Website (Search Engine)

The search engine is the main application for the Virtual Platform. The Website is built from a web application for the main functionality, a web api to allow communication with the chrome extension and a database to persist all the data inside. In order for the website (Virtual Platform) to function properly all 3 parts must be deployed.

Technology

The Website is running as an ASP.NET Core MVC application. And as such it must have a compatible platform to run on. The compiled source code must be unpacked into a virtual directory on a platform that supports this technology and may then be started. Please note that inside the app.settings file is a configuration for the database. The application cannot start without the attached database.

Installation

Please note that installing the Website (Virtual Platform) requires rechnical knowledge about how to host and run an ASP.NET Core web application. Download and unpack the file below and run it from an ASP.NET Core compatible hosting environment.

Please click the following link to download the installation files for the website.

Website (Search Engine)

API (For Chrome plugin)

The api for the Chrome plugin is used for communication between the Website (Virtual Platform) and the Google Chrome plugin. This API is required in order for the Google Chrome plugin to be fully functional.

Technology

The API is built on the ASP.NET Core Web API technology stack. And as such must be hosted inside an environment that supports this runtime. The API is based on a REST interface using JSON as the type of communication. Please note that there are no security on this endpoint.

Installation

The API for the Google Chrome interface must be hosted inside an environment that supports the ASP.NET Core Web Api runtime. The API needs Internet access since it requires access from the Google Chrome Browser Plugin. Please note that this API also needs access to the database and this is configured inside the app.settings file. To install this API please download the packaged files below and unpack the files inside a virtual directory inside the hosting environment. Modify the connectionstring according to the database and the API will be able to start up. To check if the API is up and running please refer to the Open API Interface (Swagger) that is located at the /swagger endpoint.

API Input Service

Database

The database is used to store all the data within the Website (Search Engine). The database should be available from both the Website and from the Web API.

Installation

The database is a PostgresSql database. The database is open source and should be installed according to the operating system of the hosting environment. The PostGresSql database may be downloaded from here. After the installation of the database platform the database bakup must be restored. The backup of the database is seeded with the default data from the demo version shown at the HEI4Future presentations. To administer the PostgreSSql database the tool pg Admin may be used.

The database to restore may be downloaded by clicking this link