Baserow introduction

Architecture

Baserow consists of two main components:

The backend is a Python Django application that exposes a REST API. This is the core of Baserow and it does not have a user interface. The API spec can be found here. The persistent state is by default stored in a PostgreSQL database. MySQL and SQLite are not supported at the moment, but will probably be in the future.
The web frontend is an application that serves as a user interface for the backend and is made in NuxtJS and Vue.js. It communicates to the backend via the REST API.

Backend

The backend consists of the core, api and database apps. The package also contains base settings that can be extended. The REST API is written as a decoupled component which is not necessary to run Baserow. It is highly recommended though. The same goes for the database app, this is written als a plugin for Baserow. Without it you would only have the core which only has functionality like authentication, groups and the application abstraction.

Handlers

If you look at the code of the API views you will notice that they use classes like CoreHandler, TableHandler, FieldHandler etc. The API views are actually a REST API shell around these handlers which are doing the actual job. The reason why we choose to do it this way is that if we ever want to implement a Web Socket API, SOAP API or any other API we can also build that around the same handler. That way we never have to write code twice. It is also useful for when you want to do something via the command line. If you for example want to create a new group you can do the following.

from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model 
from baserow.core.handler import CoreHandler

User = get_user_model()
user = User.objects.get(pk=1)
group = CoreHandler().create_group(user, name='Example group')

Web frontend

The web-frontend consists of the core and database modules. The package also contains some base config that can be extended. It is basically a user friendly shell around the backend that can run in your browser. It is made using NuxtJS.

Style guide

There is a style guide containing examples of all components on https://baserow.io/style-guide or if you want to see it on your local environment http://localhost:8000/style-guide.

Concepts

Groups

A group can contain multiple applications. It can be used to define a company and in the future it is going to be possible to invite extra users to a group. Every user in the group has access to all the applications within that group. Unfortunately it is not yet possible to add extra users because the live collaboration feature has to be implemented first. Groups can easily be created, edited and deleted via the baserow.core.handler.CoreHandler and via the REST API.

Applications

An application is more of an abstraction that can be added to a group. By default the database plugin is included which contains the database application. Via the "create new" button in the sidebar a new application instance can be created for the selected group. Once you click on it you will see a context menu with all the application types. Plugins can introduce new application types. Applications can easily be created, edited and deleted via the baserow.core.handler.CoreHandler and via the REST API.

Database plugin

More information about the concepts of the database application can be found on the database plugin introduction page.

Environment variables

In combination with the default settings and config the following environment variables are accepted.

DATABASE_NAME (default baserow): The database name of PostgreSQL database.
DATABASE_USER (default baserow): The username for the PostgreSQL database.
DATABASE_PASSWORD (default baserow): The password for the PostgreSQL database.
DATABASE_HOST (default db): The hostname of the PostgreSQL server.
DATABASE_PORT (default 5432): The port of the PostgreSQL server.
MJML_SERVER_HOST (default mjml): The hostname of the MJML TCP server. In the development environment we use the liminspace/mjml-tcpserver:latest image.
MJML_SERVER_PORT (default 28101): The port of the MJML TCP server.
PUBLIC_BACKEND_DOMAIN (default localhost:8000): The publicly accessible domain name of the backend. For the development environment this is localhost:8000, but if you for example change the port to 9000 this should be localhost:9000.
PUBLIC_BACKEND_URL (default http://localhost:8000): The publicly accessible URL of the backend. For the development environment this is http://localhost:8000, but if you for example change the port to 9000 this should be http://localhost:9000. You should be able to lookup this url with your browser.
PRIVATE_BACKEND_URL (default http://backend:8000): Not only the browser, but also web-frontend server should be able to do HTTP requests to the backend. It might not have access to the PUBLIC_BACKEND_URL or there could be a more direct route, (e.g. from container to container instead of via the internet). In case of the development environment the backend container be accessed via the backend hostname and because the server is also running on port 8000 inside the container, the private backend URL should be http://backend:8000.
PUBLIC_WEB_FRONTEND_DOMAIN (default localhost:3000): The publicly accessible domain name of the web-frontend. For the development environment this is localhost:3000, but if you for example change the port to 4000 this should be localhost:4000.
PUBLIC_WEB_FRONTEND_URL (default http://localhost:3000): The publicly accessible URL of the web-frontend. For the development environment this is http://localhost:3000, but if you for example change the port to 4000 this should be http://localhost:4000. You should be able to lookup this url with your browser.
FROM_EMAIL (default no-reply@localhost): If the from email address of the emails that the platform sends. For example when the user requests a password change because he has forgotten it.

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