Controlling scientific apps through URL params or linked configs

[roguephysicist]

Hi All,

I have an idea about creating "workflows" for batch connect apps, where the app form can be pre-filled by using URL search params. This would enable users to directly share specific app configrations via URL.

Here are three examples of how I envision this could be accomplished:

1. Parsing URL search params directly to the form; i.e. cluster.school.edu/pun/jupyter?version=python3 would pre-fill the version field in the Jupyter form with python3.
2. Generating a URL in the app with the encoded options; this approach would yield a URL with a long alpha-numeric string containing all of the encoded options. See here for an example.
3. Implement config files that can be specified via the URL; similar to sub-apps, apps could have one or several "config files" that specify the values to be used in the form. These could be specified via URL, i.e. cluster.school.edu/pun/jupyter/?config=/mypath/myclass.yml would use the /mypath/myclass.yml config file for the Jupyter app.
4. BONUS; combined with the previous points, another great feature could be auto-submission of an app from a URL, i.e. cluster.school.edu/pun/jupyter/?submit=true would not even present the form, just submit the app directly.

This idea came about from working on the "shared apps" project that is explained in detail on the GitHub repo and in the Tips & Tricks video presentation. If the receiving user could just click on a link and launch a completely configured batch connect app, we can enable really powerful and flexible workflows directly from the dashboard. This also means that apps can be re-used across many contexts, without the need for sub-apps or hard-coding for niche use cases.