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All documentation
  • Introduction
  • Connecting to data source
    1. Supported data sources
    2. Connecting to other data sources
  • Browser compatibility
  • Documentation for older versions
  • Installing Flexmonster Data Server as a Windows/Unix service

    This guide describes how to install Flexmonster Data Server as a service. Flexmonster Pivot can be downloaded here. You can also learn about other ways of using the Data Server.

    The main benefits of using the Data Server as a Windows/Unix service are:

    • Can be managed via a convenient GUI tool — Flexmonster Admin Panel.
    • Runs in the background.
    • Starts automatically with the OS.
    • Can be configured to automatically restart on a crash.
    • Hard to close unintentionally.

    Supported operating systems

    The Data Server is available for the following operating systems:

    • Windows (32-bit and 64-bit).
    • macOS (64-bit and ARM64).
    • Ubuntu/Linux (64-bit and ARM64).

    You should also ensure that your operating system supports the version of .NET that is used in Flexmonster Data Server, which is currently .NET 8. Read more here: Common issues with the Data Server.

    Installing Flexmonster Data Server

    Prerequisites

    • Flexmonster CLI
      Install it with the following command:
      npm install -g flexmonster-cli

    To install the Data Server, continue with the following steps.

    Step 1. Download

    To get the Data Server, run the flexmonster add fds command:

    flexmonster add fds -r

    This command installs the Data Server for your operating system and runs it as a service. Besides, the command installs Flexmonster Admin Panel — a graphical user interface for the Data Server as a service.

    Note The Admin Panel will not connect to the Data Server used as a DLL or as a console application.

    Now the Data Server is installed as a service on your machine. The Data Server's files can be found in the flexmonster‑data‑server/ folder in your working directory.

    Step 2. See the download package structure

    Let’s have a look at the flexmonster‑data‑server/ folder’s structure:

    • Flexmonster-Admin-Panel — the file to install Flexmonster Admin Panel.
    • flexmonster-data-server — an executable version of Flexmonster Data Server.
    • service-install — the executable file to install the Data Server as a service.
    • service-uninstall — the executable file to uninstall the Data Server as a service.
    • flexmonster-config.json — Flexmonster Data Server configuration file. It contains a configured ready-to-use CSV data source "sample-index".
      Note that if you have been using the Data Server prior to version 2.9.58, the Data Server possibly uses another flexmonster-config.json file when run as a service.
    • sample-data/data.csv — the file with sample CSV data to create "sample-index".

    Migrating existing configurations

    If you have already used the Data Server, you can import your existing configurations using Flexmonster Admin Panel:

    1. Open the Admin Panel.
    2. Go to the Settings tab.
    3. Scroll down and use the Import configuration file functionality.

    See how it can be done:

    Migrate existing Data Server configurations to the Admin Panel

    Connecting to the Data Server

    Step 1. Embed the component into your webpage

    If Flexmonster is not yet embedded, set up an empty component in your webpage:

    In pure JavaScript

    Complete the Integrating Flexmonster guide. Your code should look similar to the following example:

    const pivot = new Flexmonster({
      container: "pivotContainer",
     toolbar: true
    });

    In React

    Complete the Integration with React guide. Your code should look similar to the following example:

    <FlexmonsterReact.Pivot
     toolbar={true}
    />

    In Angular

    Complete the Integration with Angular guide. Your code should look similar to the following example:

    <fm-pivot
     [toolbar]="true">
    </fm-pivot>

    In Vue

    Complete the Integration with Vue guide. Your code should look similar to the following example:

    <Pivot
     toolbar
    />

    Step 2. Configure the report

    To connect to Flexmonster Data Server, configure the report as follows:

    const pivot = new Flexmonster({
    container: "pivotContainer",
    toolbar: true,
    report: {
       dataSource: {
        type: "api",
         url: "http://localhost:9500",
         index: "sample-index"
       }
     }
    });

    Note The "sample-index" is the index predefined in the Admin Panel.

    See the full list of Flexmonster properties used to configure the dataSource object.

    Open the webpage in the browser: the pivot table with the sample CSV data is shown.

    List of supported configuration parameters

    When connecting to data using Flexmonster Data Server, you can use the following properties of the DataSourceObject:

    List of properties
    Property/TypeDescription
    type
    String
    The data source type. When connecting to data using Flexmonster Data Server, set the type to "api".
    url
    String
    The URL to Flexmonster Data Server.
    index
    String
    The dataset identifier.
    mapping
    MappingObject | String
    optional Defines how fields from the data source are treated and presented within the component. For example, you can specify the field’s captions, define a type for a field, configure multilevel hierarchies, etc. Read more in the Mapping guide.
    Can be either an inline MappingObject or a URL to a JSON file with the mapping Live example.
    requestHeaders
    Object
    optional Adds custom request headers. Consists of "key": "value" pairs, where "key" is a header name and "value" is its value Live example.
    Note The requestHeaders property is not saved when obtaining the report via save() and getReport() API calls.
    singleEndpoint
    Boolean
    optional When set to true, all Flexmonster Pivot’s requests are sent to a single endpoint specified in the url property.
    Default value: false.
    withCredentials
    Boolean
    optional Indicates whether cross-site Access-Control requests should be made using credentials such as authorization headers (true) or not (false). For more details, refer to MDN web docs.
    Setting the withCredentials flag to true is recommended when using Windows authentication and other types of server authentication. When set to false, the browser does not ask for credentials and does not include them in outgoing requests.
    Default value: false.
    concurrentRequests
    Boolean
    optional When set to false, Flexmonster sends a request for each expand/drill-down separately and waits for the Data Server’s response before sending a new request. This can result in slow performance when there are a lot of expands/drill-downs in the report.
    When the concurrentRequests is true, Flexmonster sends requests for expands/drill-downs of a particular level simultaneously. To get the best performance, enable the HTTP/2 protocol in the Data Server.
    Default value: false.

    Uninstalling the Data Server

    To completely uninstall the Data Server as a service, you need to delete the Data Server's executable, the Admin Panel, and the Data Server folders.

    Note The uninstallation is irreversible, so ensure you back up the flexmonster-config.json file.

    Learn how to uninstall the Data Server depending on the operating system it runs on:

    On Windows

    Step 1. Open the flexmonster-data-server/ folder and run the service-uninstall.bat file from the console:

    service-uninstall.bat

    This command will stop and delete the Data Server service.

    Step 2. Delete the flexmonster-data-server/ and C:/ProgramData/FlexmonsterDataServer/ folders.

    Step 3. If you were using Flexmonster Admin Panel, uninstall it. See how to uninstall apps and programs in Windows.

    On macOS

    Step 1. Open the flexmonster-data-server/ folder and run the service-uninstall.sh file from the console:

    sh ./service-uninstall.sh

    This command will stop and delete the Data Server service.

    Step 2. Delete the flexmonster-data-server/ and ~/.local/share/FlexmonsterDataServer/ (will resolve to /home/[current_user]/.local/share/FlexmonsterDataServer/) folders.

    Step 3. If you were using Flexmonster Admin Panel, delete the /Applications/Flexmonster Admin Panel.app file.

    On Ubuntu/Linux

    Step 1. Open the flexmonster-data-server/ folder and run the service-uninstall file from the console:

    ./service-uninstall

    This command will stop and delete the Data Server service.

    Step 2. Delete the flexmonster-data-server/ and ~/.local/share/FlexmonsterDataServer/ (will resolve to /home/[current_user]/.local/share/FlexmonsterDataServer/) folders.

    Step 3. If you were using Flexmonster Admin Panel, delete the Flexmonster-Admin-Panel.AppImage file.

    What’s next?

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