Getting Started with FME Flow Workspace Apps

Introduction

FME Flow has the ability to create web-based ‘Apps’ - which is a method to allow users to run a workspace without needing login access to FME Flow. When you choose to create an App, FME Flow will generate an app page with a valid token with the necessary permissions.

Creating an App 

You can create an app from the Run Workspace page, under Workspace Actions or the Advanced tab.
Alternatively, select ‘Flow Apps’ from the navigation panel. This section also allows you to view and manage any existing apps.

From the Flow Apps page, click ‘Create Workspace App’ from the drop-down menu.

This will bring you to the page ‘Create Workspace App’.

Required Parameters

There are a few parameters you will need to set to create your app:

Name: This name will become part of the URL for the app and will also be used within FME Flow for managing your apps.
Repository: This is the location of the workspace that you would like to build your app around. 
Workspace: This is the workspace that the app will be running. If it contains any published parameters, these will become available to manage in an additional dialog box.
Service: Choose from the Job Submitter, Data Download, or Data Streaming service (dependent on what the workspace was registered with when published).

Workspace Parameters

If your workspace includes published parameters, an additional dialog box will be available for you to configure. You can control whether the parameters are available for the end-user to set in the app, and what the default values will be.

Optional Parameters

Title: The title will be displayed at the top of the app and in the browser tab.
Description: Provide a description to give users more information or instructions/expectations for use. The toolbar can be used to customize the text following markdown guidelines.
Expiration: Behind the scenes, FME Flow creates a token that is used to authenticate the app. The token automatically has the necessary permissions required for the user to run the application. By default, token expiration is set to 10 years. 
Requires Authentication: Configure the app to require users to provide authentication before running the application. Additionally, you can specify which users or roles are allowed access. By default, this parameter is disabled. With this, we can monitor the runtime user.


When a user goes to the FME Flow App URL with the required authentication enabled, they will be presented with the following login screen:

Customize Parameters

Browser Icon: An image to be displayed in the web browser tab. There is a 300 KB file size limit for icon images.
Heading Background Color: A background color to comprise the banner at the top of the app page. Appears behind the Heading Banner, if transparent.
Heading Logo: An image that appears over the Heading Banner and/or Heading Background Color, centered. There is a 1 MB file size limit for the heading image.
Heading Banner: An image to comprise the banner at the top of the app page. If transparent, appears over Heading Background Color. There is a 1 MB file size limit for the heading image.
Footer Text: Text to be shown at the bottom of the page, underneath any workspace parameters. The toolbar can be used to customize the text following markdown guidelines.
Footer Logo: An image that is shown beneath the workspace parameters. Appears beneath Footer Text, and behind Footer Banner, if transparent. There is a 1 MB file size limit for the footer image.
Footer Banner: An image to comprise the banner at the bottom of the app page. If transparent, appears over Footer Logo. There is a 1 MB file size limit for the heading image.
Run Immediately: If enabled, the app will run as soon as its URL is invoked, without displaying a customized app page. By default, this parameter is disabled.

Log Debug: Enabling Log Debug produces more detailed logs for troubleshooting, but may impact job performance. By default, this parameter is disabled.

When you have finished configuring your app, press OK. A page will be returned listing the details of your app, this includes the app URL and token details including the expiration date and permissions granted. 

Viewing an App

If you navigate away from this page, you can view or copy the URL from the main Flow Apps > Manage Workspace Apps page.

Changing an App’s Expiration

If you need to change the expiration date of an app, select it, and choose ‘Change Expiration’ from the Actions dropdown menu.

Alternatively, as the expiration is managed by the token that is created to authorize usage of the app, you can configure expiration using the Token Management page.
To access this, click on Manage Tokens from the User Settings dropdown (top right of the FME Flow Web Interface).

 On this page, you should see the token created for your app. Clicking on the token will open the edit page.

Here you can modify the token description, enable or disable the token (disabling will mean your app no longer works), and change the expiration date and the permissions that have been given to the token.

Monitoring the Runtime User

In FME Server 2022 an additional field ‘Ran by’ has been exposed on the Jobs Completed/Queued/Running pages to record the user who has logged in to run an app:


There are two FME Flow Parameters available so that this information can also be fetched in FME Workbench:
FME_SERVER_RUNTIME_USER: Name of the user who authenticated the FME Flow workspace app to run the workspace.
FME_SERVER_RUNTIME_ID: The UUID of the user who authenticated the FME Flow workspace app to run the workspace.



Learn more about how to integrate FME Flow runtime parameters into your workspace app in Working with FME Flow Runtime Parameters.

Geometry Parameter

FME Flow allows users to draw an area directly onto a map by using the Geometry Published Parameter, which can be parsed into a workspace using the GeometryReplacer transformer. More on how to set up the Geometry Picker can be found in Using the Geometry Parameter.

 Additional Resources

[Article] Working with FME Flow Runtime Parameters
[Article] Using the Geometry Parameter
[Documentation] Workspace Apps
[Webinar] Creating No Code Web Apps with FME Flow
[Demo] Interactive Demos