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What is Xtend?

While Dais provides a lot of tools out of the box, there may be times you need custom functionality. When this happens, you can use the Dais Xtend development kits to augment the capabilities of the Dais platform:

Xtend Common Services​

Dais also provides pre-built Xtend services and connectors you can deploy to your app. The following common services are available as part of the Dais Marketplace:

Xtend Connectors​

What are they?​

  • Xtend Connectors aim to provide case teams the ability to integrate with external data and or services.
  • The goal is to streamline the setup and lower the learning curve to ensure successful outcome.

When and Why would you want to use them?​

  • You need to push or pull data to/from a client or 3rd Party service.
  • If you’re app needs to perform compute or resource intensive operations that are not suitable to run within Dais.
  • The Xtend connector acts as the interface between the app UI and external services and data.
  • It's a web service built from Python source code, so a suitably skilled developer is required to create the connector.

How they work​

  • Documentation is provided to enable a developer to develop a connector from scratch.
  • A template and associated documentation is also provided to help developers get up and running quickly.
  • When ready, the component can be deployed to a Dais production cluster using standard Dais functionality.

Delivery and Implementation​

  • Can only be retrieved from verified Dais-accessible Git repository.
  • Are built and deployed as Docker images.
  • Must be written in Python.
  • Enables access to the Dais backend API include user, app, scenario and data management and secrets and configuration.

Dependencies and Libraries​

  • Must use an official Python 3.x Docker Debian image.
  • Can use any Python 3.x package compatible with the official Python 3.x Debian Docker images.
  • Access to Artifactory.
  • Access to a production Dais cluster.

Current Constraints​

  • External access is only available on ports 80 and 443 (i.e., HTTP and HTTPS). Additional ports may be available upon request to the Dais team.

More Information​

For more information on how to develop Xtend Connectors, see:

Xtend Frontend SDK​

What is it?​

  • The Xtend Frontend SDK aims to provide case teams the ability to add custom components and workflow steps to Dais.
  • The goal is to streamline the setup and lower the learning curve to ensure successful outcome.

When and Why, you want to use it​

  • Can't find existing components/workflow step that suits your needs – you can easily create and publish one.
  • If you’ve got existing component that you like to use it in Dais – you can create connector to it and publish it.
  • Takes care of the everything that sits around your component/workflow step, simplifying delivery.
  • It is not a WYSIWYG tool, so a suitably skilled developer (React, Typescript) is required to create the component/workflow step.

How it works​

  • With the use of a code generation tool, a developer is guided through the set up and then you are ready to get started.
  • Develop your component/workflow step in the provided structure, add the parameters to the generated connector that you what to make adjustable with Dais.
  • When ready – publish your component to Dais.

Delivery and Implementation​

  • Are packaged as a JavaScript bundle.
  • Can only be loaded from an internal Dais web resource by an authenticated user.
  • Must be written in TypeScript, a super-set of JavaScript.
  • JavaScript components can be wrapped/integrated by a TypeScript component.

Dependencies and Libraries​

  • Can use any package available on NPM subject to licensing / security review.
  • Only support the React component library.
  • If you want to use Material UI or Styled Components, you will need to use a pre-loaded version provided by Dais.
  • Access to Artifactory.
  • Dais Developer Key.

Current Constraints​

  • UI Builder framework does not support "page" routing and transitions2 between child components provided by Dais, but CSS transitions animations are possible in an Xtend component.

More Information​

For more information on how to develop Xtend Connectors, see: