This is a program which connects the iBioSim REST API to the SynBioSuite app, allowing for asynchronous command and polling of long-running simulation jobs. It takes advantage of Azure Function's Durable Functions extension.
The iBioSim API and SynBioSuite app were both designed to be platform agnostic, meaning they don't need to run on any specific cloud provider or could be self-hosted. Furthermore, the iBioSim API was designed to be stateless as to comply with REST standards and so it could be deployed serverlessly.
However, since SynBioSuite is a purely client-side application, some sort of stateful backend component was needed to allow for asynchronous, long-running operations. Thus, the iBioSim API Connector was created.
This API is used similarly to the iBioSim API, but there's no need to provide a callback URL, as that's appended to incoming requests interally.
To run this program locally, you need to use the Azure Functions Emulator. Refer to "Prerequisites" and "Test the function locally" in the Durable Functions JavaScript starter tutorial.
For deployment, it's easiest to do so within VSCode. Follow the aforementioned tutorial from this point forward.
Unfortantely, this connector is made specifically for use on Azure, as it uses platform-specific libraries. You could try using the Functions emulator within a Docker container, which could then be deployed anywhere that allows containers, but I have never tested this.
Note: if you're going to try this, you'll also need the Azure Storage Emulator, although it is deprecated. In favor of what is unknown.
To run this project, you will need to add the following environment variables. At the time of writing, I could not find a way to include them in a file with the deployment. Instead, I defined them in the Configuration section in the Function App's Azure portal page.
APPLICATION_URL The public URL for the Function App. There is probably a way to find this
dynamically without setting an environment variable, but I don't know how.
IBIOSIM_API The public URL for an instance of iBioSim API.