Competence Assistant

Competence Assistant is a tool to manage competence events. Admins can create events and schedules. Other users can create and vote for sessions.

Documentation

• Server
• Client
• infra

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js v20 (LTS)
• pnpm v9 (run corepack enable if not already installed)
• PostgreSQL v14
• dbmate (optional)

Getting Started

1. Install Dependencies

Run in project root:

pnpm install

2. Set Up Database

1. Copy server/.env.example to server/.env.

2. Edit the username, password, and/or database name in .env.

   • Note: Make sure DATABASE_URL reflects the POSTGRES_* values.
   • Note: The password must be at least 1 character long.

3. Start the PostgreSQL server. A docker-compose file is provided in the server directory including PostgreSQL and adminer. To start the database run:

   cd server
   docker compose up -f db.compose.yml -d

4. Create a user with the name and password in your .env file, if one does not exist.

   CLI example

   psql --dbname=postgres --command="CREATE USER <username> WITH PASSWORD '<password>' CREATEDB;"

   (Replace <username> and <password> with the username and password, respectively.)

5. Create the database if needed and set up the schema. Run in project root:

   pnpm migrate up

6. Populate the database with mock data. Run in project root:

   pnpm --filter server cli mock

3. Configure the Frontend

The frontend uses Vite as the build tool, which in turn injects environment variables using build modes

1. Copy client/.env.example to client/.env.local.
2. Add your Firebase project variables for VITE_FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID, VITE_FIREBASE_APP_ID, VITE_FIREBASE_API_KEY and VITE_FIREBASE_AUTH_DOMAIN.
3. Change the value of VITE_API_URL in .env.local to http://localhost:3000/api/.

4. Run the App

1. Run in project root to start firebase auth emulator, server and client:

   pnpm dev

2. Open a browser to http://localhost:5173.

---

Useful Scripts

Run firebase auth emulator and server

pnpm dev:server

Run client against remote prod api

pnpm dev:client:prod

Deployment

The application is packaged as a docker image and deployed to Google Cloud Run using Terraform.

The deplyment steps below assume that:

• The first time setup outlined in the Terraform README is completed.
• You are using Google Cloud Artifact Registry to store the docker images.

1. Configure frontend for production

Copy client/.env.example to client/.env.productionand specify the production variables.

Note: If you are using a custom domain you need to set the VITE_API_URL to https://<your-domain>/api/. If not it should be set to the Cloud Run url, which unfortunately is not known until after the deployment. This means that you will have to update the .env.production file after the deployment, and do another deployment.

2. Build & push the application docker image

docker build --tag <region>-docker.pkg.dev/<gcp-project-id>/<docker-repo>/<app-image> --build-arg BUILD_MODE=production .
docker push <region>-docker.pkg.dev/<gcp-project-id>/<docker-repo>/<app-image>

2. build & push the db migration docker image

cd server
docker build --tag <region>-docker.pkg.dev/<gcp-project-id>/<docker-repo>/<db-image> -f db.Dockerfile .
docker push <region>-docker.pkg.dev/<gcp-project-id>/<docker-repo>/<db-image>

3. Deploy the application

cd terraform/cd
terraform apply

GitHub Actions

Example workflows for CI/CD are located in the .github/workflows directory. In order to trigger a deployment on a push to the main branch, a trigger is needed.

Example:

name: Test and Deploy on push to main

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  ci:
    name: CI
    uses: ./.github/workflows/lint-and-test.yaml

  cd:
    name: CD
    needs: ci
    uses: ./.github/workflows/gcp-deploy.yaml
    with:
      BUILD_ENV: development
    secrets: inherit

The provided workflows use environment specific variables and secrets that need to be set in the repository settings.

Variables:

• TF_STATE_BUCKET The GCS bucket where the terraform state is stored
• SERVICE_ACCOUNT The service account email used to authenticate with GCP
• BUILD_MODE The vite build mode which determines the .env.[mode] file to use
• PROJECT_ID The GCP project id
• REGION The GCP region
• DOCKER_REPO The name of the docker repository where the images are stored
• APP_IMAGE The name of the application image
• DB_MIGRATION_IMAGE The name of the db migration image
• CUSTOM_DOMAIN (optional) The custom domain for the application

Secrets:

• GCP_CREDENTIALS The service account key file used to authenticate with GCP
• DB_USER (optional) The database user, defaults to postgres
• DB_PASSWORD (optional) The database password, generated if not set