FFAStrans Webinterface

The official web-based monitoring and control UI for FFAStrans, the media transcoding automation platform. It provides a browser interface for submitting jobs, tracking running and finished transcoding workflows, browsing files, and managing the FFAStrans farm.

For Users

Requirements

• Windows (no dependencies)
• FFAStrans Files (not API)

Installation

1. Download the latest release ZIP from the releases page or from the redist/ folder.
2. Extract to any folder (e.g. C:\ffastrans\webinterface).
3. Open the folder — you will find server.exe.

Starting the application

Double-click server.exe, or run it from the command line:

server.exe

Once started, open your browser and go to:

http://localhost:3002

Installing as a Windows service (runs on boot, no login required)

Run service_install.bat as Administrator. To remove the service, run service_uninstall.bat as Administrator. If FFAStrans Files are not local, ensure Service Credentials can see the Files

Configuration

All settings are available through the Admin page in the web UI (http://localhost:3002). Key settings:

Setting	Default	Description
Port	3002	Port the web server listens on
FFAStrans API host	localhost	Host running FFAStrans
FFAStrans API port	65445	FFAStrans REST API port
Upload path	\\localhost\c$\temp\	Where uploaded files are staged
Authentication	Disabled	Enable Azure AD or Active Directory login
HTTPS	Disabled	Enable HTTPS with a certificate

Customizing the appearance

There are many builtin options like setting Header name top left or login page welcome message. See docs/styling-docs/USER_STYLING_GUIDE.md for how to change colors, fonts, and layout using the alternate-server/css/override.css file.

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For Developers

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• Windows (the embedded MongoDB binary is Windows x64)

Setup

git clone https://github.com/emcodem/ffastrans_webui.git

Note that the source code is self contained, no npm install needed.

The database/ directory must exist before first run:

mkdir database\config

Running in development mode

cd ffastrans_webui
node server.js

The server starts at http://localhost:3002 unless the port has been customized through settings.

Frontend build

The client-side bundle is built with Webpack and bundlet to a single .exe using nexe:

compile_to_dist.bat

Project structure

ffastrans_webui/
├── server.js                  # Entry point — Express, Socket.io, auth, DB init
├── node_components/           # Backend modules (routes, DB, auth, player, etc.)
│   ├── common/                # Shared controllers (database, REST API)
│   ├── passport/              # Azure AD and Active Directory auth strategies
│   ├── mongodb_server/        # Embedded MongoDB launcher (mongod.js)
│   ├── views/                 # Express route handlers
│   └── serverconfig_defaults.js  # All config keys and their defaults
├── shared_modules/            # Logger and utilities shared by all modules
├── webinterface/              # Frontend HTML, JS, CSS (served statically)
├── rest_service/              # REST API server - standalone module, could also be packaged and run without webinterface
├── upload_backend/            # Tus resumable upload server
├── alternate-server/          # User can override CSS (css/override.css) and place custom jobfetcher.js in order to show jobs from 3rdparty system in webint
├── tools/                     # Bundled binaries (FFprobe, MPV)
├── database/                  # Runtime data (NeDB config DB, MongoDB job DB)
└── docs/                      # Documentation

Architecture overview

• Express serves static files and API routes.
• Socket.io pushes real-time job status updates to the browser.
• NeDB (database/config) stores application configuration.
• MongoDB (embedded, auto-started) stores job history in database/job_db. The port is auto-selected in the range 8010–8020 unless overridden by database/mongo_config.json.
• Authentication is optional. When enabled, Passport handles Azure AD (OIDC) or on-premise Active Directory (LDAP) strategies. Set STATIC_USE_WEB_AUTHENTIFICATION in the admin UI.

Building the distributable EXE

compile_to_dist.bat

This uses nexe to bundle the Node.js runtime and all source files into a single ffastrans_webui.exe. The database/, tools/, webinterface/, and alternate-server/ folders are copied alongside the EXE as the distributable package.