Recaster as a Standalone Process
This section outlines the steps required to install and run the Recaster as a standalone process on both Windows and Linux environments.
Installation and Configuration
Prerequisites
Before setting up the application, ensure that you have Node.js installed:
Installation
The recaster application is cross-platform and does not require any additional dependencies apart from Node.js. The Recaster binaries can be downloaded from the github repository. The latest version is available from the direct download link shown on the main (README) page. Previous releases can be found in the Releases section. The binaries are available in both tar.gz and zip formats.
Offline installation
When starting the application with a .bat or .sh command, it checks if the node_modules folder exists. If it doesn't exist, the script automatically downloads the dependencies and creates the folder. Therefore, if your target machine lacks an internet connection, execute this command first on a machine connected to the internet, then copy the node_modules directory to your offline machine.
Configuration
The configuration settings for the application are stored in the /db folder. Following the installation (or if the internal database does not exist or is empty), Recaster will search for a platforms.yml file in the /data folder.
It defines the high-level platform entity and the associated channels, inputs, and outputs.
The platforms.yml file will be loaded to create the initial configuration. Before loading the file, Recaster performs a validation check to ensure its validity. The application will only proceed to load the file if it meets the required criteria.
Note, it is important to follow the yaml format rules
More on the platforms.yml file .
After the initial configuration is set up, the recaster will store its configuration in the database, creating a dynamic and responsive configuration environment for the application. Any subsequent changes to the configuration will be reflected in updates to the platforms.yml file. This guarantees that the configuration file remains synchronized with the latest settings, making it easy to back up or share.
Operation
You can start the Recaster by using recaster-start.sh on Linux or recaster-start.bat on Windows, respectively.
Here are some examples of the command lines:
Start the Recaster. The user interface will be available on port 8080
./recaster-start.sh -p 8080
Or the same, on Windows
recaster-start.bat -p 8080
You can provide additional arguments when running the application.
More information on the arguments
To streamline the process, you can include the arguments you use in the .bat or .sh files.
For example, below we're adding the --vendor agrument to the recaster-start.bat file::
...
echo Start recaster
node .\server\server\index.js --vendor MyCompany %*
Use case scenarios
Licensing
Without the license, Recaster will work in demo mode (with restrictions). To remove these demo restrictions, you should obtain the license and copy it into the installation folder.
More information on licensing