Developing Locally

Prerequisites

NodeJS latest - install

docker - install

dependencies - run npm install in the root of the repository

Environment

This project uses env files to hold secrets. Examples are provided but must be moved from their .env.example to just .env in their respective directories.

For an example of required server environment variables, see server/.env.example

There are some environment variables that must be changed for the server to function in server/.env. They are marked as such

For an example of required client environment variables, see client/.env.example

Database

This project uses a postgres database. The easiest way to get this up and running is through docker.

You must use the environment variable DATABASE_URL in the server to point the app to your postgres instance. DATABASE_URL should be a database URI. See the "Connection URIs" section of the postgres docs for details.

Creating the Database Container

This can also be done through docker desktop, instructions for that may come later.

To create a container for your database, run the following command (creating your own password for it)

docker run -p 5432:5432 --name devdb -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=YOUR_OWN_DB_PASSWORD -d postgres:15

If you restart your computer, you may have to run docker start devdb to restart the server container.

Creating/Restoring Data

The easiest way to get up and running is to restore a backup of a real server that. Postgres supports dumping and restoring databases to files

To restore from a backup, execute

pg_restore --no-owner -d postgresql://postgres:YOUR_OWN_PASSWORD@localhost:5432/postgres FOLDER_OF_FILES_THAT_YOU_WERE_SENT -v 

Server

The server/backend consists of an Express server with a GraphQL API.

To run the server in development mode with hot reloads run the following commands from the project root: IF THE SERVER IS SETUP TO RUN WITH HOT RELOADING, THIS WILL BE UNHELPFUL UNLESS THE CLIENT DEV SERVER IS RUNNING (see below)

npm run start:dev

For more in depth (but not necessary for getting started) info, see server/README.md

Client

The client/frontend consists of a React app. To start the app in with hot reloads from the project root, run the following command from the root of the repository:

THE SERVER MUST BE RUNNING AS WELL OR THIS WILL BE MOSTLY USELESS

cd client
npm run start:client

To test the app, start the server and then go to http://localhost:3001/app.

Debugging

The start:debug script in the root project can be used to start the server in debug mode. This will expose a debug listener on port 9229. Follow this tutorial for debugging using this process. We have found that Chrome dev tools are the most effective for this purpose.