In this article you will learn what is needed for a WriteBackExtreme installation.
Because every environment is different there is no right answer to the question on how much time it takes to setup a WriteBackExtreme environment. But there are guidelines you can follow to do a rough estimation.
DTAP
Like any other installation Infotopics Apps for Tableau calculates time for one installation of the product. So if you are running with a DTAP (Test Acceptance Production) environment requiring multiple installations you can roughly multiply the number below per installation.
Server
Before you can start you need a server. This can be a Windows or Linux server depending on your preference.
DNS
Every web application needs a domain. For example https://writeback.infotopics.com. This domain needs to be registered in the DNS and pointing to the right server.
Certificates
You need valid HTTPS certificates for the above domain. Without WriteBackExtreme will not run.
Loadbalancer
Many customers run WriteBackExtreme behind a loadbalancer. The loadbalancer needs to be configured to work with WriteBackExtreme. Also when you work with a loadbalancer WriteBackExtreme will be installed on more then one machine. Take this into account as well.
Installing a webserver
WriteBackExtreme is running on a webserver application. For Windows this can be IIS or Apache. For linux this can be Nginx for example.
Installing PHP
The webserver communicates with PHP for processing server requests. PHP needs to be installed with the right plugins.
Installing a repository database
The repository database will hold all the configuration of WriteBackExtreme. This is the core of the product and needs to be installed separately.
Installing WriteBackExtreme
When above is done we can install WriteBackExtreme on the webserver and configure it. You will have to configure the configuration file (.env), create an admin user and make sure the proper file permissions are set. Also you need to set your license in a LICENSE file in the root of the project.
Configuring additional databases (optional)
This step is optional but will be required if you are going to do write back actions on a production database on Snowflake for example. Depending on the database type you will need to do configuration on the server like installation a DSN or adding a plugin to PHP.
Authentication
WriteBackExtreme supports different types of authentication like username+password, pincode, Tableau Server and Single Sign On. The most user friendly authentication type is Single Sign On (SAML). This requires configuration in WriteBackExtreme and in your SAML provider (Okta, Azure or Other).
Extension
The extension is the product used in the Tableau dashboard. This file can be downloaded from the management console and needs to be delivered to the dashboard developers. Whenever dashboards are published to a Tableau Server / Cloud the extension needs to be whitelisted on that server.