Editing your configurations graphically

In the previous section you learned to start the Frank!Framework with Docker. With that set-up, you can already edit your configurations in a text editor. The files you edit on your device’s configurations folder are seen by your Docker container as files in opt/frank/configurations. After editing you can thus press the refresh button (see below, Adapter Status page screen capture from https://frank2example.frankframework.org) to load your edits.

This section explains how you can edit your Frank configurations graphically as flow charts. You can do this using the Frank!Flow that runs in your webbrowser. It can show your configurations as flow charts in which you can drag-and-drop pipes, senders and receivers. The Frank!Flow also allows you to edit your configurations as XML files.

Please do the following to set this up:

1. Update your docker-compose.yml as shown:

   services:
     frank-docker-example:
       image: frankframework/frankframework:latest
       ports:
         - 8080:8080
       volumes: &frank-volumes
         - ./configurations:/opt/frank/configurations
         - ./resources:/opt/frank/resources
       environment:
         instance.name: frank-docker-example
         dtap.stage: LOC
         configurations.directory.autoLoad: true
         management.gateway.inbound.class: "org.frankframework.management.gateway.HazelcastInboundGateway"
     frank-flow:
       image: frankframework/frank-flow
       ports:
         - "8081:8080"
       volumes: *frank-volumes
   

   This does the following:

   • It sets property management.gateway.inbound.class so that the Frank!Framework is reachable by the Frank!Flow. The Frank!Flow can then ask the Frank!Framework for the location of the Frank configurations.

   • It creates an alias for your volumes.

   • It adds a service for the Frank!Flow. That service uses an image provided by the developers of the Frank!Framework. The service uses the same volume declarations as the Frank!Framework service so that configurations are at the same directory in the Docker container.

2. When you restart your work with docker-compose up, you can visit the Frank!Flow at http://localhost:8081

Note

If you edit your configuration with the Frank!Flow, you do not need to reference FrankConfig.xsd in your configuration. You have syntax highlighting if you just use <Configuration> or <Module>; no need for xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../FrankConfig.xsd".