Merge main: per-machine data dir, admin installer, module version requirements

This commit is contained in:
Waters Church
2026-09-10 09:26:35 -04:00
16 changed files with 1417 additions and 108 deletions
+44 -8
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@@ -9,6 +9,31 @@ their own dashboards, move and resize them, and give each tile its own
per-tile settings. Your module renders inside the tile and talks to the
outside world only through the small API the shell hands it.
## Rules every module follows
These are not style preferences — the admin page, the installer and the
people running the booth depend on them.
1. **All settings live in the ProdDash admin page.** Server-wide settings go
in `configSchema`, per-tile settings in `instanceSchema`. Never a separate
setup page, wizard, config file the operator edits by hand, or environment
variable.
2. **Dependencies ship inside the module folder.** Zero dependencies is the
norm (the shell has none). Anything you genuinely need is vendored into
the module — or fetched by your own `init()` on first start, with the
admin health line saying what is happening. No `npm install`, no
installer, no "run this first".
3. **Everything the module does runs inside the module.** No helper scripts,
companion programs, daemons or services the operator has to start next to
ProdDash. If your feature needs a listener, a decoder or a worker, your
server entry owns it: start it in `init()`, stop it in `stop()`, report
it in `health()`. A child process the module itself spawns and supervises
is fine; a program someone launches by hand is not.
4. **Declare the ProdDash version you need** (`"proddash": ">=1.1.0"` in the
manifest) and **bump your own `version`** whenever you change the module.
The admin page refuses to install a module whose requirement the running
shell doesn't meet, and it offers updates by comparing versions.
## The shape of a module
A module is one folder dropped into `modules/`:
@@ -21,9 +46,16 @@ modules/<id>/
└── ... assets (css, images…) served statically at /modules/<id>/
```
**Installation is exactly this:** copy the folder into `modules/`, restart
ProdDash (`node server.js`), then configure and enable it at `/admin`. No
shell code changes, ever.
**Installation is exactly this:** in the admin page, open **Available
modules** and press **Install** — the module is downloaded from the ProdDash
repo into the server's data directory (`<data dir>/modules/<id>/`) and starts
immediately. Developing locally? Drop the folder into `modules/` (bundled
with the checkout) or into the data directory's `modules/` and restart. No
shell code changes, ever. Modules bundled with a checkout and modules
installed from the admin page live side by side; when both have the same id
the newer version runs. **Uninstall** in the admin page removes an installed
module's files (a bundled one is hidden instead, since its folder belongs to
the app); its settings are kept for a later reinstall.
## module.json
@@ -32,6 +64,7 @@ shell code changes, ever.
"id": "my-module",
"name": "My Module",
"version": "1.0.0",
"proddash": ">=1.1.0",
"description": "One line shown in the Add-tile picker and the admin page",
"client": "client.js",
"server": "server.js",
@@ -52,7 +85,9 @@ shell code changes, ever.
| --- | --- | --- |
| `id` | yes | Must equal the folder name. Lowercase, dashes. |
| `name` | yes | Human name shown on the tile header and in menus. |
| `version`, `description` | no | Shown in the admin page / picker. |
| `version` | yes | Your module's version (`x.y.z`). Bump it on every change — the admin page offers updates when the repo's copy is newer than the installed one. |
| `proddash` | yes | The ProdDash versions this module works with: `">=1.1.0"`, `"^1.1.0"`, `">=1.1.0 <2.0.0"`, or `"*"`. A module whose requirement the running shell doesn't meet is listed in the admin page but never loaded, and can't be installed from the catalog. |
| `description` | no | Shown in the admin page / picker. |
| `client` | yes | Client entry file, loaded as an ES module. |
| `server` | no | Server entry file (CommonJS), loaded with `require()`. |
| `style` | no | A stylesheet the shell injects once per module. |
@@ -72,8 +107,8 @@ Both schemas map field names to specs:
```
`password` fields are admin-config only in practice: their values are stored
in `config/modules.json`, handed to your *server* entry, and **never sent to
browsers** — not in `/api/modules`, and never echoed back into the admin
in the server's `modules.json` (in the per-machine data directory, see the
README), handed to your *server* entry, and **never sent to browsers** — not in `/api/modules`, and never echoed back into the admin
form. Anything upstream that needs the secret must go through your server
routes.
@@ -105,8 +140,9 @@ web address where protocol or path matter (a page to embed, a webhook).
Endpoints belong in admin config, not per-tile settings — connections are
server-wide by design.
Admin config lives in `config/modules.json` (written by the admin page —
your module never touches that file). Per-tile settings live inside each
Admin config lives in `modules.json` inside the server's data directory
(written by the admin page — your module never touches that file, and it
survives updates of the app folder). Per-tile settings live inside each
browser's layout.
## Client entry (`client.js`)