Caliper Image Viewer

A FastAPI microservice for rendering a redirect URL which in turn contains a signed url for a given file.

Project Description

This project provides an API for viewing images. It includes endpoints for health checks, retrieving signed urls for file objects, and accessing OpenAPI documentation.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/aced/image_viewer.git
   cd image_viewer

2. Create a virtual environment and activate it:

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows use `venv\Scripts\activate`

3. Install the dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   # or
   pip install .

Usage

1. Run the FastAPI application:

   # by default, the application will render URLs for AVIVATOR
   # to overwrite this, set the environment variable BASE_URL
   # the URL will be BASE_URL{signed_url(object_id)}
   uvicorn image_viewer.app:app --reload

2. Access the API documentation:

   • OpenAPI: http://127.0.0.1:8000/openapi.json
   • Swagger UI: http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs

Endpoints

• GET /_health: Health check endpoint.
• GET /view/{object_id}: Redirects to the URL of the object.
• GET /openapi.json: OpenAPI documentation.
• GET /docs: Swagger UI.

Running Tests

To run the tests, use the following command:

pytest

Architecture Overview of image_viewer.app

The image_viewer.app is a FastAPI-based microservice designed to provide an API for viewing images. Below is an overview of its architecture:

Components

1. FastAPI Application:

   • The core of the application, handling HTTP requests and routing.

2. Configuration:

   • Uses pydantic's BaseSettings to manage configuration, loading config variables from a .env file or environment variables.

3. Endpoints:

   • Health Check: GET /_health - Returns a status indicating the server is running.
   • View Object: GET /view/{object_id} - Redirects to a signed URL for the object.

4. Utilities:

   • Object Signer: A utility function get_signed_url to generate signed URLs for objects.

5. Environment Variables:

   • Managed through a .env file, or BASE_URL environmental variable, allowing dynamic configuration of the base URL for redirects.

Dependencies

See Slack Discussion

• https://avivator.gehlenborglab.org
• https://vitessce.io/

Both of these:

• Render tiff files in the browser
• Are single-page apps that require signed URLs to access the data. The signed URLs are generated by Gen3.Fence
• The Caliper Image Viewer formats the URL and delivers the redirect response to FEF.

Key Files

• app.py: Main application file containing the FastAPI app and endpoint definitions.
• .env: Environment configuration file.
• object_signer.py: Contains the get_signed_url function.
• tests/: Directory containing unit tests for the application.

User Flow

• The caller can send a GET request to the /view/{object_id} endpoint to retrieve a signed URL for the specified object.
• The application will generate a signed URL for the object and return a 307 redirect to the signed URL.
  • Currently, the signed URL is generated by appending the object_id to the BASE_URL. This is sufficient for the AVIVATOR use case.
  • For the VITESSE use case, the signed URL is included in a more complex "View config" object that is provided in the command line. See #1
• The caller MUST provide an authorization token either in the Authorization header (as a Bearer token) or as a cookie (access_token).
• The caller MUST handle the redirect to the signed URL to view the object. 307 status code is returned with the Location header containing the signed URL.

Overview Diagram

Future Work

• Support for Multiple Object Types: Currently, the application only supports tiff objects. Future work could include support viewers for additional object types [csv,json, files] .