Control had two transports and neither fitted the ordinary customer. OCPP waits for the charger to dial in, which needs a public endpoint it can reach, a certificate, and a firmware willing to talk to our CSMS. Modbus TCP dials the charger, which needs the server on the charger's own network. Between them they cover a charger we host and a charger we stand next to; the common case is a charger behind someone else's router, and that had nothing. It was never unreachable, though. The charger holds a connection open to Anker's own broker — it is how the mobile app drives it from anywhere, and it is the mqttStatus register the Modbus snapshot has been reporting all along. So a third control mode joins that broker as the account: get_user_mqtt_info issues a client certificate, mTLS to aiot-mqtt-eu.anker.com:8883, and commands go out on the same topics the app publishes on. Nothing on the customer's side has to be forwarded, addressed or certificated. What travels is not an API call. The payload is a JSON envelope around a base64 binary frame the device itself speaks — marker, little-endian length, message type, name/length/type/value fields, XOR checksum — so mqttframe.go is a codec rather than a client, written from the message maps in anker-solix-api and anchored on the one frame that project documents byte for byte. A frame whose fields do not tile exactly up to the checksum is refused rather than half-read: these arrive over a link we do not control, and a truncated frame must not read as a charger reporting zeros. Two of the charger's habits shape the rest. It publishes nothing unless asked, so a status read arms a telemetry trigger and waits for the next frame, and a poll inside that window answers from what has since arrived. And a broker connection costs a fetched certificate and a TLS handshake while the plugin manager builds a throwaway instance per request — so the connection lives on the account's shared session beside the auth token, for exactly the reason the token lives there, and closes itself after five idle minutes. The transport also sees two signals no other one does: the boost flag, and the plug and start countdowns. The package doc has said since the first commit that they are never set and the derived mode must do without them. Here they are set, so a charger that has been told to start and is counting down a delay says so rather than sitting in "preparing", and "skip the delay" is offered only while there is a delay to skip. The clients generalise instead of growing a second layout. Both snapshots name the same quantities the same way, so what was Modbus-only in the readouts is now whichever transport read the charger — ModbusStatus becomes ChargerStatus on the phone, mb becomes dev on the web. What each transport can be *told* still differs, and the buttons branch on that: reset and clear-limit stay with OCPP, the timeout and phase registers with Modbus, skip-delay with the cloud. A command a transport has no equivalent for is refused by name, saying which one has it. The cost is worth saying plainly. This leans on Anker's cloud being up and on an unofficial protocol the app may change under us, where Modbus leans on nothing but the LAN. And it is checked against the reference implementation's own worked example rather than against hardware — there is no charger on this end to point it at. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
DriverVault — Web App
Maintenance tracker for your cars: a Vue 3 + Vite + Tailwind CSS v4 SPA served
by a small Go backend-for-frontend (BFF). The BFF serves the built SPA and
reverse-proxies /api/* to the API Server, so the browser is always same-origin
and all data access still flows through the API Server (never PocketBase directly).
Browser ─► Web App BFF (:8090) ──/api/*──► API Server (:8080) ─► PocketBase
│ └── serves embedded Vue SPA
└──────────────────────────────────────► API Server at another site ─► its PocketBase
(added in the app, called straight from the browser)
Layout
server/ Go BFF: embeds web/dist, proxies /api -> API_BASE
main.go
Run-WebApp.ps1 build frontend, then serve
.env.example
dist/ built SPA (generated; embedded at compile time)
web/ Vue 3 + Vite + Tailwind v4 source
src/
main.js app bootstrap
router.js /login, / (dashboard), /charging, /cars/:id, /settings
api.js the only place that calls the API Server (base URL resolution)
servers.js the server list + a session per server; which one is active
auth.js token/profile state for the active server, isAdmin
prefs.js theme/locale/date/font preferences -> <html>
i18n/ en / pl / da translation files + loader
lib/format.js date/km formatting + next-service status badges
lib/attachment.js upload / fetch / open a record's attached file
style.css Tailwind v4 entry (+ dark custom-variant)
App.vue layout shell + nav (Garage, Charging, Settings)
components/ Modal, AttachmentField, CarFormModal, ServiceFormModal,
TechnicalCheckFormModal, MaintenanceFormModal, FuelFormModal,
ChargingFormModal,
DocumentFormModal, ReminderFormModal, PartFormModal, ShareModal,
OrgManager, AdminUsers, Logo, ServerSwitcher,
ServerConnectModal
views/ Login, Dashboard, CarDetail, Charging, Settings
Requirements
- Node 20.19+ or 22.12+ (Vite 8's floor — Node 18 is end-of-life and will not
build) and Go 1.26+ (the
go.moddirective). The Docker image builds onnode:22-alpine. - A running API Server (see
../API Server)
Develop
Two terminals:
# terminal 1 — API Server (see ../API Server/README.md)
cd "../API Server"; .\bin\api-server.exe
# terminal 2 — Vite dev server with hot reload (proxies /api -> :8080)
cd web; npm install; npm run dev # http://localhost:5173
The dev server proxies /api/* to the API Server (default http://localhost:8080,
override with VITE_API_TARGET), so the client uses same-origin relative URLs and
avoids CORS. It also listens on all interfaces (host: true) so it's reachable on
the LAN (e.g. http://10.2.1.101:5173).
The base URL each call goes to comes from the active server (see More than one
server below); with only the built-in one, that resolves to VITE_API_BASE →
/api.
Build & run (production-style)
./server/Run-WebApp.ps1 # builds frontend, then serves on :8090
# or manually:
cd web; npm run build # outputs to ../server/dist
cd ../server; go run . # http://localhost:8090
Config (server/.env, copy from .env.example):
| Variable | Purpose | Default |
|---|---|---|
WEB_ADDR |
Listen address | :8090 |
API_BASE |
API Server base URL | http://localhost:8080 |
Features
-
Dashboard — one card per car: last service, odometer, next-due date/km, and a status badge (OK / due soon ≤30d / overdue) from the Excel formulas. Add a car by hand, or import from service — pick a vehicle off a connected manufacturer account and have its details filled in (the button appears only once an account is connected). Shared cars are labelled and gated by your access level. Drag a card to rearrange the garage: the order is saved per user (so it covers shared cars and never reorders anybody else's garage) and applied by the API on every list. Pointer-only — the native drag events it uses don't fire on touch.
-
What a car shows — the gear button in a car's header picks both the sections that car's page shows (connected service, service history, technical checks, maintenance, fuel cost, charging cost, documents, parts, reminders — Fuel cost off on an EV and Charging cost off on a petrol car) and which of the 14 Information rows it lists (no Differential oil on a car without one) and which columns the Service history table shows (no File column for somebody who keeps no receipts). It belongs to the car, so everyone it is shared with sees the same page; setting it needs write access. Stored as the hidden sets, so anything added in a later release is on by default. Two things can't be switched off: the Information tab, and the service Date — a history with the day taken out stops being one.
-
Locking the layout — the padlock in the sidebar, above the theme toggle, holds every arrangement still at once: the garage, a car's tabs, its Information rows, the provider's readings. It is a guard against nudging a layout while reading it, not a permission — it is the user's own setting (
dragLockedon the profile, so it follows them to the next device) and says nothing about what they may edit. Unlocked by default; while locked the drag cursor and the hints go too. -
Arranging the tabs — the tabs themselves drag into any order, saved on drop. A property of the car like the choice of which tabs show, so everyone it is shared with sees the same bar, and it needs write access. It covers the hidden tabs too, so switching one back on returns it to where it was, and Information is arrangeable even though it can't be switched off. The page then opens on whichever tab now leads the bar — see below.
-
Which tab a page opens on — a bar the user dragged says what they want to see first, so every tabbed page (Charging, a car, Settings) opens on the tab that now leads it rather than on a fixed one. Settings › Appearance overrides that per page for the case where the reading order and the landing tab are two different wishes; "First in the bar" is the default and means no override. Stored as
defaultTabson the profile ({"charging": "home", …}), so it follows the user to the next device, and a saved tab that no longer has a button — one switched off for that car, a Users tab on a non-admin — falls back to the front of the bar./settings?tab=still wins over both. -
Arranging the Information rows — the rows on a car's Information tab drag into any order, saved on drop. Also a property of the car, and it covers the hidden rows too, so switching one back on returns it to where it was. Same native drag events as the garage, so also pointer-only.
-
A build date nobody fully knows — the Build date field picks its own precision: a full date, a month and year, or a year on its own. A car's build date is often only half known — the VIN plate carries a month, the papers a day, a grey import neither — and it is stored as the ISO prefix ("2015", "2015-03") and printed back at exactly that precision rather than padded out to a day nobody supplied. Narrowing the precision keeps what is still true; widening clears the field, since there is nothing to widen it with. First registration still asks for a full date.
-
Changed parts — every part a service can record sits in one column, not one column each: they are a growing list and a column apiece would widen the table without end. The cell names what was changed (past two, the first and a tally) and opens a panel listing every part with a yes or a no — a dropdown rather than a dialog, so the rows you are comparing it against stay on screen. Both the column and the form's Changed parts section are driven by one list in
lib/serviceParts.js, so adding a part is one entry there plus its boolean on the API'sservice_recordscollection.Which parts a car records is the car's too, under the same picker. An EV changes no oil, and a checkbox nobody will ever tick is one more thing to read past on every service. A part switched off leaves the form, the column's summary and the panel together — "I don't record this" means it stops taking up room, not that it takes up room saying nothing. Nothing is written to the records: an edit sends a hidden part's stored boolean straight back, because the API rewrites all of them from the body, so switching the part on again brings the old services' chips back with it.
-
Arranging the Service history columns — the column headings on that tab drag into any order, saved on drop, and it covers the hidden columns too. Date is arrangeable although it can't be switched off, the same rule Information follows in the tab bar.
-
Arranging the connected service's readings — the headline readings on that tab drag the same way. Only what the provider reported can be arranged, so a reading that turns up later (an EV range on a car that was parked unplugged) joins the end rather than displacing the arrangement.
-
Car detail — all car spec fields (engine / transmission / differential oil, brake fluid, coolant, VIN, fuel type, …) plus tabbed histories, each with an optional file attachment and add/edit/delete gated by your access level:
- The connected service (e.g. MyToyota) — the first tab, present for a car linked to a manufacturer account: live readings (odometer, fuel, battery, range, position), the vehicle record, and every section the plugin can fetch with its raw response. Offers the provider's odometer when it is ahead of the stored one. Every card below the live readings — the vehicle record and each provider section — folds away, and which ones you folded is remembered per device in localStorage. On an unlinked car the tab instead offers to connect it to a vehicle on your account. Read under your account, so a car shared from someone else shows data only if that vehicle is on your account too.
- Service history — date, km, computed next date/km, and changed-parts flags.
- Technical checks — roadworthiness inspections; result, cost, station and the certificate's valid-until, which drives the next-due date.
- Maintenance — workshop visits and repairs (type/status, workshop, parts, labour + parts cost, invoice, warranty-until).
- Fuel cost — refills with a summary panel (average / best / worst consumption, cost per km, price per litre), measured between full tanks.
- Charging cost — the same log for an electric car: charges in kWh with consumption in kWh/100km, km per kWh, cost per km and price per kWh, measured between charges to the car's usual full point. Partial charges still count towards the cost and roll into the next full one, and a charge taken without logging it (flagged on the next session) leaves that window uncomputed rather than reporting an implausible figure.
- Documents — insurance, registration, road tax, … with a renewal badge.
- Parts — the per-car parts catalog.
- Reminders — date/odometer, one-off or recurring; server-derived ones are read-only.
Also share the car with other users (read/write, owner only); edit/delete controls are hidden for read-only shares.
-
Charging — the EV charging screen for connected Anker Solix chargers: live status and, in own/proxy control mode, start/stop and charge-limit controls driven by the API Server's OCPP Central System.
-
Settings — split into tabs: Personal settings — account (name / email verification / password), appearance (theme light/dark/system, locale, date format, currency, font size), profile (avatar, bio), data export/import, and the account-deletion state machine; Integrations (Toyota, Anker Solix); Users for admins; and Organization (create your own — which makes you its admin — or rename/delete the one you administer).
-
Users — user management (list / create / role / reset password / delete) as the admin-only Settings tab;
/adminredirects there for old links. -
Theming — light/dark/system app-wide (Tailwind v4 class strategy);
prefs.jstoggles.darkon<html>and applies the saved theme/locale/date/font.
More than one server
Two sites, two full DriverVault stacks — and one browser tab. The server picker sits at the bottom of the app rail (after signing in, not on the login screen): it names the server you are reading right now, and switches between them in a click.
- The home server is the one that served the app, reached same-origin through
the BFF's
/apiproxy. It is always in the list and can't be removed. - Any other server is added by address —
https://garage.example.com; the/apiis appended for you if you leave the path off — and is called straight from the browser, not relayed through the BFF. That server therefore has to be reachable from wherever the browser is, which it already is if the phone app talks to it. - A session per server. Each server is its own PocketBase with its own users,
so a token can't be carried across: you sign into each one once, and after that
switching needs no password. Sessions live in
localStorageundercc_session_<id>, the list undercc_servers, the active one undercc_active_server. - Switching goes back to the garage, because record ids belong to the server that issued them — a car page can't survive the change.
- An expiring remote session doesn't sign you out of the app: that server's token is dropped, the app falls back to the home server, and the entry stays in the list to sign into again. Only Log out clears every server at once.
The remote server must allow the Web App's origin in CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINS
(API Server setting, * by default — so this works out of the box, and only
needs attention on a server whose list has been narrowed). Nothing needs to be
configured on the server you are browsing from.
Auth & access
Login proxies to the API Server, which relays PocketBase's own token — there is
no JWT the server mints and no server-side session list. The token is stored
client-side, per server, and sent as Authorization on every call; each request
is pinned to the server that was active when it went out, so one server's 401
can never drop another's session. auth.js exposes
isAdmin and the current profile; the router guards public / admin routes.
Cars are per-user (owned + shared), and the UI mirrors the server's read / write
/ owner access levels.