Create

Click the Create Container button to enter the form for creating a new container object. This does not create a Docker container yet but only gathers information. The actual Docker container is created when starting the container.

Fill in at least the mandatory fields, marked with a star (*). Some of them are pre-filled with a reasonable default value. Change only if required. Others like Title, Repository, Tag and Container Port have to be set by the user. Below is a detailed description of each form field. In the example screenshots, we set up a Shiny app.

Fill in a reasonable title that helps you identify the container. The title must be unique. A description is helpful, but not required.

Fill in the repository, tag and container port.

Click the Create button to create the container object. This does not create the actual Docker container yet.

Container templates

To make use of the container templates, select a template from the top-hand dropdown menu and click Get. This will populate all form fields that are set in the template with you create form. Anything you already entered will be overwritten. The prefix [Site-wide] or [Project-wide] indicates whether this template is either a site-wide or a project-wide template.

Environment

Environment variables can be specified using a JSON dictionary. Top-level keys in the dictionary become the environmental variables visible to the app launched in the container:

{
    "ID": "My container",
    "LIST": [ "A", "B", "C" ]
}

Given the above example, two environment variables will be defined: ID and LIST. The contents of ID will be My container; the contents of LIST will be [ 'A', 'B', 'C' ]. Note that the double quotes will be changed to single quotes.

These variables are available to the web app of the container, and can be used to specify e.g. a data source or other parameters for the container web app.

In addition to the user defined variables, the title, description and container_port are also exposed as environment variables to the Docker container (as TITLE, DESCRIPTION and CONTAINER_PORT respectively). The complete list looks like this:

{
    "ID": "My container",
    "LIST": [ "A", "B", "C" ],
    "TITLE": "Some title",
    "DESCRIPTION": "Some description",
    "CONTAINER_PORT": 8080,
}

Environment secret keys

Environment secret keys is a comma-separated list of sensitive keys to environment variables that have to have a corresponding key defined in the JSON dictionary in the environment field. Those variables will be masked when editing them or viewing the details of the container.

Container path

The container path is the folder structure appended to the web address of the container.

Timeout

The timeout is set in seconds and is set as the time limit for any Docker action (start/stop/etc..) to complete.

Heartbeat URL (inactive)

The heartbeat URL can be used to check whether the container app runs correctly. (Feature is currently inactive)

Files

This dropdown provides the files that were uploaded to Kiosc via the Small Files app to the project the current container is created in.

To get the internal link to the file the container then can access, click Insert and the link will be appended to the command field.

Max retries

Maximal number of retries for an action in case of failure. If an action (e.g. starting a container) fails, it will be retried this many times.

Inactivity threshold

Number of days the container is allowed to run without proxy access. If this threshold is hit, the container will be stopped.