Case Study - A go-to tool for viewing offline networks

Overview

This project posed a straightforward problem: fetch data from an API, then serve it to a web page to parse into readable data. As we were developing this solution, we came across some fairly unique issues:

1. The API on the switches are local resources.
2. The JSON object returned from the switches is extremely complex, as well as redundant and repetitive.
3. Some clients may have a locked down network that disallows for internet access.

We solved this problem initially with a fairly routine solution. We used SolidJS to spin up a website and hosted it. That's when the fun started happening. Google Chrome has been securing their web browser more and more with each update, and in one update, they removed the ability to access private-network resources from a public ip address. This plus Vercel's policy to not make unsecure requests posed some fairly large technological problems for use.

To combat these problems, we decided to instead create a field to paste the JSON object that was returned from the API call, then parse that data into a table. This wouldn't be our final solution, but it would allow us to develop the solution and get realtime feedback. We got good feedback regarding how the data was used and which parts were necessary, and we added links so engineers could access each of the tables. Our feedback for this iteration has been overwhelmingly positive and we are happy to be in the next phase of this project.

The third issue made it clear what our goal needs to be for this project: develop a standalone application for this client. We are now planning this application out and plan to use Go to build and ship the app, along with re-enabling the API calls to make things more streamlined for this client. Our hope is that techs can use this without the need for an internet connection to further support the security requirements of their clients.

What we did