VERI-Backend, as the name suggest, is the backend services for the VERI project. VERI A token used for verification of attendance of digital and physical events.

VERI-Backend requires the below dependencies:

1. Node and npm/yarn
2. Postgres SQL
3. Peppermint
4. PeppermintEry
5. A valid config file or ENV Configs

Peppermint and Peppermintery and developed in-house and the codebase and documentation can be found here and here . Please use the veri branch while build/running Peppermintery to enable Veri related feature sets. You can generate a config file with the template given in the Project Configuration section.

If the Prerequisites are full-filled then you can proceed to the installation. The next command will install nodejs libraries to the project root:

npm install or yarn install

VERI-Backend relies upon environment variable NODE_ENV to determine which environment variables it should load at runtime. NODE_ENV can be set to development, test or production. Please set the correct value corresponding to your environment.

The project can be run in development mode using the below command:

npm start or yarn start

This will start a nodemon instance of the project, which monitors for file/configuration change and restarts the program accordingly. This is the recommended way to run the app in a development mode.

VERI-Backend can also be built and served with swc. Building can theoretically make the app around 70% faster by removing TS checking and great for deployment environments. To build the app use the below command:

npm run build or yarn run build

you can then serve the app by going to /dist directory and using node app.js command.

If everything is successful the command line will show you a success message showing the current environment and the port number (5000 as default).

You might need to initialize the database with the correct tables so that VERI-Backend can interact with it. VERI-Backend has built-in SQL query builder which can be used to migrate the database. Data migration occurs with the below command:

npm run migrate or yarn run migrate

You can make new migrations with the below command:

npm run make:migration [migration-name] or yarn run make:migration [migration-name]

Our migration engine (Knex) will create a migration file at /src/databases/migration with the name timestamp_[migration-name]. This file can again be used with the migrate command to update the database with new changes.

If you want to downgrade a migration you can use the below command:

npm run rollback or yarn run rollback

This will rollback the previous migration and particularly useful in a bad database upgrade.

VERI-Backend also supports seeding initial values to the database. With the current configuration, a superadmin account with password veriisawesome can be seeded to the database with the below command:

npm run seed or yarn run seed

You can also create your own seed files using:

npm run make:seed [seed-name] or yarn run make:seed [seed-name]

commands. Please refer to the migration chapter to understand how and where these seed files are generated and located.

VERI-Backend requires a configuration file or ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES to load it's internal structure. If the project is running is development mode (NODE_ENV = development) then a configuration file namely .env.development.local needs to be present in the project root. The file can follow the below template:

# PORT
PORT = [local port]

# DATABASE
DB_PROTOCOL = postgresql
DB_HOST = [db host]
DB_PORT = [db port]
DB_USER = [db user]
DB_PASSWORD = [db password]
DB_DATABASE = [database name]

# TOKEN
SECRET_KEY = [secretKey] //to sign tokens and passwords

# LOG
LOG_FORMAT = dev //project log level 
LOG_DIR = ../logs //log directory

# CORS
ORIGIN = '' //cors origin
CREDENTIALS = [true] //cookie support

# PEPPERMINTERY
PEPPERMINTERY_URL = [peppermintery instance URL]

# DATA PATH
DATA_PATH = [file upload path]

# Base
BASE_PATH = [base path of the project]

For a test or production deployment, these constants need to be put in environment variables of the deployment machine.

VERI-Backend supports interactive API Documentation through Swagger. API-docs can be loaded through the below URL:

https://[deployment-path]/[base-path]/api-docs

The front-end of the API docs are generated using swagger-ui and the definitions can be found at /swagger.yaml. The UI is fully interactive and the APIs are compatible with OSS 3.0.

This section tries to solve some of the common errors that might happen when you are running the application for the first time.

1. TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE]: The "path" argument must be of type string. Received undefined: Your 'NODE_ENV' environment variable is not set. Please set it to 'development', 'test' or 'production'
2. cannot connect to database: Please check if postgres is running, you have the correct permission and the db configuration is correct.
3. General migration error: Please check if the migratory up and down functions in a migration file complements each other. For more information visit https://knexjs.org/guide/migrations.html.
4. app crashed - waiting for file changes before starting... It mostly happens if you have more than one instance running at the same machine or in other words if one instance is blocking the port. There could also be other crashes which you can investigate through the log file located at /src/logs/error.

VERI-Front, is the Frontend services for the VERI project.

To install and run the project, follow these steps:

Navigate to the project directory

1. Run yarn install to install dependencies
2. Run yarn start to start the project in development mode
3. Run yarn test to run the tests in watch mode
4. Run yarn commit to have integrated commit messages

There is Global.ts file in src folder that you can change BASE_URL path if you need. It is mostly needed for local running that connect to VERI-Backend

BASE_URL = 'https://localhost:5000'