B4J Tutorial [BANanoVuetifyAD3] Deploying BANanoServer on Windows HTTPS

Ola

Remember: The jetty webserver is a self encompassing webserver. These is no need for laragon development webserver here. This is detailing a step by step process on how we have managed to make this work without hurdles.

Step 1:

Download the ABKeyStoreSSL libraries to your external libraries folder. This will help create certificates for the server to run on. Dont forget the additional resources needed and specified there.

Step 2:

This works with JDK 11 onwards, Java JDK 64 bit, sadly struggles, apparently the "old ways" dont work. Also you kinda need a capable machine for this. I have experience b4j IDE degradation due to my challenged machine. The reason for using JDK 11 was this:

Step 3:

• Download and run the BANanoVuetifyAD3 library source code. This will compile the b4xlib from the source code source code.
• Also ensure that the External Libraries are copied to your B4J external libraries
• Download the BANanoVuetifyAD3 BANanoServer Kitchen Sink, we will use this to deploy our tests.
• This deployment test should work for all other BANanoVuetifyAD3 BANanoServer projects

NB: The linked BANanoVuetifyAD3 BANanoServer Kitchen Sink above has already been set for the steps below, just update it to suit your needs.

Step 4

• Decide on ports you will use, for this test we used Port 2096 for SSL and port 2095 for normal traffic.
• Update the Files > config.properties file to reflect your host and your ports configuation. For Windows HTTPS we have used these settings

Host=https://localhost
Port=2095
PortSSL=2096

Step 5

Ensure you have these defined in Main_Process_Globals

Public JKS As ABKeystoreSSL
    Public JKSReloadTimer As Timer
    Public JKSName As String = "jksname"
    Public JKSStorePassword As String = "jkspassword"
    Public JKSManagerPassword As String = "jksmanagerpassword"

Step 6

Update Main.App_Start, we added this after Server.StartPage = config.Get("StartPage")

' lets start the B4J server
    If Server.PortSSL <> 0 Then
        ' make the jks file (if needed)
        MakeJKS
        If File.Exists(File.DirApp, JKSName & ".jks") Then
            Log("Starting server in HTTPS mode...")
            Server.StartServerHTTP2(JKSName & ".jks", JKSStorePassword, JKSManagerPassword)
 
            ' set a timer for a day
            JKSReloadTimer.Initialize("JKSReloadTimer", 24*60*60*1000)
            JKSReloadTimer.Enabled = True
        Else
            ' start it without https
            LogError("Failed to open or create " & JKSName & ".jks" & ". Starting server in HTTP mode...")
            Server.StartServer
        End If
    Else
        Server.StartServer
    End If

Step 7

Here you need the entry point and your domain. You can find the entry point from your FTP target location of your server. Usually for some linux machines this start with var.

' creates a certificate with Let's Encrypt
Sub MakeJKS() As Boolean
    Dim Result As Boolean
    ' needs to be the 'entry point' in your webserver (NOT your B4X app). In my case it was var/www/html and not var/www/)
    ' MUST be accessible on port 80
    JKS.Initialize("/www")

    Dim domains As List
    domains.Initialize
    domains.Add("https://mydomain.com")

    ' when developing, I check here if it is my local PC. If so I do not use the production server of Let's Encrypt
    Result = JKS.GenerateJKS(domains, File.DirApp, JKSName, JKSStorePassword, JKSManagerPassword, False, "C:\KeyVault", True)
    If File.Exists(File.DirApp, JKSName & ".jks") = False Then
        ' let's try to make a self signed certificate for development
        LogError("Failed to open or create " & JKSName & ".jks with Let's Encrypt. Let's try to make a self signed one...")
        Result = JKS.GenerateSelfSignedJKS(File.DirApp, JKSName, JKSStorePassword, JKSManagerPassword, "C:\KeyVault")
    End If
    Return Result
End Sub

Sub JKSReloadTimer_Tick
    If MakeJKS Then
        ' we created a new one, so reload it in the server
        JKS.ReloadJKS(Server.GetSSLConfiguration)
    End If
End Sub

Step 8

Run your BANanoVuetifyAD3 WebApp and enter the http port on the browser e.g.

http://localhost:2096/index

Step 9

Confirm that you want to continue on the site.

Step 10: You are running on HTTPS and certificate is valid.

That's it!

All the best

 

[Mashiane]

As the BVAD3Server template was changed yesterday in favour of HTTPS, you will have to follow the rest of this here to make it work on HTTP.

[BANanoVuetifyAD3] Deploying BANanoServer on Windows HTTP

Ola The BANanoVuetifyAD3 BANanoServer kitchen sink was updated yesterday to favour HTTPS connections. This tutorial is necessary due to that otherwise if you have the old version of BVAD3 BANanoServer, it will run without issues. NB: Please note that you don't need the ABJSKStore for this...

www.b4x.com

TA!