How to Visually Build Apps with Joget and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

Red Hat OpenShift is a container application platform that brings Docker and Kubernetes to the enterprise. As a cloud native computing platform, OpenShift allows teams to automate the build, deployment, and management of applications. They can focus on developing apps without worrying about the underlying infrastructure, whether on physical/virtual servers, or on public/private/hybrid cloud environments.

The move to cloud native computing is a key segment of many organization’s digital transformation strategy. However, that is only a part of the equation because a major gap that has to be addressed is in building the applications and automating business processes. A lot of application development today still utilizes traditional coding, so the inherent complexities along with the shortage of technical expertise are significant obstacles.

As an open source no-code/low-code platform to visually build enterprise web apps for coders and non-coders, Joget is an ideal complement to OpenShift to fill the gap. The Joget platform is now available as a Red Hat Certified Container, so it is trusted, secure and commercially supported on OpenShift. This article describes the steps in deploying the certified Joget container image running with the MySQL database.

Deploy Joget using the OpenShift Web Console

Step 1: Create OpenShift Project

Access the OpenShift Web Console and login

Create a project using the Create Project button and key in the desired Name, Display Name and Description.

Step 2: Deploy MySQL Database

Under the selected project, select Add to Project > Browse Catalog and select the MySQL image.

Key in the appropriate settings and click on Create e.g.

Namespace: openshift

Database Service Name: jogetdb

MySQL Connection Username: joget

MySQL Connection Password: joget

MySQL Database Name: jwdb

Step 3: Deploy Joget Platform

To access the Red Hat Container Catalog, a valid username and password that is used to log in to the Red Hat Customer Portal is required.

If you do not have an account, you can acquire one by registering for one of the following options:

• Red Hat Developer Program. This account gives you access to developer tools and programs.
• 30-day Trial Subscription. This account gives you a 30-day trial subscription with access to select Red Hat software products.

Under the selected project, select Add to Project > Deploy Image and click on the create an image pull secret link. In the ensuing popup, key in the Red Hat login details for the registry.

Secret Name: registry.connect.redhat.com

Authentication Type: Image Registry Credentials

Image Registry Server Address: registry.connect.redhat.com

Username: Red Hat account username

Password: Red Hat account password

Email: Red Hat account email

Link secret to a service account: Yes

Service Account: default

Once the secret has been created, select Add to Project > Deploy Image, select the Image Name option and key in registry.connect.redhat.com/joget/joget-v6-enterprise. Click on the small search icon to load the image details from the registry, key in the desired Name then click Deploy.

Image Name: registry.connect.redhat.com/joget/joget-v6-enterprise

Name: joget-v6-enterprise

Step 4: Add Persistent Storage

The next step is to add persistent storage to the container for storing configuration files and persistent file uploads. Under Applications > Deployments, select the application, then the Configuration tab. Scroll down to the Volumes section and click on the Add Storage link.

In the Add storage page, click on the small create storage link. Create the new storage with the desired values e.g.

Name: joget-data

Access Mode: Shared Access (RWX)

Size: 1GB (or as required)

Back in the Add Storage page, select the newly created storage, set the Mount Path to /opt/joget/wflow, then Add.

Mount Path: /opt/joget/wflow

Step 5: Create Service Route for External Access

At this point, the service is not accessible from an external web browser so you will need to create a route, which exposes a service at a host name.

Click on Applications > Services and select joget-v6-enterprise.

Select Actions > Create Route, set the Path to /jw and click on Create.

Path: /jw

Return to the Overview and click on the URL next to the application name to launch the Joget platform.

Setup Database

The first time the Joget platform is accessed, the Database Setup page will be displayed. Configure the database settings using the values defined when deploying the MySQL database previously e.g.

Database Host: jogetdb

Database Port: 3306

Database Name: jwdb

Database User: joget

Database Password: joget

Upon successful configuration, the Joget App Center will be loaded.

NOTE: If you encounter a 504 Gateway Timeout during the database setup, it is caused by the database initialization taking longer than the default OpenShift Route timeout. You can actually ignore the error and wait a couple of minutes before accessing the Application URL from the Overview page again.

You can also increase the route timeout using the OpenShift CLI i.e.

oc annotate route $APP_NAME — overwrite haproxy.router.openshift.io/timeout=60s

Build a Complete App in 30 minutes, No Code!

With the Joget platform ready, it is now possible to build a full-fledged app with dashboards, calendar, approval workflow and data management within 30 minutes. And, it can be done without coding and you essentially drag-and-drop, point-and-click and configure your way through instead. It’s also possible to use a touch device to build it.

The 30 minute video below demonstrates an authentic, real-time example of building the app from scratch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edqxt9zx_IE

Users can also download the Joget Mobile App from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store to access the very same app with the UI automatically tailored for mobile devices.

Get Started with Joget

To get started with the Joget platform:

• Visit the Joget Workflow product page
• Learn with the Getting Started Guide in the Knowledge Base.
• Learn via the Joget Academy.