Iguana Key Components
- Richard Wang
When it comes to an application, it is easy to consider it as one complete package that contains everything, such as the events on your calendar app in your phone, or a bookmark for a webpage, accessed from your web browser on your computer. However, when it comes to Iguana, the application is more than just one piece – it consists of three critical components that work in harmony to process your data.
The 3 main components that comprise Iguana are the:
Application: The heart of Iguana. It is what you see when you look at the dashboard, and is what processes all the data that is thrown at it.
Configurations: The channels, the code, the settings, and everything else you actively change in Iguana.
Logs: The messages, errors, and everything else in between. Basically anything found under the “Log“ tab of Iguana.
Every application on the web contains at least two of these components shown above – so Iguana is no different. However, most apps commonly abstract these from the user’s point of view. For instance, when you download an app onto your phone, all that is seen on the surface is an icon that represents its entirety.
With Iguana, we like to explicitly define these components when referring to the application. By doing this, we can start to see that Iguana is actually very modular, and that with some clever file structuring and sorting, we can have complete administrative control over its existence. This begs the question – why is this necessary? Can’t I just install Iguana, and forget about the rest?
This is definitely possible, but a whole frame of thought is left out when approaching Iguana this way. Some questions to ask to illustrate why this way of thinking might not prove to be wise:
How can I backup my code and settings?
What options do I have for upgrading?
How can I migrate Iguana to a new environment?
How do I store my logs elsewhere?
Can I install multiple Iguanas in one environment?
If the above questions proved challenging, then the great news here is that if you’ve started to think about Iguana as a combination of the above components, these questions will become very trivial going forward!
This topic was made to introduce you to Iguana’s three main components: the application, configurations, and logs. To learn more about these components in detail, and how they can be manipulated to your advantage, please check out these links below:
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