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svchot edited this page Dec 15, 2025 · 47 revisions

Backend Deployment for Development

The recommended way to run Field-TM is with Docker.

You can also develop on your local machine outside of Docker, see below.

NOTE: If you haven't yet downloaded the Repository and setup your local environment, please check the docs here.

Now let's get started 👍

1. Start the API with Docker

The easiest way to get up and running is by using the Field-TM Docker deployment. Docker creates a virtual environment, isolated from your computer's environment, installs all necessary dependencies, and creates a container for each the database, the api, and the frontend. These containers talk to each other via the URLs defined in the docker-compose file and your env file.

  1. You will need to Install Docker and ensure that it is running on your local machine.
  2. From the command line: navigate to the top level directory of the Field-TM project.
  3. From the command line run: docker compose pull. This will pull the latest container builds from main branch.
  4. Make sure you have a .env file with all required variables, see here.
  5. Once everything is pulled, from the command line run: docker compose up -d api
  6. If everything goes well you should now be able to navigate to the project in your browser: http://api.fmtm.localhost:7050/docs

Note: If that link doesn't work, check the logs with docker compose logs api. Note: the database host fmtm-db is automatically resolved by docker compose to the database container IP.

Bundled ODK Central

  • Field-TM uses ODK Central to store ODK data.
  • To facilitate faster development, the Docker setup includes a Central server.
  • The credentials are provided via the .env file, and the default URL to access Central from within containers is: http://central:8383.

Alternatively, you may provide credentials to an external Central server in the .env.

To run the local development setup without ODK Central (use external server):

dc --profile no-odk up -d

# Or via Just
just start without-central

2. Start the API without Docker

  • To run Field-TM without Docker, you will need to start the database, then the API.
  • First start a Postgres database running on a port on your machine.
    • The database must have the Postgis extension installed.
  • After starting the database, from the command line:
  1. Navigate to the backend directory under src/backend.
  2. Install uv via the official docs
  3. Install backend dependencies with uv: uv sync
  4. Run the Fast API backend with: uv run uvicorn app.main:api --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

The API should now be accessible at: http://api.fmtm.localhost:7050/docs

Backend Tips

Type Checking

  • It is a good idea to have your code 'type checked' to avoid potential future bugs.
  • To do this, install pyright (VSCode has an extension).

Interactive Debugging

  • The local version of the backend API that runs in compose.yaml includes the debugpy package and a port bind to 5678.
  • This means you should be able to simply click the 'debugger' toolbar in VSCode, then 'Remote - Server Debug'.
  • When you add breakpoints to the code, the server should pause here to allow you to step through and debug code.
  • The configuration for this is in .vscode/launch.json.

Running Tests

To run the backend tests locally, run:

docker compose -f compose.test.yaml run --rm api pytest

# Or via Just
just test backend

To assess coverage of tests, run:

docker compose run --rm --entrypoint='sh -c' api \
  'coverage run -m pytest && coverage report -m'

# Or via Just
just test coverage

To assess performance of endpoints:

  • We can use the pyinstrument profiler.
  • While in debug mode (DEBUG=True), access any endpoint.
  • Add the ?profile=true arg to the URL to view the execution time.

Debugging osm-fieldwork

  • osm-fieldwork is an integral package for much of the functionality in Field-TM.
  • The package is stored in this monorepo under: src/backend/packages/osm-fieldwork
  • This directory is mounted inside the backend by default during local development with compose.yaml.
  • If you modify the code in the package, the container must be restarted to reflect this: docker compose restart api

Accessing S3 Files use s3fs

The s3fs tool allows you to mount an S3 bucket on your filesystem, to browse like any other directory.

Create a credentials file:

# Replace ACCESS_KEY_ID and SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
echo ACCESS_KEY_ID:SECRET_ACCESS_KEY > ${HOME}/.passwd-s3fs
chmod 600 ${HOME}/.passwd-s3fs

Mount local S3 using Just

just mount-s3

Mount S3 manually

Install s3fs:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install s3fs

Mount your bucket:

If you wish for this to be permanent, see below.

sudo mkdir /mnt/fmtm/local
sudo chown $(whoami):$(whoami) /mnt/fmtm/local
s3fs fmtm-data /mnt/fmtm/local \
  -o passwd_file=/home/$(whoami)/s3-creds/fmtm-local \
  -o url=http://s3.fmtm.localhost:7050 \
  -o use_path_request_style

Access the files like a directory under: /mnt/fmtm/local.

To mount permanently, add the following to /etc/fstab:

fmtm-data /mnt/fmtm/local fuse.s3fs _netdev,allow_other,\ use_path_request_style,passwd_file=/home/USERNAME/s3-creds/fmtm-local,\ url=http://s3.fmtm.localhost:7050 0 0

Note: you should replace USERNAME with your linux username.

Running JOSM in the dev stack

  • Run JOSM with Field-TM via Just:
just start josm

This adds JOSM to the docker compose stack for local development.

You can now call the JOSM API from Field-TM and changes will be reflected in the GUI.

Debugging ODK Collect & QField when running on localhost

  • ODK Collect and QField require externally accessible project servers to pull from.

  • To achieve this for local development / debugging, a good solution is Cloudflare tunnelling (alternative to Ngrok).

  • There is a helper script to do this automatically for you:

    just start tunnel

Once started, use the output URLs from the terminal during project creation. The QRCodes should now work in ODK Collect or QField (depending on project type).

The credentials for the local ODK Central or QField instances are: Username: [email protected] Password: Password1234

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