These are some of the required steps, tips, and tricks when it comes to running an app on a local machine. The primary goal is to be able to iterate over changes and verifying them without needing to deploy the app to the test environment.
- Newest .NET 6 SDK
- Newest Git
- A code editor - we like Visual Studio Code
- Also install recommended extensions ( f.ex. C#)
- Docker Desktop (Linux users can also use native Docker)
-
Clone the
app-localtest
repository to a local folder and move into the folder.git clone https://github.com/Altinn/app-localtest cd app-localtest
-
Build and run the containers in the background.
docker compose --profile localtest up -d --build
This mode supports running one app at a time. If you need to run multiple apps at once, remove
--profile localtest
from the command and follow the instructions below to run LocalTest locally outside Docker.Note: Using profiles requires docker-compose version 1.28.0 or later. If your version does not support profiles and you prefer to run localtest in Docker, make sure to follow the instructions to install more a recent version or comment out the profile restriction in
docker-compose.yml
. -
Start your app This step requires that you have already created an app, added a data model, and cloned the app to your local environment.
Move into the
App
folder of your application.Example: If your application is named
my-awesome-app
and is located in the folderC:\my_applications
, run the following command:cd C:\my_applications\my-awasome-app\App
Run the application:
dotnet run
The app and local platform services are now running locally. The app can be accessed on http://local.altinn.cloud.
Log in with a test user, using your app name and org name. This will redirect you to the app.
The Docker Compose config can be changed with local environment variables. There is a
template file for the .env
file here, rename it to .env
and
uncomment some variables that you want different values for.
Sometimes the local environment have another service running on port 80, so you might need to change this.
ALTINN3LOCAL_PORT=80
If you want to see the storage files on disk (instead of reading them through the browser), change this to a local path on your computer (ensure that it exists)
ALTINN3LOCALSTORAGE_PATH=C:/AltinnPlatformLocal/
If you want to use another domain than local.altinn.cloud
for local testing you could do that this way:
TEST_DOMAIN=local.altinn.cloud
The setup described above (LocalTest running in Docker) currently only supports one app at a time. If you find yourself needing to run multiple apps at the same time, or if you need to debug or develop LocalTest, a local setup is preferred.
ℹ️ If you're already running LocalTest in Docker, be sure to stop the container or make sure you
omit --profile localtest
when running docker compose
.
Configuration of LocalTest The LocalTest application acts as an emulator of the Altinn 3 platform services. It provides things like authentication, authorization and storage. Everything your apps will need to run locally.
Settings (under LocalPlatformSettings
):
LocalAppMode
- (defaultfile
) If set tohttp
, LocalTest will find the active app configuration and policy.xml using apis exposed onLocalAppUrl
. (note that this is a new setting needs to be added manually underLocalPlatformSettings
, it might also require updates to altinn dependencies for your apps in order to support this functionality)LocalAppUrl
- IfLocalAppMode
=="http"
, this URL will be used instead ofAppRepositoryBasePath
to find apps and their files. Typically the value will be"http://localhost:5005"
LocalTestingStorageBasePath
- The folder to which LocalTest will store instances and data being created during testing.AppRepositoryBasePath
- The folder where LocalTest will look for apps and their files ifLocalAppMode
=="file"
. This is typically the parent directory where you checkout all your apps.LocalTestingStaticTestDataPath
- Test user data like profile, register and roles. (<path to altinn-studio repo>/testdata/
)
The recommended way of changing settings for LocalTest is through
user-secrets.
User secrets is a set of developer specific settings that will overwrite values from the appsettings.json
file when
the application is started in developer "mode". The alternative is to edit the appsettings.json
file directly. Just be
careful not to commit developer specific changes back to the repository.
- Define a user secret with the following command: (make sure you are in the LocalTest folder)
Run the command for each setting you want to change.
dotnet user-secrets set "LocalPlatformSettings:AppRepositoryBasePath" "C:\Repos"
- Alternatively edit the appsettings.json file directly:
- Open
appsettings.json
in theLocalTest
folder in an editor, for example in Visual Studio Code - Change the setting
"AppRepsitoryBasePath"
to the full path to your app on the disk. - Change other settings as needed.
- Save the file.
- Open
Finally, start the local platform services (make sure you are in the /src
folder)
cd /src
dotnet run
In some cases your application might differ from the default setup and require custom changes to the test data available. This section contains the most common changes.
This would be required if your app requires a role which none of the test users have.
- Identify the role list you need to modify by noting the userId of the user representing an entity, and the partyId of the entity you want to represent
- Find the correct
roles.json
file intestdata/authorization/roles
by navigating toUser_{userID}\party_{partyId}\roles.json
- Add a new entry in the list for the role you require
{
"Type": "altinn",
"value": "[Insert role code here]"
}
- Save and close the file
- Restart LocalTest