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authorZach White <skullydazed@gmail.com>2021-08-10 07:47:53 -0700
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Architecture documentation for Configurator and API (#13935)
* Architecture documentation for the configurator and api * Apply suggestions from code review Co-authored-by: James Young <18669334+noroadsleft@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: James Young <18669334+noroadsleft@users.noreply.github.com>
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1# QMK Configurator Architecture
2
3This page describes the web architecture behind QMK Configurator at a high level. If you are interested in the architecture of the QMK Configurator code itself you should start at the [qmk_configurator](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_configurator) repository.
4
5# Overview
6
7![QMK Configurator Architecture Diagram](configurator_diagram.svg)
8
9# Detailed Description
10
11QMK Configurator is a [Single Page Application](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-page_application) that allows users to create custom keymaps for their QMK-compatible keyboard. They can export JSON representation of their keymaps and compile firmware binaries that can be flashed to their keyboard using a tool like [QMK Toolbox](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_toolbox).
12
13Configurator gets metadata about keyboards from the Keyboard Metadata store and submits compile requests to the QMK API. The results of those compile requests will be made available on [Digital Ocean Spaces](https://www.digitalocean.com/products/spaces/), an S3-compatible data store.
14
15## Configurator Frontend
16
17Address: <https://config.qmk.fm>
18
19The [Configurator Frontend](https://config.qmk.fm) is compiled into a set of static files that are served by Github Pages. This action happens every time a commit is pushed to the [qmk_configurator `master`](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_configurator) branch. You can view the status of these jobs on the [qmk_configurator actions tab](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_configurator/actions/workflows/build.yml).
20
21## Keyboard Metadata
22
23Address: <https://keyboards.qmk.fm>
24
25The Keyboard Metadata is generated every time a keyboard in [qmk_firmware](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware) changes. The resulting JSON files are uploaded to Spaces and used by Configurator to generate UI for each keyboard. You can view the status of this job on the [qmk_firmware actions tab](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/actions/workflows/api.yml). If you are a QMK Collaborator you can manually run this job using the `workflow_dispatch` event trigger.
26
27## QMK API
28
29Address: <http://api.qmk.fm>
30
31The QMK API accepts `keymap.json` files for compilation. These are the same files you can use directly with `qmk compile` and `qmk flash`. When a `keymap.json` is submitted the browser will poll the status of the job periodically (every 2 seconds or longer, preferably) until the job has completed. The final status JSON will contain pointers to source and binary downloads for the keymap.
32
33QMK API always presents the source and binary downloads side-by-side to comply with the GPL.
34
35There are 3 non-error status responses from the API-
36
371. Compile Job Queued
382. Compile Job Running
393. Compile Job Finished
40
41### Compile Job Queued
42
43This status indicates that the job has not yet been picked up by a [QMK Compiler](#qmk-compiler) node. Configurator shows this status as "Waiting for an oven".
44
45### Compile Job Running
46
47This status indicates that the job has started compiling. Configurator shows this status as "Baking".
48
49### Compile Job Finished
50
51This status indicates that the job has completed. There will be keys in the status JSON for source and binary downloads.
52
53## Redis/RQ
54
55QMK API uses RQ to distribute jobs to the available [QMK Compiler](#qmk-compiler) nodes. When a `keymap.json` is received it's put into the RQ queue, where a `qmk_compiler` node will pick it up from.
56
57## QMK Compiler
58
59[QMK Compiler](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_compiler) is what actually performs the compilation of the `keymap.json`. It does so by checking out the requested `qmk_firmware` branch, running `qmk compile keymap.json`, and then uploading the resulting source and binary to Digital Ocean Spaces.
60
61When users download their source/binary, API will redirect them to the authenticated Spaces download URL.