Configuration settings

When using a custom NeoDash deployment, there are several settings you can configure. They mostly relate to Standalone mode and SSO configurations.

For a simple (non-Dockerized) deployment, these configuration parameters can be changed by modifying dist/config.json after you have built the application. When using a Docker image, the parameters can be passed as environment variables. See Standalone mode for more on Docker deployments.

An example configuration for NeoDash (default, running in editor mode) looks like this:

{
    "ssoEnabled": false,
    "ssoProviders": [],
    "ssoDiscoveryUrl": "https://example.com",
    "standalone": false,
    "standaloneProtocol": "neo4j",
    "standaloneHost": "localhost",
    "standalonePort": "7687",
    "standaloneDatabase": "neo4j",
    "standaloneDashboardName": "My Dashboard",
    "standaloneDashboardDatabase": "dashboards",
    "standaloneDashboardURL": "",
    "standaloneAllowLoad": false,
    "standaloneLoadFromOtherDatabases": false,
    "standaloneMultiDatabase": false,
    "standaloneDatabaseList": "neo4j"
    "loggingMode": "0",
    "loggingDatabase": "logs",
    "customHeader": "",
}

See the following table for the full list of configuration settings:

Name Type Default value Description

ssoEnabled

Boolean

false

If enabled, lets users connect to Neo4j using SSO. This requires a valid ssoDiscoveryUrl to be set.

ssoProviders

List

[]

When using multiple SSO providers on the database, you can configure the list of providers (by id) to be used on NeoDash. If empty, all providers will be displayed.

ssoDiscoveryUrl

String

https://example.com

If ssoEnabled is true and standalone mode is enabled, the URL to retrieve SSO auth config from.

standalone

Boolean

false

Determines whether to run NeoDash in editor mode (false), or reader mode (true). The terms "reader mode" and "standalone mode" are used interchangeably.

standaloneProtocol

String

neo4j

When running in standalone mode, the protocol to used for the Neo4j driver. Set this to one of neo4j, neo4j+s, neo4j+ssc, bolt, bolt+s, or bolt+ssc.

standaloneHost

String

localhost

When running in standalone mode, the hostname to connect to. This is only the hostname, no protocols or ports.

standalonePort

String

7687

When running in standalone mode, the Bolt port to connect to.

standaloneDatabase

String

neo4j

When running in standalone mode, the database to use for reporting. Cypher® queries used in reports read data from this database.

standaloneDashboardName

String

My Dashboard

The exact name (case-sensitive) of the dashboard to be loaded when running in standalone mode. This must be a dashboard that is saved as a node in the graph.

standaloneDashboardDatabase

String

neo4j

The name of the Neo4j database that contains the saved dashboard node. This is Neo4j by default unless you are using Neo4j Enterprise Edition, which lets you use multiple databases.

standaloneDashboardURL

String

neo4j

If you do not save a dashboard inside Neo4j and would like to run a standalone mode deployment with a dashboard from a URL, set this parameter to the complete URL pointing to the dashboard JSON.

standaloneAllowLoad

Boolean

false

If set to true, the Load Dashboard button is enabled in standalone mode, allowing users to load additional dashboards from Neo4J. This parameter is false` by default unless you are using Neo4j Enterprise Edition, which lets you use multiple databases. Note that when "load" is enabled in standalone mode, only a database is available as a source and not a file.

standaloneLoadFromOtherDatabases

Boolean

false

If standaloneAllowLoad` is set to true, this parameter enables users to load dashboards from other databases than the one deifned in standaloneDashboardDatabase. If set to false, this parameters has no effect.

standaloneMultiDatabase

Boolean

false

If this parameter is set to true, the standalone configuration ignores the standaloneDatabase parameter and allows users to choose which database to connect to in the login screen, among the ones provided in standaloneDatabaseList, with a dropdown list. This parameter is false by default unless you are using Neo4j Enterprise Edition, which lets you use multiple databases.

standaloneDatabaseList

String

neo4j

If standaloneMultiDatabase is set to true, this parmeter must contain a comma-separated list of database names that is displayed as options in the database dropdown at user login (e.g. 'neo4j,database1,database2' populates the database dropdown with the values 'neo4j','database1' and 'database2' in the connection screen). If set to false, this parameters has no effect.

loggingMode

String

none

Determines whether NeoDash should create any user activity logs. Possible values include: 0 (no log is created), 1 (user logins are tracked), 2 (tracks when a specific dashboard is accessed, loaded or saved by a user).

⚠️ Logs are created in a Neo4j database using the current user credentials. Write access to the log database must be granted to enable users to create logs.

⚠️ * Load/Save from/to file are not logged (only from/to Database).

loggingDatabase

String

neo4j

When loggingMode is set to something other than 0, loggingDatabase is the database to use for logging. Log records (nodes) are created in this database.

customHeader

String

none

If set, the dashboard header displays the prameter value as a fixed string, otherwise it displays the host and port of the current connection.

Configuring SSO

NeoDash can use SSO as an alternative for password-based sign-in, if your Neo4j database is enabled to use single sign-on. To enable SSO, set ssoEnabled to true. Then, set ssoDiscoveryUrl to the place where your discovery.json is located (This will often be the hostname of your database, appended by /discovery.json).

Auth provider

To set up NeoDash to use an external identity provider, you can add a /auth_provider resource to nginx (in /conf/default.conf):

location /auth_provider {
    default_type application/json;
    return 200 '{
        "auth_config" : {
            "oidc_providers" : [ ... ]
        }
    }';
}

For basic deployments it might suffice to route requests to /auth_provider on the HTTPS port of the Neo4j database.

Configuring standalone mode

Standalone mode, or reader-mode, overrides the functionality of NeoDash, allowing you to deploy a fixed dashboard to users. Standalone mode can be enabled by changing the standalone config parameter:

  • If standalone mode is false, all other configuration parameters are ignored. NeoDash runs in editor mode and requires a manual sign-in.

  • If standalone mode is true, NeoDash reads all configuration parameters. A predefined dashboard loads automatically. It cannot be edited. There are two types of valid standalone deployments:

    • A standalone deployment that reads the fixed dashboard from Neo4j. The standaloneDashboardName and standaloneDashboardDatabase config parameters are used to define these.

    • A standalone deployment that reads the fixed dashboard from a URL. The standaloneDashboardURL config parameter is used to define this.

  • Standalone mode can also be configured to allow users load a different dashboard after the predefined one is loaded (a Load Dashboard button is displayed on the right side of the dashboard title). The standaloneAllowLoad and standaloneLoadFromOtherDatabases parameters are used to define this.

  • When allowing users to load dashboards dyamically in standalone mode, they may also need to connect to different databases, depending on the specific dashboard bing loaded. This can be enabled by setting standaloneMultiDatabase to true and providing a comma-separated list of the allowed database names in the`standaloneDatabaseList` parameter.