Technology Stack

This document describes the technologies and libraries used throughout Nagelfluh.

For a complete list of open source packages with links, see Dependencies.

Frontend

Core Framework

• React 18 - UI framework with hooks and context for state management
• Create React App - Build tooling and development server
• React Router DOM - Client-side routing, including popout window support

UI Components and Layout

• React Bootstrap - UI component library
• react-dnd - Drag-and-drop functionality for layout system
• Custom Flexout System - Proprietary layout engine with splits, tabs, and popouts

Data Visualization

• Plotly.js via react-plotly.js - Scientific plotting and charting
• ReactFlow - Interactive node-based graph visualization for process flows
• Leaflet (via react-leaflet) - Map visualization (if used for MapView)

Forms and Data Input

• @rjsf/core (React JSON Schema Form) - Dynamic form generation from JSON schemas
• @rjsf/bootstrap-4 - Bootstrap theme for forms
• Custom form extensions:
• DatasetSelector - Searchable dataset picker
• CustomStringField - Format-based field detection

State Management

• React Context API - Global state for processes, layout, and menus
• Custom contexts:
• ProcessContext - Process management and active process
• LayoutContext - Layout tree and widget management
• MenuContext - Menu registration system

Build and Development Tools

• Webpack (via CRA) - Module bundling
• Babel (via CRA) - JavaScript transpilation
• ESLint - Code linting
• Prettier - Code formatting
• Jest - Testing framework
• React Testing Library - Component testing utilities

Backend

Core Framework

• FastAPI - Modern Python web framework with automatic OpenAPI docs
• Uvicorn - ASGI server for running FastAPI
• Python 3.11+ - Programming language

Database

• SQLAlchemy - ORM for database operations
• Alembic - Database schema migrations
• SQLite - Development database
• PostgreSQL - Production database (recommended)

Kubernetes Integration

• kubernetes (Python client) - Kubernetes API interaction
• Kueue - Job queuing and resource management (external)
• Job orchestration for process execution
• Pod log streaming and monitoring

Storage

• fsspec - Unified filesystem interface
• s3fs - S3-compatible storage backend
• gcsfs - Google Cloud Storage backend
• MinIO - S3-compatible object storage (development)
• GCS / S3 - Cloud object storage (production)

Real-time Communication

• WebSockets (FastAPI native) - Real-time log streaming and state updates
• asyncio - Asynchronous I/O for concurrent operations

API and Documentation

• Pydantic - Data validation and settings management
• OpenAPI - Automatic API documentation generation
• Swagger UI - Interactive API testing interface (built-in)
• ReDoc - Alternative API documentation UI (built-in)

Security

• python-jose - JWT token handling
• passlib - Password hashing
• bcrypt - Secure password hashing algorithm

Utilities

• python-dotenv - Environment variable management
• requests - HTTP client library

Infrastructure

Container Orchestration

• Kubernetes - Container orchestration platform
• Minikube - Local Kubernetes cluster for development
• kubectl - Kubernetes command-line tool
• Kueue v0.9.1 - Job queuing system with resource quotas

Containerization

• Docker - Container runtime and image building
• Python 3.11-slim base images - Lightweight Python containers
• Custom process runner containers with entrypoint discovery

Object Storage

• MinIO - S3-compatible storage for development
• Deployed in Minikube
• MinIO Client (mc) for management
• Per-project buckets with IAM policies
• Google Cloud Storage (GCS) - Production storage for GCP
• Workload Identity for authentication
• IAM conditions for path-based access control
• AWS S3 - Production storage for AWS
• IRSA (IAM Roles for Service Accounts) for authentication
• IAM policies with resource-based permissions

Cloud Platforms (Production)

• Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) - Managed Kubernetes on GCP
• Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) - Managed Kubernetes on AWS
• Google Cloud Storage (GCS) - Object storage on GCP
• AWS S3 - Object storage on AWS

Monitoring and Logging (Future)

• Prometheus - Metrics collection (planned)
• Grafana - Metrics visualization (planned)
• Fluentd / Fluent Bit - Log aggregation (planned)

Process Execution

Process Type System

• setuptools entrypoints - Plugin-based process type registration
• pkg_resources - Entrypoint discovery and loading
• Custom process type framework with:
• JSON Schema for parameter validation
• schema() class method for configuration
• run() class method for execution

Data Formats

• MessagePack - Binary serialization for AEM data (via libaarhusxyz)
• GeoJSON - Geographic vector data
• GeoTIFF - Raster/grid data
• CSV - Tabular data export
• JSON - Configuration and metadata

Scientific Computing (Process-Specific)

• NumPy - Numerical computing
• SimPEG - Geophysical inversions
• libaarhusxyz - AEM data handling
• Other domain-specific libraries installed per process type

Development Tools

Version Control

• Git - Source control
• GitHub - Code hosting and collaboration

Package Management

• pip - Python package management
• npm - Node.js package management
• requirements.txt - Python dependency specification
• package.json - Node.js dependency specification

Code Quality

• Black - Python code formatting
• Flake8 - Python linting
• mypy - Python type checking
• ESLint - JavaScript linting
• Prettier - JavaScript formatting

Testing

• pytest - Python testing framework (planned)
• Jest - JavaScript testing framework
• React Testing Library - React component testing

Development Scripts

• Custom bash scripts in dev/:
• runall.sh - Complete setup automation
• setup-minikube.sh - Kubernetes cluster setup
• setup-minio.sh - Object storage setup
• cleanup-minikube.sh - Environment cleanup

Networking and Communication

Protocols

• HTTP/HTTPS - API communication
• WebSocket (WS/WSS) - Real-time updates
• S3 API - Object storage protocol

API Standards

• REST - RESTful API design
• OpenAPI 3.0 - API specification
• JSON Schema - Data validation and form generation

Security and Authentication

Authentication

• JWT (JSON Web Tokens) - User session management
• Bearer tokens - API authentication

Cloud IAM

• MinIO IAM - Path-based access control (development)
• Google Cloud IAM - GCS access control (production)
• Workload Identity for pod authentication
• Conditional role bindings
• AWS IAM - S3 access control (production)
• IRSA for pod authentication
• Resource-based policies

Secrets Management

• Kubernetes Secrets - Credential storage and injection
• Environment variables - Configuration management
• .env files - Local development configuration

Browser Support

Minimum Requirements

• Chrome/Edge: Version 90+ (recommended)
• Firefox: Version 88+
• Safari: Version 14+

Browser APIs Used

• WebSocket API - Real-time communication
• Local Storage - Layout persistence
• Fetch API - HTTP requests
• Canvas API - Plotting (via Plotly)

Deployment

Development

• Minikube - Local Kubernetes
• MinIO - Local object storage
• SQLite - Local database
• Hot reload - Backend (Uvicorn) and frontend (CRA)

Production

• GKE or EKS - Managed Kubernetes
• GCS or S3 - Cloud object storage
• PostgreSQL - Production database (Cloud SQL, RDS, etc.)
• Nginx - Static file serving for frontend
• Load balancers - Traffic distribution

Version Requirements

Minimum Versions

• Python: 3.11+
• Node.js: 16+
• Kubernetes: 1.24+
• Docker: 20.10+
• Minikube: 1.30+

Recommended Versions

• Python: 3.11 (tested)
• Node.js: 18 LTS
• Kubernetes: 1.28+
• Docker: 24.0+

License

All software components are either: - Open source (see individual library licenses) - Proprietary (Nagelfluh codebase - GPL v3.0)

Third-party licenses are respected per their respective terms.