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Frontend development

Frontend (old) development dependencies

When developing the frontend you use the VueJS frontend server. Changes will be picked up automatically as soon as a .vue file is saved without having to rebuild the frontend or even refresh your browser.

If you develop a new feature, consider changing to frontent-ng, the old frontend is likely to be deprecated in 2023.

First we need to get an interactive shell to the container to install the frontend modules:

$ docker compose exec timesketch yarn install --cwd=/usr/local/src/timesketch/timesketch/frontend
$ docker compose exec timesketch yarn run --cwd=/usr/local/src/timesketch/timesketch/frontend build --mode development --watch

Then inside the container shell go to the Timesketch frontend directory.

! cd /usr/local/src/timesketch/timesketch/frontend

Note that this directory in the container is mounted as volume from your local repo and mirrors changes to your local repo.

Install node dependencies

! npm install

This will create node_modules/ folder from package.json in the frontend directory.

! yarn install

Tweak config file

  • In your timesketch docker container, edit /etc/timesketch/timesketch.conf and set WTF_CSRF_ENABLED = False.

Start the VueJS development server

Follow the steps in the previous section to get dependencies installed and the config file tweaked.

You need two shells:

  1. Start the main webserver (for serving the API etc) in the first shell:
$ CONTAINER_ID="$(docker container list -f name=timesketch-dev -q)"
$ docker exec -it $CONTAINER_ID gunicorn --reload -b 0.0.0.0:5000 --log-file - --timeout 600 -c /usr/local/src/timesketch/data/gunicorn_config.py timesketch.wsgi:application
  1. Start the development webserver in the second shell:
$ CONTAINER_ID="$(docker container list -f name=timesketch-dev -q)"
$ docker compose exec timesketch yarn run --cwd=/usr/local/src/timesketch/timesketch/frontend serve

This will spawn a listener on port 5001. Point your browser to http://localhost:5001/login, login with your dev credentials, and you should be redirected to the main Timesketch page. All code changes in .vue files will be instantly picked up.

Frontend-ng developement

When developing the frontend-ng you use the VueJS frontend server. Changes will be picked up automatically as soon as a .vue file is saved without having to rebuild the frontend or even refresh your browser.

Install dependencies

Inside the container shell go to the Timesketch frontend-ng directory.

! cd /usr/local/src/timesketch/timesketch/frontend-ng

Note that this directory in the container is mounted as volume from your local repo and mirrors changes to your local repo.

Install node dependencies

! npm install

This will create node_modules/ folder from package.json in the frontend directory.

! yarn install

Tweak config file

  • In your timesketch docker container, edit /etc/timesketch/timesketch.conf and set WTF_CSRF_ENABLED = False.

Start the VueJS development server

You need two shells:

  1. Start the main webserver (for serving the API etc) in the first shell:
$ CONTAINER_ID="$(docker container list -f name=timesketch-dev -q)"
$ docker exec -it $CONTAINER_ID gunicorn --reload -b 0.0.0.0:5000 --log-file - --timeout 600 -c /usr/local/src/timesketch/data/gunicorn_config.py timesketch.wsgi:application
  1. Start the development webserver in the second shell:
$ CONTAINER_ID="$(docker container list -f name=timesketch-dev -q)"
$ docker compose exec timesketch yarn run --cwd=/usr/local/src/timesketch/timesketch/frontend-ng serve

This will spawn a listener on port 5001. Point your browser to http://localhost:5001/login, login with your dev credentials, and you should be redirected to the main Timesketch page. All code changes in .vue files will be instantly picked up.

If you already have a yarn process running with the "old" frontend, it might not work.