Deploying a Native Application

Initial Requirements

To illustrate this process we offer a Demo native application so you can follow the whole process with your node

If you have any doubts about the architecture of your edge node, you can consult it in its specification sheet that you will find in the Compatible devices section.

Upload a Native App to Barbara Panel

In Barbara Panel, in the upper menu, select the “Library” view. This is the list of all your apps (both manually uploaded or automatically downloaded from the Marketplace

To upload an app, first you have to create a specific repository to upload all the information related to it. This repository is where you will later upload the application ZIP file and any new version in the future.

To do so, click on the NEW APP button and fill all the information related to your app that you consider relevant.

Make sure you select “User Native” as the type of application

Once you press the “Create” button the new app registry will appear in the list.

You can now proceed to upload the ZIP file. To do so,

• click in the app registry name in the table so you access the “App detail” view.
• Then click the ADD VERSION button. A new modal will appear
• Fill in the information and upload the ZIP file from your computer
• Click the CREATE button

Deploying a native application to the edge node

Once the application is ready, go back to the “Device Details” view of your edge node, click the ADD CARD button and chose the “Native app” one.

A new modal will appear. Then:

• Choose the application from the list
• Select “Existing application” and select the appropriate version.
• We recommend to keep the “Run automatically after install” option selected but this is up to you
• Press the button SEND.

After sending the app, you can check in the “Native Application” card the status of the process. Finally, it will reach to “Application started successfully” state.

Logs Management

By default, all edge node logs are disabled. So, expand the “LOG” section of the Native Application card and activate them. You will see a bunch of logs that the demo application sends periodically.

In this area you have different toggles:

• ACTIVATE: Enable/disable logs.

Disabling logs causes the edge node to stop sending native logs. Not only stops visualization, but also native logs generation from the device.

• FOLLOW: Scroll-down the log window as soon as new lines arrive.
• WRAP: Show lines larger than the window width in two lines.
• TIME: Enable/disable the time tag in lines.

And icon buttons:

• FILTER: Allows to search text in the log window.
• DOWNLOAD: Download logs in a file.
• DELETE: Delete all edge node logs.

Deleting logs deletes ALL logs in the system. Not only cleans the window, but also deletes ALL native logs information from this edge node in Barbara PANEL.

Persistent folder management

A native application has a “Persistent Folder”, an area in the device file disk to store all the data needed for the native app.

Adjust application configuration

It is possible to externalize parameters used in the native application in an external JSON file common to all applications installed in the edge node. This way, we can make tests in real-time and adjust parameters without editing the application code.

And best of all, the Native application automatically loads every change we introduce in the external application configuration file, so no need to stop/start, just change a parameter and the new value will be directly applied.

In our case, we are going to change the text of the log that our application is continuously generating. To do that, just go to the “GLOBAL CONFIG” card and paste this info in the JSON editor:

{
  "data": "Hello world!!"
}

Press the button “SEND” and check logs. You will see the new “Hello world!!” string applied at the end of log files.

Next Steps

Let’s continue explaining the same process for Docker applications.