Consultation - Installation Guide
The Consultation system is built on top of the existing LiveView system, and as such, it requires the LiveView system to be installed and running. See the LiveView Installation Guide for more information on how to install the LiveView system.
When talking about Consultation in this context, we are referring to the Consultation system as a whole, which includes being able to create and manage consultation type live view configurations and use these in the Client application.
Certain parts of the Consultation system, like Chat, should technically work inside the old LiveView system, but this has not been tested and is not supported.
Requirements
The Consultation system has the following requirements:
- ASP.NET Core Runtime 7.0.X installed on the server. Download the Hosting Bundle for Windows servers running IIS.
- Migration Tool run for EWA release v24.
- Chat Server installed and running.
- LiveView installed and running.
Chat server installation
The Chat server is a separate web application that is used to handle the chat functionality in the Consultation system. It is a .NET 7 application that can be run on any server that has the .NET 7 runtime installed.
This section will describe how to install the Chat server on a Windows server running IIS.
IIS Deployment requirements
- The server must have the ASP.NET Core Hosting Bundle installed.
- The server must have the Web Deploy 3.6 tool installed.
Download and extract the Chat server
The file which contains the Chat Server will be called ChatServer.zip and can be found together with the other release files for EWA.
Once the file has been downloaded, extract the contents of the zip file to a temporary location on the server.
Chat server files
The ChatServer.zip file contains the following files:
Bliksund.Chat.Server.Parameters.xml- Contains the definition of the parameters that can be set for the Chat server. Includes how the deployment handles the parameters.Bliksund.Chat.Server.SetParameters.xml- Contains the values for the parameters that should be set for the Chat server when running deployment.Bliksund.Chat.Server.SourceManifest.xml- Contains the definition of the files that should be included in the Chat server deployment.Bliksund.Chat.Server.deploy-readme.txt- Contains information about the Chat server deployment.Bliksund.Chat.Server.deploy.cmd- Contains the deployment script for the Chat server.Bliksund.Chat.Server.zip- Contains the Chat server application files.
Edit the Chat server parameters
The Chat server has a few parameters that must be set to configure the Chat server. These parameters are defined in the Bliksund.Chat.Server.Parameters.xml file, and the values for these parameters are defined in the Bliksund.Chat.Server.SetParameters.xml file.
Open the Bliksund.Chat.Server.SetParameters.xml file in a text editor and set the values for the parameters as described in the table below.
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
IIS Web Application Name | The name of the IIS website that the Chat server should be deployed to. | dev.ewa.bliksund.com/ChatServer to deploy to the ChatServer path under the dev.ewa.bliksund.com site. |
ChatServerDatabaseConnectionString | The connection string to the database that the Chat server should use. | Data Source={Database Server};Initial Catalog={Database Name};User ID={DB UserID};Password={DB User Password};Pooling=False;MultipleActiveResultSets=True;Application Name=BliksundChat |
Api Key | The API key that the Chat server should be configured to use. | [REDACTED] This supports almost any string, but it is recommended to use a generated value with a high entropy. |
It is recommended to copy the Bliksund.Chat.Server.SetParameters.xml file to a secure location after the Chat server has been deployed, in order to be able to quickly redeploy the Chat server if needed.
Deploy the Chat server
The Chat server is deployed using the Bliksund.Chat.Server.deploy.cmd script. This script will use the parameters defined in the Bliksund.Chat.Server.SetParameters.xml file to deploy the Chat server to the IIS website defined in the IIS Web Application Name parameter.
To deploy the Chat server, open a command prompt and navigate to the folder where the Chat server files were extracted. Then run the Bliksund.Chat.Server.deploy.cmd script.
Optional: Dry run the Chat server deployment script
To test the Chat server deployment script without actually deploying the Chat server, the script can be run with the /T parameter.
.\Bliksund.Chat.Server.deploy.cmd /T
Run the Chat server deployment script
Run the Chat server deployment script with the /Y parameter to actually deploy the Chat server.
.\Bliksund.Chat.Server.deploy.cmd /Y
Make sure the Chat server is running
Once the Chat server has been deployed, make sure that the Chat server is running by navigating to the Chat server URL /healthz endpoint in a web browser.
For example, if the Chat server was deployed to the dev.ewa.bliksund.com/ChatServer path under the dev.ewa.bliksund.com site, the Chat server URL would be https://dev.ewa.bliksund.com/ChatServer/healthz.
The Chat server should return a 200 OK response with the body Healthy.
The /healthz endpoint path has been chosen instead /ping because this is one of the three standard paths used by Kubernetes for health checks.
Make sure servers and clients can access the Chat server
The chat server must be accessible from the servers and clients that will be using the Consultation system.
To test that the Chat server is accessible, navigate to the Chat server URL /healthz endpoint in a web browser from a server or client that will be using the Consultation system.
List of components that will be using the Chat server:
- The server(s) running Insight.
- The server(s) running ClientHub.
- The client computers running the EWA Client application.
- The client computers accessing EWA Insight through a web browser.
Set ChatServer parameters when deploying Insight
In order for live views in Insight to be able to use the Chat server, the Chat server URL and API Key must be set in the Insight parameters.
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
ChatServer Endpoint | The URL to the Chat server. | https://dev.ewa.bliksund.com/ChatServer |
ChatServer Api Key | The API key that the Chat server should be configured to use. | [REDACTED] This must be the API Key that was set during deployment. |
Set ChatServer parameters when deploying ClientHub
In order for the EWA Client application to be able to use the Chat server, the Chat server URL and API Key must be set in the ClientHub parameters.
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
ChatServer Endpoint | The URL to the Chat server. | https://dev.ewa.bliksund.com/ChatServer |
ChatServer ApiKey | The API key that the Chat server should be configured to use. | [REDACTED] This must be the API Key that was set during deployment. |
Enable the feature flag
The Consultation system is disabled by default. To enable it, the feature flag Consultation in LiveView must be enabled for the relevant resources in Insight feature activation page.
This will enable the possibility to create and manage consultation type live view configurations in Insight, and sync these to the resources where the feature flag is enabled.
Enjoy the Consultation system
The Consultation system should now be installed and ready to use.
Enjoy the Consultation system!