OpenPostbud

Introduction

OpenPostbud is a web application that makes it possible to do mail merge and mass shipment of Digital Post using Service Platformen.

OpenPostbud is split into two logical parts: The web app and the task workers. The web app is the frontend presented to the user. The workers run in separate processes performing any queued up shipment or registration tasks.

Installation

OpenPostbud needs Python (>=3.11), pip and setuptools installed to be installed.

To install OpenPostbud navigate to the main folder where pyproject.toml is located and call

pip install .

This will build and install OpenPostbud into the active environment. It will also install any dependencies from pip.

Libre Office

OpenPostbud uses Libre Office to convert docx files to pdf. It does so by calling the Libre Office executable in the command line.

Environment variables

OpenPostbud app

OpenPostbud needs the following environment variables set:

Name	description	Type
nicegui_storage_secret	The secret used to store user session tokens	String
database_storage_secret	The encryption key used to encrypt database columns	A valid 128-bit AES key
auth_lifetime_seconds	The number of seconds to keep a user logged in	Integer
client_id	OIDC client id	String
client_secret	OIDC client secret	String
discovery_url	OIDC discovery url	URL
redirect_url	OIDC redirect url	URL
ui_port	Port the application listens on	Integer
ui_host	Host IP to listen on	string
ui_reload	Reload application when changes are detected	boolean
auth_lifetime_seconds		integer

Workers

The shipment and registration workers need the following environment variables set:

Name	description	Type
cvr	The CVR number of the organisation	String
kombit_cert_path	The absolute path to the certificate file used for Service Platformen	Path string
Kombit_test_env	Whether to use the test environment of Service Platformen	boolean
registration_worker_sleep_time	The number of seconds for the registration worker to idle	Integer
shipment_worker_sleep_time	The number of seconds for the shipment worker to idle	Integer
sender_label	The label to set on the sender of Digital Post	String
path_to_libreoffice	The absolute path to the Libre Office executable	Path string

Development

Under development it's possible to set some environment variables to help with testing.

Name	Description	Type
ssl_certfile	Path to self signed ssl certificate	Path String
ssl_keyfile	Path to certificate key file	Path String

Commandline interface (CLI)

OpenPostbud adds a command line executable called OpenPostbud. Use OpenPostbud -h to see help information about the CLI.

OpenPostbud app

To run the app execute the following command:

OpenPostbud run

This will start a Uvicorn server which listens on port 8000.

Workers

To run the workers:

OpenPostbud registration_worker
OpenPostbud shipment_worker

These workers will run in an infinite loop where they check the database for tasks. If there are no tasks the workers will sleep for a set amount of time.

Database

OpenPostbud uses SQLite and it creates an SQLite database in the current working directory called database.db.

Some sensitive columns in the database are encrypted using AES.

Authentication

The OpenPostbud web app uses Microsoft OIDC to authenticate users. This needs to be set up in the Microsoft Entra.

Admins can use the CLI command OpenPostbud admin_access to get a single-use login URL.