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Configuration

Configuring the server

Wave allows starting Wave server in 2 ways:

  • via wave run command - this automatically starts Wave server (waved) under the hood, useful for development.
  • via Wave server binary (waved) - useful during deployment or when you need to run your Wave server on a different machine than your app.

Wave can be configured via configuration (.env) file, environment variables or command line arguments with the following priority: cmd arg > env var > config > default.

ENV var or config (wave run or waved)CLI args (waved)Description
H2O_WAVE_ACCESS_KEY_ID-access-key-id stringdefault API access key ID (default "access_key_id")
H2O_WAVE_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET-access-key-secret stringdefault API access key secret (default "access_key_secret")
H2O_WAVE_ACCESS_KEYCHAIN-access-keychain stringpath to file containing API access keys (default ".wave-keychain")
-compact stringcompact AOF log
-create-access-keygenerate and add a new API access key ID and secret pair to the keychain
H2O_WAVE_DATA_DIR-data-dir stringdirectory to store site data (default "./data").
H2O_WAVE_DEBUG 1-debugenable debug mode (profiling, inspection, etc.)
H2O_WAVE_EDITABLE 1-editableallow users to edit web pages
H2O_WAVE_FORWARDED_HTTP_HEADERS-forwarded-http-headers stringcomma-separated list of case-insensitive HTTP header keys to forward to the Wave app from the browser WS connection. If not specified, defaults to '*' - all headers are allowed. If set to an empty string, no headers are forwarded.
H2O_WAVE_HTTP_HEADERS_FILE-http-headers-file stringpath to a MIME-formatted file containing additional HTTP headers to add to responses from the server
H2O_WAVE_INIT-init stringinitialize site content from AOF log
H2O_WAVE_LISTEN-listen stringlisten on this address (default ":10101")
-list-access-keyslist all the access key IDs in the keychain
H2O_WAVE_BASE_URL-base-url stringthe base URL (path prefix) to be used for resolving relative URLs (e.g. /foo/ or /foo/bar/, without the host (default "/")
H2O_WAVE_MAX_CACHE_REQUEST_SIZE-max-cache-request-size stringmaximum allowed size of HTTP requests to the server cache (e.g. 5M or 5MB or 5MiB) (default "5M")
H2O_WAVE_MAX_PROXY_REQUEST_SIZE-max-proxy-request-size stringmaximum allowed size of proxied HTTP requests (e.g. 5M or 5MB or 5MiB) (default "5M")
H2O_WAVE_MAX_PROXY_RESPONSE_SIZE-max-proxy-response-size stringmaximum allowed size of proxied HTTP responses (e.g. 5M or 5MB or 5MiB) (default "5M")
H2O_WAVE_MAX_REQUEST_SIZE-max-request-size stringmaximum allowed size of HTTP requests to the server (e.g. 5M or 5MB or 5MiB) (default "5M")
H2O_WAVE_NO_STORE 1-no-storedisable storage (scripts and multicast/broadcast apps will not work)
H2O_WAVE_NO_LOG 1-no-logdisable AOF logging (connect/disconnect and diagnostic logging messages are not disabled)
H2O_WAVE_OIDC_AUTH_URL_PARAMS-oidc-auth-url-params stringadditional URL parameters to pass during OIDC authorization, in the format "key:value", comma-separated, e.g. "foo:bar,qux:42"
H2O_WAVE_OIDC_CLIENT_ID-oidc-client-id stringOIDC client ID
H2O_WAVE_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET-oidc-client-secret stringOIDC client secret
H2O_WAVE_OIDC_END_SESSION_URL-oidc-end-session-url stringOIDC end session URL
H2O_WAVE_OIDC_PROVIDER_URL-oidc-provider-url stringOIDC provider URL
H2O_WAVE_OIDC_REDIRECT_URL-oidc-redirect-url stringOIDC redirect URL
H2O_WAVE_OIDC_POST_LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URL-oidc-post-logout-redirect-url stringOIDC post logout redirect URL
H2O_WAVE_OIDC_SCOPES-oidc-scopesOIDC scopes separated by comma (default "openid,profile")
H2O_WAVE_OIDC_SKIP_LOGIN 1-oidc-skip-logindon't show the built -in login form during OIDC authorization
H2O_WAVE_PRIVATE_DIR 2-private-dir valueadditional directory to serve files from (authenticated users only), in the format "[url-path]@[filesystem-path]", e.g. "/public/files/@/some/local/path" will host /some/local/path/foo.txt at /public/files/foo.txt; multiple directory mappings allowed; paths need to be relative to Wave server binary location
H2O_WAVE_PUBLIC_DIR 2-public-dir valueadditional directory to serve files from, in the format "[url-path]@[filesystem-path]", e.g. "/public/files/@/some/local/path" will host /some/local/path/foo.txt at /public/files/foo.txt; multiple directory mappings allowed; paths need to be relative to Wave server binary location
H2O_WAVE_PROXY 1-proxyenable HTTP proxy (for IDE / language server support only - not recommended for internet-facing websites)
-remove-access-key stringremove the specified API access key ID from the keychain
H2O_WAVE_SESSION_EXPIRY-session-expiry stringsession cookie lifetime duration (e.g. 1800s or 30m or 0.5h) (default "720h")
H2O_WAVE_SESSION_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT-session-inactivity-timeout stringsession inactivity timeout duration (e.g. 1800s or 30m or 0.5h) (default "30m")
H2O_WAVE_TLS_CERT_FILE-tls-cert-file stringpath to certificate file (TLS only)
H2O_WAVE_TLS_KEY_FILE-tls-key-file stringpath to private key file (TLS only)
H2O_WAVE_NO_TLS_VERIFY 1-no-tls-verifydo not verify TLS certificates during external communication - DO NOT USE IN PRODUCTION
-versionprint version and exit
H2O_WAVE_KEEP_APP_LIVE 1-keep-app-livedo not unregister unresponsive apps (default false)
H2O_WAVE_WEB_DIR-web-dir stringdirectory to serve web assets from (default "./www")
H2O_WAVE_CONF-conf stringpath to a configuration file (default ".env")
H2O_WAVE_PING_INTERVAL-ping-interval stringhow often should ping messages be sent (e.g. 60s or 1m or 0.1h) to keep the websocket connection alive (default "50s")
H2O_WAVE_RECONNECT_TIMEOUT-reconnect-timeout stringTime to wait for reconnect before dropping the client (default "2s")
H2O_WAVE_ALLOWED_ORIGINS-allowed-origins stringcomma-separated list of allowed origins (e.g. http://foo.com) for websocket upgrades

File paths

All the configuration options that expect a path as value (public/private dir, data dir etc.) need the path provided to be either absolute or relative to a directory where waved is stored.

Those that do not start waved manually (but use wave run instead) and would like to use relative paths need to know that waved is stored in their 'virtualenv' (venv) folder (when installed via pip). If the venv folder is within the project root, then all the paths relative to your project dir need to be prepended with ../ (up one directory).

Supported size units (case insensitive)

  • Exabyte: E / EB / EIB.
  • Petabyte: P / PB / PIB.
  • Terabyte: T / TB / TIB.
  • Gigabyte: G / GB / GIB.
  • Megabyte: M / MB / MIB.
  • Kilobyte: K / KB / KIB.
  • Byte: B

Suported time units

  • Nanosecond: ns.
  • Microsecond: us (or µs).
  • Milisecond ms.
  • Second: s.
  • Minute: m.
  • Hour: h.

Public/Private dirs

When the wave server (waved) is started as part of the wave run command, the waved binary is located in the root of the currently active python virtual environment. Local paths need to be relative to this location. Another quick trick to find the waved location is to check web-dir during app startup which is located in the same directory as waved itself.

wave run app --no-reload
2023/09/12 14:24:35 #
2023/09/12 14:24:35 # ┌────────────────┐ H2O Wave
2023/09/12 14:24:35 # │ ┐┌┐┐┌─┐┌ ┌┌─┐ │ 0.26.2 20230803101411
2023/09/12 14:24:35 # │ └┘└┘└─└└─┘└── │ © 2021 H2O.ai, Inc.
2023/09/12 14:24:35 # └────────────────┘
2023/09/12 14:24:35 # ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
2023/09/12 14:24:35 # │ Running at http://localhost:10101/ │
2023/09/12 14:24:35 # └──────────────────────────────────────┘
2023/09/12 14:24:35 # {"address":":10101","base-url":"/","t":"listen","web-dir":"/path/to/venv/www"}
INFO: Started server process [10429]
INFO: Waiting for application startup.
2023/09/12 14:24:36 # {"host":"http://127.0.0.1:8000","route":"/","t":"app_add"}
INFO: Application startup complete.
INFO: Uvicorn running on http://127.0.0.1:8000 (Press CTRL+C to quit)

From the above, the root of the active virtual python environment is /path/to/venv. Another, more straightforward, option is to use absolute paths.

Wave serves whole directories as they are. This means that these directories are listable by default. If you wish to turn off this behavior, simply put an empty file called index.html into the folder you wish to not list.

TLS verification

During development, you might want to test out TLS encryption, e.g. communication between Wave server and Keycloak. The easiest thing to do is to generate a self-signed certificate. However, Wave server verifies certificates for all communication by default, thus would throw an error for a self-signed one. FOR DEVELOPMENT PURPOSES ONLY, it's possible to turn off the check using either H2O_WAVE_NO_TLS_VERIFY environment variable or no-tls-verify parameter.

danger

Disabling TLS verification is a security risk. Make sure TLS is not disabled in production environments.

Configuring your app

Your Wave application is an ASGI server. When you run your app during development, the app server runs at http://127.0.0.1:8000/ by default (localhost, port 8000), and assumes that your Wave server is running at http://127.0.0.1:10101/ (localhost, port 10101). The wave run command automatically picks another available port if 8000 is not available.

The Wave server and apps communicate with each other using RPC over persistent HTTP connections.

For production deployments, you'll want to configure which port your app listens to, how it can access the Wave server, and how the Wave server can access your app.

You can use the following environment variables to configure your app's server's behavior:

H2O_WAVE_APP_ADDRESS

The public host/port of the app server. Defaults to http://127.0.0.1:8000. Set this variable if you are running your Wave server and your app on different machines or containers.

H2O_WAVE_APP_MODE

The realtime sync mode of the app server. One of unicast (default), multicast, or broadcast.

H2O_WAVE_ADDRESS

The public host/port of the Wave server. Defaults to http://127.0.0.1:10101. Set this variable if you are running the Wave server on a remote machine or container. Another common usage for this var is changing the app port together with H2O_WAVE_LISTEN.

H2O_WAVE_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT

The number of seconds to attempt to connect to the Wave server before giving up.

H2O_WAVE_ACCESS_KEY_ID

The API access key ID to use when communicating with the Wave server.

H2O_WAVE_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET

The API access key secret to use when communicating with the Wave server.

H2O_WAVE_APP_ACCESS_KEY_ID

The API access key ID to use when communicating with the app server. Automatically generated if not specfied.

H2O_WAVE_APP_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET

The API access key secret to use when communicating with the app server. Automatically generated if not specified.

H2O_WAVE_CHECKPOINT_DIR

The directory to save/load application and session state. Enables checkpointing. If set, the app saves the contents of q.app and q.user before exiting. When restarted, the contents of q.app and q.user are restored. The directory is automatically created if it does not exist.

You can use checkpointing as a simple way to save/load your app's data while prototyping.

The checkpoint file is named h2o_wave.checkpoint, and is serialized using Python's pickle protocol. Due to the nature of the pickle format, checkpointing is only guaranteed to work if the Python version and the versions of your app's dependencies are a perfect match, down to the patch version. In other words, do not expect checkpointing to work if an app is restarted using a newer/older Python version or a newer/older package. If you use checkpointing, it is recommended that you explicitly use == to set the major.minor.patch version of every package in your app's requirements.txt or setup.py.

H2O_WAVE_NO_AUTOSTART

Disable/enable Wave server boot during wave run. Defaults to false. Available values: 1, t, true to disable autostart; 0, f, false to enable autostart (case insensitive). Same as calling wave run --no-autostart.

H2O_WAVE_BASE_URL

The base URL (path prefix) to be used for resolving relative URLs (e.g. /foo/ or /foo/bar/, without the host (default "/"). If you run your Wave server (waved) and Wave app separately, it's necessary to set this env variable for both.

H2O_WAVE_NO_COPY_UPLOAD

If the Wave server and Wave app run on the same machine, q.site.upload() will copy files instead of using HTTP requests. This is done for performance reasons (avoids serialization overheads). To disable this optimization and force HTTP requests every time, set H2O_WAVE_NO_COPY_UPLOAD to 1 or t or true.

H2O_WAVE_WAVED_DIR

Provides the location of the Wave server's root directory to the Wave app, if both the server and the app are running on the same machine. Useful for performance optimizations during file uploads. Makes q.site.upload() copy files instead of using HTTP requests.

H2O_WAVE_RELOAD_EXCLUDE

Excludes certain files or directories from being watched for app reload. Only relative paths are allowed and requires watchfiles to be installed. See Uvicorn docs.

Multiple values are supported. Use OS path separator (: for Unix and ; for Windows) as a delimiter. E.g. H2O_WAVE_RELOAD_EXCLUDE=tmp_dir1/*.py:tmp_dir2/*.txt.

Web Analytics

You can configure your app's web pages to send basic usage information to a third-party web analytics or tracking site. This lets you measure and analyze how users are interacting with various parts of your app.

By default, Wave apps do not load any third-party trackers or capture usage data. Third-party trackers have to be enabled explicitly by the application's author, and are loaded on-demand.

Once enabled, your app's UI will send events every time the user performs some kind of action that triggers a request from the browser to your app. Only two kinds of information are sent to the third-party trackers:

  • The names of the elements that were possibly interacted with (and not values). For example, if a button named foo was clicked on, the value foo=true is tracked.
  • The hash part of the URL, if any. For example if the page /foo/bar was navigated to, the value #=/foo/bar is tracked.

Google Analytics

To enable usage tracking via Google Analytics, create and set a ui.tracker() on your page's meta card, with the id set to the measurement ID of your web property.

q.page['meta'] = ui.meta_card('',
tracker=ui.tracker(type=ui.TrackerType.GA, id='G-XXXXXXXXXX')
)

FAQ

How to start a Wave app on a different port?

You first need to set H2O_WAVE_LISTEN env variable, which is a string prefixed with : to make your Wave server expose the port you want. Afterwards set H2O_WAVE_ADDRESS='http://127.0.0.1:10102' to tell your Wave app where it should connect to.

H2O_WAVE_LISTEN=":10102" H2O_WAVE_ADDRESS='http://127.0.0.1:10102' wave run app.py

  1. 1, t, true to enable; 0, f, false to disable (case insensitive).
  2. Use OS-specific path list separator to specify multiple arguments - : for Linux/OSX and ; for Windows. For example, H2O_WAVE_PUBLIC_DIR=/images/@./files/images:/downloads/@./files/downloads.