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Kontroll BCF API server - OpenCDE APIs

What is this

OpenCDE APIs: Foundation API, BCF API, Documents API implemented in python, the FastAPI framework and the Neo4j graph database.

Background

You can read some background information about the project here:

https://martin.wiss.se/data/bcf_ifc_graph.pdf

This video show how to deploy the Kontroll API server on Ubuntu server and how to use it together with Solibri Office as a BCF and Documents API client.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuFz9WPxbDM

The name of this project is Kontroll BCF API server because it was originally developed as a POC prototype to test if BCF API could be used for digital inspection plans for building permits (translated as "kontroll-plan" in Swedish language).

Code structure

/docker-compose.yml You bring up the project using this file.

/api/Dockerfile Contains instructions for the FastAPI container. Referenced by /docker-compose.yml

/api/app Contains the server application.

/api/app/main.py This is where the application starts. The FastAPI-container will run this script on uvicorn. main.py will load routes from scripts in the /api/app/api folder.

/api/app/api This is where the FastAPI routes are defined.

/api/app/repository Routes often runs methods that will read or write data to or from a database. This is where methods that read or write data from database are declared.

/api/app/database Some general methods to interact with database.

/api/app/db_config When the Neo4j container is launched it will initialize a database with some test data from init.cypher. This initial state does not represent all data. Model.cypher contains a more complete model.

/api/app/ifcgraph Script to import data from IFC STEP file to Neo4j.

/api/app/models Pydantic models used to define the JSON structures of requests and responses. Models are arranged in files depending on if it is request or response or both (common) or not at all (other).

/api/app/security Contains methods for OAuth2 and a method to get the secrets used. You need to create your own secrets and put them in the /secrets folder. Secrets are more secure than environment values.

/api/app/templets Jinja2 templates used to generate some webpages necessary for OAuth2 flow and Documents API flow.

/api/app/requirements.txt Generated using pipreqs not pip freeze.

Deployment

To get this code running properly you need:

  • your own linux server, on premise or in the cloud
  • a domain name and a TLS-certificate for your domain name
  • a proxy server, nginx was used
  • to set up your proxy server to use HTTPS
  • to use proxy as bridge between docker network and remote
  • proxy (outside container) and uvicorn (inside container) should access same TLS certificate
  • to edit your .env file with values specific for your server and API
  • to replace hard coded values in code with specific values for your server and API
  • to create three secrets and put them in the /secrets folder
  • to put apoc-5.7.0-core and apoc-5.7.0-extended jars in /neo4j/plugins folder
  • to put an ifcopenshell.zip in /api/app/ifcopenshell folder
  • Docker and Neo4j software
  • a favicon at /favicon.ico
  • to run "bash restart.sh" to start and restart containers
  • a BCF client, registered with client ID and secret

This code was developed and tested using Solibri Office as BCF client, however: Solibri Office can only connect to pre-registered servers. This means that you cannot connect to your server using a regular version of Solibri Office. If you want to use Solibri, then you will have to first kindly ask Solibri if they want to add your server to the list of registered servers. An alternative is to develop your own BCF client or to use this existing BCF API client module for python to build your own client script:

https://pypi.org/project/bcf-client/

I do not know of any working BCF API client plugins for Revit or Archicad that allows connecting to arbitrary BCF API servers. It seems like most plugins instead were developed to only connect to a specific BCF API server. I think that is contradictory because BCF is an open standard intended to facilitate communication between multiple clients and servers. A BCF API client that can connect to multiple arbitrary BCF API servers would be a good thing to develop.

TODO

The original intention of the code was just to create a prototype for private testing. Improvements are needed to collaborate on this code or to deploy this system in production.

Suggested improvements:

  • General code structure refactoring
  • Better commenting
  • Testing scripts, unit testing
  • Better error handling
  • More consistent logging
  • Easier deployment
  • User registration and admin system
  • BCF client registration functionality
  • OData to Cypher converter
  • Documents API and BCF API integration
  • More complete OpenAPI documentation of routes
  • More complete documentation of pydantic models
  • Improvements on IFC-graph
  • BCF event logging
  • Implement also the routes that Solibri Office does not support
  • Replace hard coded values with .env values
  • Improve security before any kind of deployment in production
  • Making full use of native IFC (for example allowing BCF API to edit IFC directly using BIM snippets)
  • Integrate BCF API BIM snippets editing with GIT commits

Prototype

This code was developed and tested on a system using:

  • Ubuntu 20
  • Nginx 1.18
  • Lets encrypt, certbot
  • Docker 20

Suggested reading

API

OAuth2

Neo4j and Cypher

OpenCDE APIs

Server

IFC

Frontend

License

The GNU Affero General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works, specifically designed to ensure cooperation with the community in the case of network server software.

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html

See the /LICENSE file.