Custom Application Config

Supported file extensions

The configuration file can be defined in different syntax formats, but it is expected that the file is named custom-application-config.

The following file extensions can be used: .json, .js, .cjs, .mjs, .ts.

For example:

import { entryPointUriPath } from './constants';

const name = 'Test application';

/**
 * @type {import('@commercetools-frontend/application-config').ConfigOptions}
 */
const config = {
  name,
  entryPointUriPath,
  // ...
};
module.exports = config;

const entryPointUriPath = 'test';
module.exports = { entryPointUriPath };

Editor support

To facilitate the usage of the application config, you should instruct your editor to provide hints and code completion (IntelliSense) depending on the format of the configuration file.

JSON schema support for VSCode

When using JSON files, you can take advantage of the JSON schema for the application config. To enable JSON schema autocompletion and validation support, add a reference to the schema.json URL in the VSCode settings (either user or workspace settings):

"json.schemas": [
  {
    "fileMatch": ["/custom-application-config.json"],
    "url": "https://docs.commercetools.com/merchant-center-customizations/custom-application.schema.json"
  }
]

Other editors might have different settings.

Using JSDoc @type expression

For non-JSON files, you can annotate the configuration object with a JSDOc @type tag, pointing it to the exported TypeScript declaration of the @commercetools-frontend/application-config package.

/**
 * @type {import('@commercetools-frontend/application-config').ConfigOptions}
 */
const config = {
  // ...
};

module.exports = config;

For TypeScript files .ts, you can import the type directly instead.

import type { ConfigOptions } from '@commercetools-frontend/application-config';

const config: ConfigOptions = {
  // ...
};

export default config;

Configuration properties

To learn more about the application config properties, read the following.

name

The name of the Custom Application, for information purposes.

{
  "name": "Channels app"
}

description

An optional description of the Custom Application, for information purposes.

{
  "description": "Manage Channels"
}

entryPointUriPath

The unique identifier of the Custom Application, similarly to the projectKey of the Composable Commerce APIs. This value determines the route at which the Custom Application is served by the Merchant Center Proxy.

/:projectKey/:entryPointUriPath

The value is considered unique within each cloud Region environment, meaning that there can't be any duplicates.

Choosing the entryPointUriPath is important and should be done carefully as it affects routing and permissions.

{
  "entryPointUriPath": "channels"
}

The entryPointUriPath value must adhere to the following restrictions:

• Only lowercase alphanumeric characters are allowed.
• Must be between 2 and 64 characters.
• Underscores and hyphens are allowed except as leading, trailing, and adjacent characters.

Furthermore, the entryPointUriPath value is bound to user permissions of the Custom Application and is used to derive the unique name of the user permissions.

cloudIdentifier

The identifier of the cloud Region that the Custom Application uses to connect to Composable Commerce. The values map to the actual Merchant Center API URL for that Region.

{
  "cloudIdentifier": "gcp-eu"
}

mcApiUrl

The origin URL of the Merchant Center API.

env

An object holding environment specific configurations, for example development or production. Which environment is used depends on the environment variable MC_APP_ENV. If MC_APP_ENV isn't set, NODE_ENV will be used. If neither is set, it defaults to development.

env.development.initialProjectKey

A projectKey of a commercetools Project you have access to. To be used as the default Project upon login in development.

{
  "env": {
    "development": {
      "initialProjectKey": "my-project-key"
    }
  }
}

env.development.teamId

If you need to apply more granular permissions for local development of a Custom Application, specify the teamId of the user's team.

For more information, see Granular permissions for local development.

env.production.applicationId

The Custom Application ID is provided when you add a Custom Application in the Merchant Center (Organizations > Custom Applications > Configure > Add). For more information, see Managing Custom Applications in the Merchant Center.

{
  "env": {
    "production": {
      "applicationId": "ckvtahxl90097sys6har1e6n3"
    }
  }
}

env.production.url

The full URL value where the Custom Application is hosted at. The Merchant Center serves Custom Applications on its own domain, but requests are internally forwarded to this URL. For more information, see Merchant Center Proxy Router.

{
  "env": {
    "production": {
      "url": "https://channels.app"
    }
  }
}

env.production.cdnUrl

The full URL value where the Custom Application static assets are hosted, for example when using an external CDN.

{
  "env": {
    "production": {
      "cdnUrl": "https://cdn.channels.app"
    }
  }
}

additionalEnv

An optional object that should be used to inject properties used within your Custom Application. These properties are then made available to the runtime application environment.

For example, if the Custom Application should reference an external API, or have links to certain support pages:

{
  "additionalEnv": {
    "trackingSentry": "https://000@sentry.io/000",
    "channelsSupportUrl": "https://support.channels.app"
  }
}

oAuthScopes

The configuration for OAuth Scopes and user permissions.

oAuthScopes.view

A list of "view-only" OAuth Scopes required by the Custom Application and associated with the View permission.

{
  "oAuthScopes": {
    "view": ["view_states"]
  }
}

oAuthScopes.manage

A list of "manage-only" OAuth Scopes required by the Custom Application and associated with the Manage permission.

{
  "oAuthScopes": {
    "manage": ["manage_orders"]
  }
}

additionalOAuthScopes

The optional configuration for defining more granular OAuth Scopes and user permissions.

additionalOAuthScopes.*.name

A unique name for the additional permission group.

{
  "additionalOAuthScopes": [
    {
      "name": "movies"
    }
  ]
}

The name value must adhere to the following restrictions:

• Only lowercase alphabetic characters are allowed.
• Must be between 2 and 64 characters.
• Hyphens are allowed except as leading, trailing, and adjacent characters.

additionalOAuthScopes.*.view

A list of "view-only" OAuth Scopes required by the Custom Application and associated with the View<GroupName> permission.

{
  "additionalOAuthScopes": [
    {
      "name": "movies",
      "view": ["view_products"],
      "manage": []
    },
    {
      "name": "merch",
      "view": ["view_categories"],
      "manage": []
    }
  ]
}

additionalOAuthScopes.*.manage

A list of "manage-only" OAuth Scopes required by the Custom Application and associated with the Manage<GroupName> permission.

{
  "additionalOAuthScopes": [
    {
      "name": "movies",
      "view": [],
      "manage": ["manage_products"]
    },
    {
      "name": "merch",
      "view": [],
      "manage": ["manage_categories"]
    }
  ]
}

headers

An optional object to configure HTTP headers used by the Custom Application.

headers.csp

An optional object to extend the default Content Security Policy (CSP) directives. The following directives are allowed to be used:

• connect-src
• font-src
• frame-src
• img-src
• script-src
• style-src

You can specify various CSP source values (including wildcards *) to control from where certain types of content can be loaded or executed.

{
  "headers": {
    "csp": {
      "connect-src": ["https://api.stripe.com"],
      "frame-src": ["https://js.stripe.com", "https://hooks.stripe.com"],
      "script-src": ["https://js.stripe.com"]
    }
  }
}

headers.permissionsPolicies

An optional object to configure the HTTP Permission-Policy header.

{
  "headers": {
    "permissionsPolicies": {
      "microphone": "()",
      "camera": "()",
      "payment": "()",
      "usb": "()",
      "geolocation": "()"
    }
  }
}

headers.strictTransportSecurity

An optional list to extend the HTTP Strict-Transport-Security header.

{
  "headers": {
    "strictTransportSecurity": ["includeSubDomains", "preload"]
  }
}

icon

The visual identifier of the Custom Application in the Merchant Center. You can choose one of the following predefined icons by referencing it with the special expansion-like syntax ${path:}:

{
  "icon": "${path:@commercetools-frontend/assets/application-icons/<icon_name>.svg}"
}

mainMenuLink

An object describing the main link to the Custom Application in the Merchant Center main navigation.

mainMenuLink.defaultLabel

The label to be rendered if there is no matching localized label for the user locale.

{
  "mainMenuLink": {
    "defaultLabel": "Channels"
  }
}

mainMenuLink.labelAllLocales

A list of localized fields { locale, value } with translated labels for each application locale, available in the user profile.

{
  "mainMenuLink": {
    "labelAllLocales": [
      { "locale": "en", "value": "Popular Channels" },
      { "locale": "de", "value": "Beliebte Channels" }
    ]
  }
}

Labels can also be references using the i18n translation files. For more information, see Intl message references.

mainMenuLink.permissions

A list of the user permissions specific to your Custom Application. Users must have at least one of the specified permissions to see the link in the Merchant Center main navigation. Leaving the list of permissions empty makes the menu link always visible (no restrictions are applied).

{
  "mainMenuLink": {
    "permissions": ["ViewChannels"]
  }
}

submenuLinks

A list of objects describing the sub-links to the Custom Application in the Merchant Center main navigation.

submenuLinks.*.uriPath

The URI path relative to the entryPointUriPath of the Custom Application.
For example, given the entryPointUriPath: channels, and the (sub)route uriPath: new, the menu link results in /channels/new.

{
  "submenuLinks": [
    {
      "uriPath": "new"
    }
  ]
}

submenuLinks.*.defaultLabel

The label to be rendered if there is no matching localized label for the user locale.

{
  "submenuLinks": [
    {
      "defaultLabel": "Create Channel"
    }
  ]
}

submenuLinks.*.labelAllLocales

A list of localized fields { locale, value } with translated labels for each application locale, available in the user profile.

{
  "submenuLinks": [
    {
      "labelAllLocales": [
        { "locale": "en", "value": "Create Channel" },
        { "locale": "de", "value": "Channel erstellen" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Labels can also be references using the i18n translation files. For more information, see Intl message references.

submenuLinks.*.permissions

A list of the user permissions specific to your Custom Application. Users must have at least one of the specified permissions to see the link in the Merchant Center main navigation. Leaving the list of permissions empty makes the menu link always visible (no restrictions are applied).

{
  "submenuLinks": [
    {
      "permissions": ["ManageChannels"]
    }
  ]
}

Using variable placeholders

Variable placeholders are a way of injecting certain information into the "static" configuration file.

Environment variable references

To make the application config more reusable across different environments, you can use references to environment variables within the application config file.

References are specified with a special expansion-like syntax ${} together with the prefix key env:. For example, to load an environment variable called APP_URL, you would use ${env:APP_URL}.

Imagine developing a Custom Application that can be used in the same Regions (Europe and North America) as the Composable Commerce APIs. We can assign the ${env:CLOUD_IDENTIFIER} reference to the field cloudIdentifier and pass the actual value using environment variables.

{
  "cloudIdentifier": "${env:CLOUD_IDENTIFIER}"
}

The CLOUD_IDENTIFIER environment variable can be provided in various ways.

For example:

• as an inline environment variable when running a script command

  CLOUD_IDENTIFIER=gcp-eu mc-scripts start

• using a dotenv file

  .env-euTerminal

  CLOUD_IDENTIFIER=gcp-eu

  mc-scripts --env .env-eu start

• by defining the environment variables in your CI service

You can also pass multiple references to the same value:

{
  "additionalEnv": {
    "authorityUrl": "https://${env:IDP_URL}/${env:IDP_ID}"
  }
}

Intl message references

References for Intl messages are specified with a special expansion-like syntax ${} together with the prefix key intl:. For example, to load a translation message from the en.json file named Menu.Channels, you would use ${intl:en:Menu.Channels}.

This is useful when specifying menu link labels.

{
  "mainMenuLink": {
    "defaultLabel": "${intl:en:Menu.Channels}",
    "labelAllLocales": [
      { "locale": "en", "value": "${intl:en:Menu.Channels}" },
      { "locale": "de", "value": "${intl:de:Menu.Channels}" }
    ]
  }
}

The reference placeholder assumes that the Custom Application has the translation files in one of the following locations:

• <app_root>/src/i18n/data/<locale>.json
• <app_root>/i18n/data/<locale>.json

File path references

References to files are specified with a special expansion-like syntax ${} together with the prefix key path:.

This is useful when specifying the icon of the Custom Application.

{
  "icon": "${path:./app.svg}"
}

You can use a path relative to the application folder or a path to a module.

{
  "icon": "${path:@commercetools-frontend/assets/application-icons/rocket.svg}"
}

Runtime application environment

Much of the information specified in the application config is injected into the runtime environment and available via the global variable window.app.

It is recommended to always pass the value to the <ApplicationShell>.

const EntryPoint = () => (
  <ApplicationShell
    environment={window.app}
    // other props
  />
);

The environment prop is parsed and injected into a React Context, making it available to the entire application. To access it, use the @commercetools-frontend/application-shell-connectors package.

import { useApplicationContext } from '@commercetools-frontend/application-shell-connectors';

const MyComponent = () => {
  const applicationName = useApplicationContext(
    (context) => context.environment.applicationName
  );
  return <div>{`Welcome to the application ${applicationName}!`}</div>;
};