[FR] Real Packaging instead of Docker (deb/rpm)

[Schoumi]

1~3 main use cases of the proposed feature
Easy process of installation/removal. Could be integrated to distribution to help spread your good work everywhere.

what types of users can benefit from using your proposed feature
Everybody, docker should not be the only solution to install/run a software. Packaging the cloud software like you have done the client software will benefit everyone.

Additional context
Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

[Schoumi]

AI (appflowy_ai) part seems not be anywhere on github or did I miss something?

[khorshuheng]

appflowy_ai service is currently close source, although the image can be used for free without any license.

It should be possible to create a package that install appflowy_cloud, admin_frontend, gotrue as a service, which can then be controlled via systemctl. However, there are some caveat:

1. Some database migration will need to be performed on Postgres, otherwise gotrue service will fail. This is currently handled by mounting the migration script on the postgres on docker compose.
2. A reverse proxy such as Nginx will need to be installed, and the configuration will need to be setup manually.

The above could potentially be mitigated by having an installation script, that takes in user input and download the necessary migration file / generate reverse proxy configuration depending on user input. Though some effort will be required to determine the feasibility of this.

[Schoumi]

I've managed to build/run almost everything but it's not working :(

I have two things that doesn't work right now.

Appflowy History

History service seems to want to run migrations again but they where run normaly (with some minor modifications) but still. I don't use the default supabase_auth_admin and postgres user/DB but custom ones since it should be authrorized since user/password/db are set in environment *_DATABASE_URL (but writing this, i find that there's some hardcoded thing about it in application.rs and web_app.rs files!)

thread 'main' panicked at /services/appflowy-history/src/application.rs:35:41:
called `Result::unwrap()` on an `Err` value: Failed to run migrations: while executing migrations: error returned from database: no schema has been selected to create in

Stack backtrace:
   0: anyhow::error::<impl anyhow::Error>::msg
   1: appflowy_history::application::create_app::{{closure}}
   2: appflowy_history::main::{{closure}}
   3: appflowy_history::main
   4: std::sys::backtrace::__rust_begin_short_backtrace
   5: std::rt::lang_start::{{closure}}
   6: main
   7: <unknown>
   8: __libc_start_main
   9: _start
stack backtrace:
   0:     0x561de575ea5a - <std::sys::backtrace::BacktraceLock::print::DisplayBacktrace as core::fmt::Display>::fmt::h1b9dad2a88e955ff
   1:     0x561de54d5fab - core::fmt::write::h4b5a1270214bc4a7
   2:     0x561de572e9e2 - std::io::Write::write_fmt::hd04af345a50c312d
   3:     0x561de575fed7 - std::panicking::default_hook::{{closure}}::h96ab15e9936be7ed
   4:     0x561de576112c - std::panicking::rust_panic_with_hook::hfe205f6954b2c97b
   5:     0x561de5760975 - std::panicking::begin_panic_handler::{{closure}}::h6cb44b3a50f28c44
   6:     0x561de57608d9 - std::sys::backtrace::__rust_end_short_backtrace::hf1c1f2a92799bb0e
   7:     0x561de57608c4 - rust_begin_unwind
   8:     0x561de52c6de2 - core::panicking::panic_fmt::h3d8fc78294164da7
   9:     0x561de52c72a5 - core::result::unwrap_failed::hfa79a499befff387
  10:     0x561de53d8619 - appflowy_history::main::{{closure}}::h6ce4247727534893
  11:     0x561de53cdfde - appflowy_history::main::hd13399afcdfac9dd
  12:     0x561de533ccb3 - std::sys::backtrace::__rust_begin_short_backtrace::h9602a253362b3416
  13:     0x561de533ca70 - std::rt::lang_start::{{closure}}::h28e6a7ad357cfe07
  14:     0x561de53da20b - main
  15:     0x7f870dcdfd68 - <unknown>
  16:     0x7f870dcdfe25 - __libc_start_main
  17:     0x561de52e73a1 - _start
  18:                0x0 - <unknown>

view of the table _sqlx_migrations

    version     |           description            
----------------+----------------------------------
 20240924045045 | access request
 20240910100000 | af collab embeddings indices
 20240813040905 | template
 20240806103039 | template creator
 20240806054557 | template category
 20240729065107 | publish view reaction 2
 20240725065111 | publish view reaction
 20240723090305 | publish view comment
 20240630010030 | workspace member foreign key
 20240629035230 | publish collab 6
 20240627525836 | publish collab 5
 20240626184736 | publish collab 4
 20240621105148 | publish collab 3
 20240618173348 | publish collab 2
 20240618035048 | af workspace ai usage
 20240617135926 | af workspace foreign key indices
 20240614171931 | collab embeddings
 20240613112820 | publish collab
 20240604090043 | add workspace settings
 20240531031836 | chat message meta
 20240529054858 | workspace add token usage
 20240510024506 | chat message
 20240412083446 | history init
 20240306110000 | workspace invitation 2
 20240304173938 | workspace invitation
 20240303003711 | collab member timestamp
 20240227000000 | workspace icon
 20240123140707 | workspace owner trigger
 20231130150000 | user id foreign key
 20231130140000 | user delete trigger
 20231113074418 | user change
 20230926145155 | blob storage
 20230906102651 | collab
 20230906101555 | user profile
 20230906101222 | workspace
 20230906101032 | permission
 20230312043023 | user

AppFlowy Client

Don't think this is related to above but not really sur because the service is down.

When I use the magic link received, the client app very briefly (too briefly to be read...) show a error message:

msg: error returned from database: new row violates row-level security policy for table "af_user"

Don't really know why or how to fix it. If you have any hints.

[Schoumi]

Ok I managed to fix the error for appflowy history by set APPFLOWY_HISTORY_DATABASE_NAME variable since it seems that APPFLOWY_HISTORY_DATABASE_URL is not fully used for extract that. So I have all service running but still get the af_user error.

[annieappflowy]

1. What are their needs?
   1. Some users prefer not to use containers for their deployment and prefer running every services directly on the machine.
2. What challenges exist with our current solution?
   1. We will need to add additional github action to publish the binaries file, and also making sure that the pre-compiled binary can run on most major distribution.
   2. We will also need to maintain deb/rpm package.
   3. Users will still need to install the reverse proxy themselves, and manually add the configuration. Though it is possible that we may provide example configuration as part of the package, which the user can link to.
3. What percentage of self-hosters might face the same issue?
   1. It’s rare, and some user has already successfully do this on their own without our help, by compiling from source.