NGCHM-initialization {NGCHM}

Initialization of the NGCHM library.

Description

When first loaded the NGCHM library reads configuration files in the configuration path specified by the NGCHMCONFIGPATH environment variable. The configuration path is a colon (:) separated list of directory names. If not set it defaults to /etc/ngchm:/usr/local/ngchm:/opt/ngchm:$HOME/.ngchm.

Details

For each configuration directory in the configuration path, the NGCHM package reads the contents of the configuration files in the conf.d subdirectory in order (as determined by the R sort function). Other subdirectories are not scanned unless instructed to by an entry in a configuration file.

Configuration files may be either text files (.txt extension), R scripts (.R extension), or javascript files (.js extension).

Here is an example directory structruce for a server named 'my_server':

.
|-- conf.d
|   \-- 00-servers.txt
\-- my_server
    \-- config.txt

Here are the contents of an example 00-servers.txt file:

[servers]
my-server = /usr/local/ngchm/my_server

Here are the contents of an example config.txt file:

serverProtocol = shaidy
accessMethod = api
basePath = <URL to server. e.g. "https://mydomain.edu/server/api">
serverURL = <URL to server. e.g. "https://mydomain.edu/server">

Value

None. This function is used for its side effects of loading configuration files.

Text files

A text configuration file consists of one or more sections. Each section begins with a single line containing the section type enclosed in square brackets. Subsequent lines in the section are either blank or contain a definition of the form "name separator value". The default separator is the equals sign (=).

The 'servers' section defines available servers. The name field defines the name by which the server is known to the library. The value field specifies a directory containing a specification of the server's properties. The server specification directory must contain a config.txt that contains lines of the form "name separator value". The config.txt file must define the value of 'serverProtocol' to be the name of a ngchmServerProtocol. It must also define the values of any mandatory parameters required by ngchmServerProtocol, and may optionally define any optional parameters.

R scripts

R scripts are sourced. They can be used to define local NGCHM related functions.

Javascript scripts

Javascript files define context specific menu entries.