OSC-SPEC.md

Specifications for the UNICEF/OSC project

1. An open source server application (this application, microservice.)
2. The open source inbox application (which could be used by both platform and microservice) to handle HTTP requests
3. The open source dispatcher application (which could be used by both platform and microservice) to execute jobs using OpenFn/core.
4. A Dockerfile that, given a job, an adaptor, and a credential, is able to automatically generate a container that runs the microservice for that job.

(1) Development of a web server

• Using an existing open-source framework we will create a basic, secure REST API.
• The REST API will be able to receive an authenticated HTTP POST request with a valid JSON body, respond with a 202/Accepted, and pass that body to a handler.

(2) Development of a handler (or a job-runner)

• When called with a JSON body, the handler will prepare an initial “state” which includes the relevant credential and the data provided by the REST API and call OpenFn/core/lib/cli.js with the following arguments: (1) the job to execute, (2) the state, (3) the language-package to utilize, and (4) the desired output path to write the logs.

(3) Containerization of the microservice

• Once developed, this microsevice will be containerized using a technology like Docker, such that it could be quickly and easily deployed, alongside many others like it, on virtually any server.

(4) Deployment & administrative features

• The containerized microservice could be deployed to servers, ideally cloud-hosted, which provide users with as much out-of-the-box monitoring, logging, administration, and introspective abilities as possible.
• Developers may choose to deploy with jobs, credentials, and triggers built-in to the container, or may choose to pass them in as environment variables.