19.0"
                "2.0.1-alpha1"
            ]
          }
          "hostname": {
            "type": "string",
            "format": "hostname",
            "title": "Hostname"
          }
        },
        "properties": {
          "version": {
            "$ref": "#/definitions/semVer"
          }
          "host": {
            "$ref": "#/definitions/hostname"
          }
        },
        "additionalProperties": true
      }

The Type values are described using JSON Schema.

Currently the Type manifests are not used in Capact to validate the data of the inputs and outputs. Validation of the data will be added later on, although it is still useful to define the Types to document the schema of the data.

Runners

The Action execution is handled by runners. Currently, we provide the following runners:

• Argo Workflow Runner
• Helm Runner
• Terraform Runner
• CloudSQL Runner (deprecated in favor of Terraform Runner)

To check the schema of the runner input, you have to look in the manifests/type/runner directory. You can find there the JSON schema and an example input for the runner.

You can read more about runners in this document.

Write the Implementation for the Interface

The syntax used to describe the workflows in Implementations is based on Argo. It's highly recommended you read their documentation and understand what is Argo and how to create Argo workflows, before writing OCF Implementations.

After we defined the Interfaces, and the Types, we can write an Implementation of mattermost.install. Our Implementation will use a PostgreSQL database, which will be provided by another Interface, which is already available in Capact. We also allow users to provide his own PostgreSQL instance TypeInstance.

Create a file manifests/implementation/mattermost/mattermost-team-edition/install.yaml with the following content:

manifests/implementation/mattermost/mattermost-team-edition/install.yaml

ocfVersion: 0.0.1
revision: 0.1.0
kind: Implementation
metadata:
  prefix: cap.implementation.mattermost.mattermost-team-edition
  name: install
  displayName: Install Mattermost Team Edition
  description: Action which installs Mattermost Team Edition via Helm chart
  documentationURL: https://docs.mattermost.com/
  supportURL: https://docs.mattermost.com/
  license:
    name: "Apache 2.0"
  maintainers:
    - email: [email protected]
      name: your-name
      url: your-website

spec:
  appVersion: "10,11,12,13"

  outputTypeInstanceRelations:
    mattermost-config:
      uses:
        - mattermost-helm-release
        - postgresql
        - database
        - database-user

  additionalInput:
    typeInstances:
      postgresql:
        typeRef:
          path: cap.type.database.postgresql.config
          revision: 0.1.0
        verbs: ["get"]

  implements:
    - path: cap.interface.productivity.mattermost.install
      revision: 0.1.0

  requires:
    cap.core.type.platform:
      oneOf:
        - name: kubernetes
          revision: 0.1.0

  imports:
    - interfaceGroupPath: cap.interface.runner.helm
      alias: helm
      methods:
        - name: install
          revision: 0.1.0
    - interfaceGroupPath: cap.interface.runner.argo
      alias: argo
      methods:
        - name: run
          revision: 0.1.0
    - interfaceGroupPath: cap.interface.templating.jinja2
      alias: jinja2
      methods:
        - name: template
          revision: 0.1.0
    - interfaceGroupPath: cap.interface.database.postgresql
      alias: postgresql
      methods:
        - name: install
          revision: 0.1.0
        - name: create-db
          revision: 0.1.0
        - name: create-user
          revision: 0.1.0

  action:
    runnerInterface: argo.run
    args:
      workflow:
        entrypoint: mattermost-install
        templates:
          - name: mattermost-install
            inputs:
              artifacts:
                - name: input-parameters
                - name: postgresql
                  optional: true
            outputs:
              artifacts:
                - name: mattermost-config
                  from: "{{steps.helm-install.outputs.artifacts.additional}}"
            steps:
              # Install DB
              - - name: install-db
                  capact-when: postgresql == nil
                  capact-action: postgresql.install
                  capact-outputTypeInstances:
                    - name: postgresql
                      from: postgresql
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: input-parameters
                        raw:
                          data: |
                            superuser:
                              username: superuser
                            defaultDBName: postgres

              - - name: create-user
                  capact-action: postgresql.create-user
                  capact-outputTypeInstances:
                    - name: database-user
                      from: user
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: postgresql
                        from: "{{steps.install-db.outputs.artifacts.postgresql}}"
                      - name: user-input
                        raw:
                          data: |
                            name: mattermost

              - - name: render-create-db-args
                  capact-action: jinja2.template
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: template
                        raw:
                          data: |
                            name: mattermost
                            owner: "<@ name @>"
                      - name: input-parameters
                        from: "{{steps.create-user.outputs.artifacts.user}}"
                      - name: configuration
                        raw:
                          data: |

              - - name: create-db
                  capact-action: postgresql.create-db
                  capact-outputTypeInstances:
                    - name: database
                      from: database
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: postgresql
                        from: "{{steps.install-db.outputs.artifacts.postgresql}}"
                      - name: database-input
                        from: "{{steps.render-create-db-args.outputs.artifacts.render}}"

              # Install Mattermost
              - - name: create-helm-args
                  capact-action: jinja2.template
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: template
                        raw:
                          data: |
                            generateName: true
                            chart:
                              name: "mattermost-team-edition"
                              repo: "https://helm.mattermost.com"
                              version: "4.0.0"
                            values:
                              ingress:
                                enabled: true
                                path: "/"
                                annotations:
                                  "cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer": letsencrypt
                                hosts: 
                                  - <@ host | default("mattermost.example.com") @>
                                tls:
                                  - hosts:
                                      - <@ host | default("mattermost.example.com") @>
                                    secretName: mattermost-team-edition-tls-<@ random_word(length=5) @>
                            output:
                              goTemplate: |
                                host: "{{ index .Values.ingress.hosts 0 }}"
                                version: "{{ .Values.image.tag }}"
                      - name: input-parameters
                        from: "{{inputs.artifacts.input-parameters}}"
                      - name: configuration
                        raw:
                          data: |
                            prefix: input

              - - name: fill-psql
                  capact-action: jinja2.template
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: template
                        from: "{{steps.create-helm-args.outputs.artifacts.render}}"
                      - name: input-parameters
                        from: "{{steps.install-db.outputs.artifacts.postgresql}}"
                      - name: configuration
                        raw:
                          data: |
                            prefix: psql

              - - name: fill-user
                  capact-action: jinja2.template
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: template
                        from: "{{steps.fill-psql.outputs.artifacts.render}}"
                      - name: input-parameters
                        from: "{{steps.create-user.outputs.artifacts.user}}"
                      - name: configuration
                        raw:
                          data: |
                            prefix: user

              - - name: fill-db
                  capact-action: jinja2.template
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: template
                        from: "{{steps.fill-user.outputs.artifacts.render}}"
                      - name: input-parameters
                        from: "{{steps.create-db.outputs.artifacts.database}}"
                      - name: configuration
                        raw:
                          data: |
                            prefix: db

              - - name: helm-install
                  capact-action: helm.install
                  capact-outputTypeInstances:
                    - name: mattermost-config
                      from: additional
                    - name: mattermost-helm-release
                      from: helm-release
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: input-parameters
                        from: "{{steps.fill-db.outputs.artifacts.render}}"
                      - name: runner-context
                        from: "{{workflow.outputs.artifacts.runner-context}}"

Let's take a look on the Implementation YAML. Implementation has the following properties in the spec property:

Property	Description
appVersion	Application versions, which this Implementation supports.
additionalInput	Additional input for the Implementation, compared to the Interface. In our case, here we define the postgresql.config, as our Implementation uses a PostgreSQL instance for Mattermost.
additionalOutput	This section defines any additional TypeInstances, which are created in this Implementation, compared to the Interface. In our Implementation, we create a database in the database instance with the postgresql.create-db Interface, which outputs an postgresql.database TypeInstance. We have to write this down in additionalOutput, so Capact will resolve this TypeInstance metadata for uploading it to Hub.
outputTypeInstanceRelations	Specifies all output TypeInstances to upload to Hub with theirs relationships between them. Only the TypeInstances created in this Implementation have to be mentioned here. If a TypeInstances in created in another action and brought into the context with capact-outputTypeInstances, then it should not be defined here.
implements	Defines which Interfaces are implemented by this Implementation.
requires	List of system prerequisites that need to be present in the environment managed by Capact to use this Implementation. In our example, we will deploy Mattermost as a Helm chart on Kubernetes, which means we need a Kubernetes cluster. Requirement items can specify alias and be used inside workflow under {{workflow.outputs.artifacts.{alias}}}, where {alias-name} is the alias. A TypeInstance with alias is injected into the workflow based on Policy configuration. To learn more, see the TypeInstance Injection paragraph in Policy Configuration document.
imports	Here we define all other Interfaces, we use in our Implementation. We can then refer to them as '<alias>.<method-name>'.
action	Holds information about the actions that is executed. In the case of the Argo workflow Runner, in this section we define the Argo workflow, which is executed in this Implementation.

You can notice, that mattermost-config (which is the additional output TypeInstance from helm.install) is defined in the outputTypeInstanceRelations, although it was created in helm.install. The additional from helm.install is specially, because helm.install does not know the Type of TypeInstances, so it's not defined in helm.install Implementation, but must be defined in the caller Implementation. In the future, we will improve the syntax, so it will be more clear, which TypeInstances need a separate entry in outputTypeInstanceRelations and which don't.

The workflow syntax is based on Argo, with a few extensions introduced by Capact. These extensions are:

Property	Description
.templates.steps[][].capact-when	Allows for conditional execution of a step, based on an expression with an input workflow artifacts arguments. You can make assertions on artifacts defined under inputs.arguments.artifacts for a given template. It supports the syntax defined here: antonmedv/expr.
.templates.steps[][].capact-action	Allows to import another Interface. In our example, we use this to provision PostgreSQL with postgresql.install Interface.
.templates.steps[][].capact-policy	Allows defining Workflow step policy.
.templates.steps[][].capact-outputTypeInstance	A list of TypeInstances, from the called action, which are brought into the context of this Implementations. The from property must match the name of the output from the called Action. You can then use it in the Implementations outputTypeInstanceRelations, when defining relations between TypeInstances.
.templates.steps[][].capact-updateTypeInstance	A list of TypeInstances, from the called action, which are brought into the context of this Implementations and will be used to update existing TypeInstance. The from property must match the name of the output from the called Action.

Let's go through the Implementation and try to understand, what is happening in each step of the action. Our Mattermost installation uses a PostgreSQL database. We defined an additional input postgresql of type cap.type.database.postgresql.config. Additional inputs are optional, so we need to handle the scenario, where no TypeInstance for postgresql was provided. The first workflow step install-db is conditionally using the postgresql.install Interface to create an PostgreSQL instance.

The input-parameters for postgresql.install are hardcoded in this example. In a real workflow, they should be generated or taken from the input-parameters for this Implementation.

When using an Action step you can also provide a Workflow step policy, to enforce, that a given Implementation will be selected. For example, to enforce that the PostgreSQL will be deployed using Bitnami Helm chart, you could use:

- - capact-action: postgresql.install
    name: install-db
    capact-when: postgresql == nil
    capact-policy:
      rules:
        - interface:
            path: cap.interface.database.postgresql.install
          oneOf:
            - implementationConstraints:
                path: "cap.implementation.bitnami.postgresql.install

You can read more about policies on the Policy overview page.

In the next step we are creating a database for the Mattermost server. If you look at the Interface definition of cap.interface.database.postgresql.create-db, you will see, that it requires a postgresql TypeInstance of Type cap.type.database.postgresql.config and input parameters cap.type.database.postgresql.database-input, and outputs a database TypeInstance of Type cap.type.database.postgresql.database. In the step, we are providing the inputs to the Interface via the .arguments.artifacts field. We also have to map the output of this step to our output definitions in additionalOutput and the implemented Interface in the capact-outputTypeInstances field.

The render-helm-args, fill-db-params-in-helm-args and fill-user-params-in-helm-args steps are used to prepare the input parameters for the helm.install Interface. Jinja template engine is used here to render the Helm runner arguments with the required data from the postgresql and database TypeInstances. Those steps don't create any TypeInstances and serve only the purpose of creating the input parameters for the Helm runner. You can check the schema of the Helm runner args in the Type manifest.

To create the input parameters for helm.install we have to use data from two artifacts. As the current jinja.run Interface consumes only a template and a single variables input, we have to perform this operation twice. To separate the variables substituted in the first, second and third operation, we add prefixes to the variables.

In the future we might improve the ways, on how to process artifacts in the workflow.

The last step launches the Helm runner, deploys the Mattermost server and creates the mattermost-config and mattermost-helm-release TypeInstances. The mattermost-config TypeInstance data was provided by the Helm runner in the additional output artifacts from this step. Check the Helm runner documentation, on how the additional output is created.

Note the runner-context argument, which provided the context for the runner. Capact Engine injects a global artifact workflow.outputs.artifacts.runner-context into the workflow, so if you use a runner, which needs the runner context, you can to do it using:

arguments:
  artifacts:
    - name: runner-context
      from: "{{workflow.outputs.artifacts.runner-context}

To verify, if a runner needs the context, check the Interface of the runner (e.g. Interface for Helm runner).

Validate the manifests using Capact CLI

You can use the Capact CLI to validate the manifests you created. The capact validate command checks the manifests against JSON schemas and can tell you, if your manifests are correct.

For now the Capact CLI does not verify the content of the action property in Implementations. It will not verify, that your workflow is correct and will execute properly.

To verify all your manifests in manifests directory, execute:

capact validate manifests/**/*.yaml

You can read more about the Capact CLI here.

Populate the manifests into Hub

After we have the manifests ready, we can start our local Capact environment. Follow the Local installation guide. During the actual Capact installation step, provide additional flag for capact install command:

capact install --capact-overrides=hub-public.populator.enabled=false

This can take a few minutes. We disabled the populator sidecar in Hub public, as we will populate the data from our local repository using the populator.

You can read more about the populator, how to compile and use it, in this README.

To populate the data, you will need to first set up port-forwarding to the Neo4j database service:

kubectl port-forward -n capact-system svc/neo4j-neo4j 7474 7687

Then populate the data, with the populator:

APP_JSON_PUBLISH_ADDR=<your-local-docker-ip-address> APP_MANIFESTS_PATH=manifests ./populator register ocf-manifests .

APP_JSON_PUBLISH_ADDR=http://172.17.0.1 APP_MANIFESTS_PATH=manifests populator register ocf-manifests .

Create and run your Action

Use the Capact CLI to run your Action.

1. Export Capact cluster domain name as environment variable:

   export CAPACT_DOMAIN_NAME={domain_name} # e.g. capact.local

2. Create a file with installation parameters:

   cat > /tmp/mattermost-params.yaml << ENDOFFILE
   input-parameters:
     host: mattermost.${CAPACT_DOMAIN_NAME}
   ENDOFFILE

3. Create an Action:

   capact action create cap.interface.productivity.mattermost.install \
   --name mattermost-install \
   --parameters-from-file /tmp/mattermost-params.yaml

4. Get the status of the Action from the previous step:

   capact action get mattermost

   Wait until the Action is in READY_TO_RUN state. It means that the Action was processed by the Engine, and the Interface was resolved to a specific Implementation. As a user, you can verify that the rendered Action is what you expected. If the rendering is taking more time, you will see the BEING_RENDERED phase.

5. Run the Action.

   In the previous step, the Action was in the READY_TO_RUN phase. It is not executed automatically, as the Engine waits for the user's approval. To execute it, execute:

   capact action run mattermost

6. Watch the Action:

   capact action watch mattermost

   Wait until the Action is finished.

7. Once the Action is succeeded, view output TypeInstances:

   capact action status mattermost

View the Action workflow in Argo UI

You can also check the status of the Action by monitoring the workflow for the Action on the Argo UI. This can give you useful information, when debugging your Action. To get access to the Argo UI, execute the following command to set up port-forwarding to Argo:

kubectl -n capact-system port-forward svc/argo-argo-workflows-server 2746

Now you can access the Argo UI with your browser by opening http://127.0.0.1:2746.

View the Action Custom Resource

You can also get useful information about your Action using kubectl. You can check the actions.core.capact.io Custom Resource to get information about your Action:

kubectl describe actions.core.capact.io mattermost

The output is:

Name:         mattermost
Namespace:    default
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  core.capact.io/v1alpha1
[...]
Status:
  Last Transition Time:  2021-02-08T17:17:27Z
  Message:               Rendering runner action
  Observed Generation:   1
  Phase:                 BeingRendered
Events:
  Type     Reason                Age                  From               Message
  ----     ------                ----                 ----               -------
  Normal   BeingRendered         3m2s                 action-controller  Rendering runner action
  Warning  Render runner action  2s (x15 over 2m58s)  action-controller  while resolving Implementation for Action: while rendering Action: No implementation found for "cap.interface.productivity.mattermost.install"

In the case above, we can see that the action rendering is failing, because the Capact Engine is not able to find the Implementation for cap.interface.productivity.mattermost.install Interface in Hub.

Update TypeInstance

During the Mattermost installation a database user "mattermost" was created. You may want to change the password for this user. Let's do this.

First we need to create an Interface, and a Type for user input:

Type

Input type which just accepts a new password.

manifests/type/database/postgresql/change-password-input.yaml

ocfVersion: 0.0.1
revision: 0.1.0
kind: Type
metadata:
  name: change-password-input
  prefix: cap.type.database.postgresql
  displayName: PostgreSQL change password input
  description: Defines PostgreSQL change password input
  documentationURL: https://capact.io
  supportURL: https://capact.io
  maintainers:
    - email: team-[email protected]
      name: Capact Dev Team
      url: https://capact.io
spec:
  jsonSchema:
    value: |-
      {
        "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema",
        "type": "object",
        "title": "The schema for PostgreSQL user input",
        "examples": [
          {
            "password": "some_secret"
          }
        ],
        "required": [
          "password"
        ],
        "properties": {
          "password": {
            "$id": "#/properties/password",
            "type": "string",
            "title": "User password"
          }
        },
        "additionalProperties": false
      }

Interface

It accepts a user input defined earlier and two TypeInstances:

• postgresql - it's needed to get a database address
• user - a database user to changes a password

The Interface outputs modified User TypeInstance, to enable future parent workflows to consume updated password.

manifests/interface/database/postgresql/change-password.yaml

ocfVersion: 0.0.1
revision: 0.1.0
kind: Interface
metadata:
  prefix: cap.interface.database.postgresql
  name: change-password
  displayName: Change user password
  description: Action to change a user's password in PostgreSQL
  documentationURL: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/
  supportURL: https://www.postgresql.org/
  iconURL: https://www.postgresql.org/media/img/about/press/elephant.png
  maintainers:
    - email: team-[email protected]
      name: Capact Dev Team
      url: https://capact.io

spec:
  input:
    typeInstances:
      postgresql:
        typeRef:
          path: cap.type.database.postgresql.config
          revision: 0.1.0
        verbs: ["get"]
      user:
        typeRef:
          path: cap.type.database.postgresql.user
          revision: 0.1.0
        verbs: ["get", "update"]  # you need to add "update" verb when you want to update this TypeInstance
    parameters:
      input-parameters:
        typeRef:
          name: cap.type.database.postgresql.change-password-input
          revision: 0.1.0

  output:
    typeInstances:
      user: # return modified TypeInstance to allow creating parent workflows which use updated values
        typeRef:
          path: cap.type.database.postgresql.user
          revision: 0.1.0

The last step is to create an Implementation. Here we will just use simple postgres container and execute psql binary.

manifests/implementation/postgresql/change-password.yaml

ocfVersion: 0.0.1
revision: 0.1.0
kind: Implementation
metadata:
  prefix: cap.implementation.postgresql
  name: change-password
  displayName: Change PostgreSQL user password
  description: Action which changes a PostgreSQL user password
  documentationURL: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/
  supportURL: https://www.postgresql.org/
  license:
    name: "Apache 2.0"
  maintainers:
    - email: team-[email protected]
      name: Capact Dev Team
      url: https://capact.io

spec:
  appVersion: "8.x.x"

  implements:
    - path: cap.interface.database.postgresql.change-password
      revision: 0.1.0

  requires:
    cap.core.type.platform:
      oneOf:
        - name: kubernetes
          revision: 0.1.0

  outputTypeInstanceRelations: {}

  imports:
    - interfaceGroupPath: cap.interface.runner.argo
      alias: argo
      methods:
        - name: run
          revision: 0.1.0
    - interfaceGroupPath: cap.interface.templating.jinja2
      alias: jinja2
      methods:
        - name: template
          revision: 0.1.0

  action:
    runnerInterface: argo.run
    args:
      workflow:
        entrypoint: main
        templates:
          - name: main
            inputs:
              artifacts:
                - name: input-parameters
            outputs:
              artifacts:
                - name: user
                  from: "{{steps.change-password.outputs.artifacts.user}}"
            steps:
              - - name: render-change-password-script
                  capact-action: jinja2.template
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: template
                        raw:
                          # Here we prepare a simple script to run the SQL statements to change the user password.
                          # The sleep at the beginning is required, so the container does not exit too quickly.
                          # This a limitation of the PNS executor, used for executing the Argo workflows in Capact.
                          data: |
                            set -e
                            sleep 1
                            export PGPASSWORD=<@user.password@>
                            PSQL_CMD="psql -h <@postgresql.host@> -U <@user.name@> <@postgresql.defaultDBName@> -c"
                            ${PSQL_CMD} "ALTER USER <@user.name@> WITH PASSWORD '<@input.password@>'"

                            cat <<EOF > /user.yml
                            name: <@user.name@>
                            password: <@input.password@>
                            EOF
                            sync
                      - name: input-parameters
                        from: "{{workflow.outputs.artifacts.postgresql}}"
                      - name: configuration
                        raw:
                          data: "prefix: postgresql"

              - - name: fill-params-from-user
                  capact-action: jinja2.template
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: template
                        from: "{{steps.render-change-password-script.outputs.artifacts.render}}"
                      - name: input-parameters
                        from: "{{workflow.outputs.artifacts.user}}"
                      - name: configuration
                        raw:
                          data: "prefix: user"

              - - name: fill-params-from-user-input
                  capact-action: jinja2.template
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: template
                        from: "{{steps.fill-params-from-user.outputs.artifacts.render}}"
                      - name: input-parameters
                        from: "{{inputs.artifacts.input-parameters}}"
                      - name: configuration
                        raw:
                          data: "prefix: input"

              - - name: change-password
                  template: change-password
                  capact-updateTypeInstances: # here you define that artifact from template `change-password` will
                    - name: user               # be used to update TypeInstance
                  arguments:
                    artifacts:
                      - name: script
                        from: "{{steps.fill-params-from-user-input.outputs.artifacts.render}}"

          - name: change-password
            inputs:
              artifacts:
                - name: script
                  path: /script.sh
            container:
              image: postgres:11
              command: ["bash", "-c"]
              args: ["sleep 1 && chmod +x /script.sh && /script.sh"]
            outputs:
              artifacts:
                - name: user
                  path: /user.yml

NOTE: When you have a step in your Implementation, which has a short-living container (exits in less than a second), it is required to add sleep 1 to the script to ensure Argo will be able to get the output artifacts from the container. It's a known issue with the PNS executor, which Capact uses for executing Argo workflows.

We only updated the user password. Now you need to update the Mattermost settings. At this point you should know how to do this.

Before using the new Interface you again need to populate data with the populator and run a new action. You can use the same GraphQL queries as before. Just change Query Variables:

1. Create a file with update parameters:

   cat > /tmp/update-password.yaml << ENDOFFILE
   input-parameters:
     password: "new-password"
   ENDOFFILE

2. Create a file with input TypeInstances:

   cat > /tmp/update-password-tis.yaml << ENDOFFILE
   typeInstances:
     - name: "postgresql"
       id: "<Postgresql TypeInstance ID>"
     - name: "user"
       id: "<User TypeInstance ID>"
   ENDOFFILE

3. Create an Action:

   capact action create cap.interface.database.postgresql.change-password \
   --name update-password \
   --parameters-from-file /tmp/update-password.yaml \
   --type-instances-from-file /tmp/update-password-tis.yaml

Summary

In this guide we went through different OCF manifests and their syntax. We created manifests which added a capability to install Mattermost server instances. We also showed, how you can test the manifests you are creating and where to check for useful information, when debugging your action.