forums.md

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Forums

We use NodeBB for both the Mentor and Youth Forums. There are four main elements to this in the Community Platform:

• the NodeBB installation itself, at the time of writing we are using version 0.7.
• the CoderDojo SSO plugin for NodeBB, this is a plugin for NodeBB that allows a user of the Forum to log in using their Community Platform account. This plugin is located here: github.com/CoderDojo/nodebb-plugin-sso-coderdojo
• the CoderDojo Lavender Theme plugin for NodeBB, this plugin is located here: github.com/CoderDojo/nodebb-theme-cd-lavender
• the OAuth2 support in cp-zen-platform, this allows the SSO plugin to work. This code lives in the cp-users-service

Local development

The Forums are external to the main Community Platform, and as such have their own development and deployment lifecycle. To develop CoderDojo SSO and Theme plugins, this is best done locally:

• git clone the theme somewhere locally, e.g.

~/work $ git clone [email protected]:CoderDojo/nodebb-theme-cd-lavender.git
~/work $ cd nodebb-theme-cd-lavender
~/work/nodebb-theme-cd-lavender $ npm install
~/work/nodebb-theme-cd-lavender $ npm link .

• git clone the sso plugin somewhere locally, e.g.

~/work $ git clone [email protected]:CoderDojo/nodebb-plugin-sso-coderdojo.git
~/work $ cd nodebb-plugin-sso-coderdojo
~/work/nodebb-theme-cd-lavender $ npm install
~/work/nodebb-theme-cd-lavender $ npm link .

• git clone the write-api plugin somewhere locally, e.g.

~/work $ git clone [email protected]:CoderDojo/nodebb-plugin-write-api.git
~/work $ cd nodebb-plugin-write-api
~/work/nodebb-plugin-write-api $ npm install
~/work/nodebb-plugin-write-api $ npm link .

• git clone NodeBB, and link plugins and theme

~/work $ git clone -b v0.7.x https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB.git
~/work $ cd NodeBB
~/work/NodeBB $ npm install
~/work/NodeBB $ npm link nodebb-theme-cd-lavender
~/work/NodeBB $ npm link nodebb-plugin-sso-coderdojo
~/work/NodeBB $ npm link nodebb-plugin-write-api

• copy coderdojo setup data.

~/work/NodeBB $ cp ./node_modules/nodebb-theme-cd-lavender/install/data/* ./install/data
~/work/NodeBB $ ./nodebb setup
~/work/NodeBB $ ./nodebb start

• choose theme using admin page

http://localhost:4567/admin
Appearance >> Themes >> <Use Coder Dojo Lavender Theme>
Restart NodeBB (either from admin Dashboard >> Restart or terminal ./nodebb restart)

• set up api token for profile syncing

http://localhost:4567/admin/plugins/write-api
Master Tokens >> Create Token
Copy the token and optionally the forum address into your local-env.js like this:
NODEBB_HOST: 'localhost',
NODEBB_PORT: 4567,
NODEBB_TOKEN: 'dc729193-f80c-4c5f-b75c-7a70f16b6e7e'

• upload logo using admin page

http://localhost:4567/admin
Settings >> General>> Site Logo >> Upload Logo
Logo can be uploaded from your local checkout of nodebb-theme-cd-lavender/static/images/logo.png

• upload favicon using admin page

http://localhost:4567/admin
Settings >> General>> Site Logo >> Favicon
Icon can be uploaded from your local checkout of nodebb-theme-cd-lavender/static/images/favicon.ico

• other suggested admin settings

http://localhost:4567/admin
Settings >> General >> Site Tite: forum
Setting >> General >> Browser Title: CoderDojoBB
Settings >> User >> Allow local registration: disabled
Settings >> User >> Allow local login: disabled (make sure sso plugin is working first, or you could lock yourself out!)

Environment Variables & Config Settings

When deploying NodeBB the following environment variables need to be set, and also need to match up on the Community Platform side. The following environment vars are used in the nodebb-plugin-sso [library.js]

• CODERDOJO_COMMUNITY_PLATFORM - the base url of the Community Platform, defaults to http://localhost:8000 for local development
• CODERDOJO_FORUMS_NAME - the OAuth2 clientId, needs to match the config in the Community Platform
• CODERDOJO_FORUMS_SECRET - the OAuth2 clientSecret, again needs to match the config in Community Platform

The variables are used in the nodebb-plugin-sso module here: https://github.com/CoderDojo/nodebb-plugin-sso-coderdojo/blob/c5dfa5aad4ea7c1fa76c6c76fb3eacfc01c4b86b/library.js#L15-L24

and here in the community platform: https://github.com/CoderDojo/cp-users-service/blob/d51609b9bedb4d88b4eec8514f0331358c3ecf9a/config/config.js#L79

On the cp-zen-platform side, there is config option of node in options.base:

https://github.com/CoderDojo/cp-zen-platform/blob/9076bd56d7b0c58312cda0ab0e2c37304c834aa8/web/options.base.js#L53

This is the external url for the Adult Forums.

Screenshot