🐞 Bug: Swarm Stack - View Source missing

[KarelRuzicka]

Bug Description

According to the documentation, there should be a View Source feature within the new Docker Swarm > Stacks section that allows users to view the saved compose.yaml and .env files for a stack. However, this option/tab is currently entirely missing from the UI, unless I overlooked something.

This missing feature creates a number of issues, most notably leaving behind dangling data. Because the live "Stacks" page only shows currently active Swarm stacks, if a stack is removed or goes down, it disappears from the live view.

Steps To Reproduce

Navigate to Swarm > Stacks in the Arcane UI

Expected Behavior

A "View Source" button, tab, or section present

Actual Behavior

No "View Source" button, tab, or section is available.

Screenshots

No response

Arcane Version

v1.17.0

Installation Method

Docker Compose (Recommended)

Environment Type

Local Docker (Single instance)

Database Type

SQLite (Default)

Operating System

Linux

Docker Version

29.1.3

Browser & Version

No response

Relevant Logs or Error Messages

Docker Compose Configuration

Environment Configuration (.env file)

Additional Context

No response

[kmendell]

Youd have to mount the stuff into the folder at /app/data/swarm/sources, i deliberatly seperated projects and this as they are completely different entities.

[KarelRuzicka]

I understand that this is a different folder than projects, but as I understood the docs, there should also be a UI section to browse stacks in these folders. Or did I misunderstand it? Is View Source just referring to the actual file tree?

[kmendell]

Once this is done building b2c4e27, try the :next image to see if its better/fixed.

[KarelRuzicka]

I tested the :next image and the UI is definitely looking better but I did run into a few new issues:

1. Downed Stack Error (500): When trying to open a stack that is currently down, it throws a - Unable to connect to local Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Please ensure Docker is running and accessible. - 500

2. Missing Up/Down Controls: I don't see any controls to deploy (up) or take down a stack anymore. Replacing them with a "Save" button in the compose file view makes sense, but now it seems impossible to actually control the stack's state. Perhaps those up/down controls could be moved to the main .../swarm/stacks/xxxx details tab?

3. Missing File Error (404): When trying to edit a stack that doesn't have a saved file yet, it throws a Saved source not found - 404 error. Maybe it could default to creating a new file from a template in this scenario?

---

Looking at the 500 error from the first issue, I'm worried this might open a whole new can of worms by trying to mix "API state" (live Swarm stacks) and "file state" (saved Compose files) in the exact same view.

I'm wondering if separating these concepts entirely might be a cleaner approach? To me, stack Compose files feel much closer to regular Docker Compose files. Perhaps they could become a second category within the Projects panel? You could have two tabs there: one for standard projects and one for Swarm stack projects. The files themselves would stay separated on the backend just like they are now, but the UI and logic would basically just mirror how regular projects are already handled.

[kmendell]

I could, I tried ot get feedback on the swarm feature, but didnt receive much and the stuff i did it said it was good, Swarm itself is iun a buggy state according to a few sources, (portainer being one of them ironically), its recomended to move workloads off of swarm as the satte of it is just known for the future, but that being said, i can see what i can figure out, i dont use it so my testing is very limitd in what i can do or try.

[KarelRuzicka]

Yeah, swarm for sure has seen better days. It doesn't help that Mirantis is shifting focus over to Kubernetes and using docker more as a dev platform these days.

But the sad truth is that there is basically no other option. Docker compose only works until you get a second server and moving over to Kubernetes makes the complexity of the same workload jump up 10x (trust me, I tried) and you lose access to most of the docker ecosystem tools, dashboards like Arcane being one of them.

I feel like with a few minor tweaks like this one, Arcane could become the next Swarmpit, which is another dashboard but currently it's almost abandoned. Most of the swarm management dashboards in Arcane from the last release are really well implemented. Ironically this means Arcane could potentially resurrect Swarm a bit, which is why I saw so many upvotes on the original feature request,

If you need any swarm related testing, I can definitely help out.

[kmendell]

@KarelRuzicka Try this and see if this is better? #2234, backup any databse though or use a test instance, as i added a migration with this.

[kmendell]

Side note ive been tryingto work on a alternative to all of this where aracen acts as thats "orchestrator" , but thats along ways from being finished..

[KarelRuzicka]

@kmendell This is perfect! Everything works as expected.

A few small notes:

1. I would keep the stacks menu (/swarm/stacks/) in the side panel. The Open runtime button already points to a subsection of this menu (/swarm/stacks/xxx) which I think works really well together.
2. I would add the Open runtime button to the three dot context menu on each project stack
3. Would it be possible to make the directory consistent with regular projects and make an env variable like SWARM_PROJECTS_DIRECTORY?
4. The Saved and Unknown counter counters in the top bar of the projects tab might be redundant now, since I think all of the projects shown there are saved.