Getting started

Install a local instance of Platform 6

Warning

Platform 6 is in beta. It is under active development and still not stable. Please inform us of any issue.

There are a bunch of scripts available to help you manage the Docker containers.

Please follow the instructions of the Platform 6 install repository.

Once your local instance is running, you can access the Portal on http://localhost:8480/#/ with the credentials given by Amalto.

Note

Some of the features exist for now only on the old user interface, you’ll need to connect to http://localhost:8080/b2box to access them.

For more information about Platform 6 architecture, refer to the section Architecture.

Any trouble installing a Platform 6 instance? Check the encountered issue in Troubleshooting.

Develop a service

A Platform 6 business application consists of several services.

A service is a feature of Platform 6 and consists of two parts: a server and a user interface, both of which need an implementation.

The user interface must be developed in React and can use the Platform 6 UI components components. A user can view it on the Portal by clicking on the menu entry associated with the service.

The server must start and expose an API. One of the API’s endpoint should send the bundled file of the user interface to the Portal.

Platform 6 uses the scalable data distribution platform Hazelcast to manage the connection between its different entities.

The data is broadcasted in a unique format: a common message. It is a generic message with headers and attachments. It is characterized by a unique identifier, the sender’s identifier and a content.

For the sake of compatibility between different programming languages, the common messages are compiled into Protocol buffers, a language-neutral and platform-neutral extensible mechanism for serializing structured data.

Configuring a Hazelcast client and serializing/deserializing common messages can be tricky.

Platform 6 clients have been precisely implemented to abstract all that complexity, letting you focus on higher order tasks like deploying a new service or communicating with other services.

Please read the guide Platform 6 clients to see examples of services using the clients.

Communicate with existing services

The server of a custom service can also exchange data with other deployed services through the Platform 6 instance.

For that, you can do API REST calls.

The API REST of your Platform 6 instance is available on the URL: http://localhost:8080/b2box/rest/resource/api-docs/

The resources are used by the Portal to perform any action.

To visualize and interact with the API resources, you can download Swagger UI and run it from your local disk.

Please read the page Swagger authentication to learn how to get an authentication token.

Platform 6 services share many endpoints. This common resources are fully described in the section API REST guide. It describes the required permissions, the global behaviour and the responses.