CAS Initializr

CAS Initializr provides a build system and an API to dynamically generate CAS overlays. The project is based on Spring Initializr.

This service is available at: https://getcas.apereo.org/ui

Build

You will need JDK 17 to run the CAS Initializr locally.

./gradlew clean build

Generate a Docker image from the build:

./gradlew bootBuildImage

Run

CAS Initializr is a Spring Boot application and can be run locally using the following command:

./gradlew bootRun

Or run the Docker image:

imageTag=(`./gradlew initializrVersion --q`) && docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 -t apereo/cas-initializr:$imageTag 

The service will be available on http://localhost:8080.

User Interface

CAS Initializr also presents a user interface, available at $INITIALIZR_URL/ui.

Dependency Metadata & Ownership

The metadata lists the capabilities of the CAS Initializr, that is the available options for all request parameters (dependencies, type, bootVersion, etc.) The CAS Initializr user interface uses that information to initialize the select options and the tree of available dependencies.

You can grab the metadata on the root endpoint with the appropriate Accept header:

curl -H 'Accept: application/json' $INITIALIZR_URL

CAS Initializr fetches and consumes module and dependency metadata from an internal source or database, owned by the CAS project. This source is managed and controlled by the CAS project itself where dependency metadata and list of feature modules are curated, enriched and then published. Remember that CAS Initializr does its work in service to the CAS project itself; it has no other customer or client, is not designed as a general-purpose library or service and does not strictly-speaking serve any other use case. This means that if you intend to run the project locally for your own purposes or in any other way that does not align with the current deployment parameters, you will need to teach your CAS Initializr instance about your modules and dependencies and own that task going forward.

This can be done in the application.yml file:

dependencies:
  - name: api
    content:
      - name: cas-server-core
        id: core
        groupId: org.apereo.cas
        artifactId: cas-server-core
        description: My CAS Module
        bom: cas-bom
        aliases:
          - core

You may also need to blank out cas-initializr.metadata-url setting to prevent the initializr from reaching out to its own source. Other changes may also be necessary.

Remember that this data structure, schema as well as other internal APIs that publish, parse and manage this data could change at any time without notice. CAS Initializr works for the CAS project and intends to be configured and deployed in a way that ultimately serves that exact purpose. No more, no less. Additional configuration options, features and flexibility that sit outside that use case are almost always not a concern and do not deserve any maintenance time or effort. If the current feature-set or configuration profile does not fit your use cases, the best course of action would be to fork the project to make any and all necessary changes for your deployment.

Generating a project

• Generate a vanilla CAS overlay:

curl $INITIALIZR_URL/starter.zip -o cas.zip

• Generate a CAS overlay package as a compressed tarball that contains indicated modules/dependencies selected by their identifier:

curl $INITIALIZR_URL/starter.tgz \
  -d dependencies=oidc | tar -xzvf -

• Generate a CAS overlay for a specific version:

Must specify the appropriate spring boot version for the specified casVersion.

curl $INITIALIZR_URL/starter.tgz \
  -d "dependencies=oidc&casVersion=6.6.5&bootVersion=2.7.3" | tar  -xzvf -

• Generate overlay projects for other CAS related applications:

curl $INITIALIZR_URL/starter.tgz \
  -d "type=..." | tar  -xzvf -

Type can be one of:

• cas-overlay (default)

• cas-config-server-overlay

• Generate a CAS Overlay using latest cas-initializr deployed on heroku.com:

curl $INITIALIZR_URL/starter.tgz \
  -d "dependencies=oidc,jsonsvc" | tar  -xzvf -

Dependency List

Dependencies that can be requested must be specified by their identifier. To see a full list of all dependencies supported and available by this service, you can invoke the following command:

curl $INITIALIZR_URL/dependencies

Typically, dependency identifiers match CAS dependency/module artifact names without the cas-server- prefix.

To see the CAS versions and projects are that supported by the CAS Initializr, you may invoke the following command:

curl $INITIALIZR_URL/actuator/supportedVersions

You may also see a full list of dependencies and their aliases as well as supported versions via:

curl $INITIALIZR_URL/actuator/info