DEVELOPMENT.md

POWERBACK Development Setup Guide

We greatly appreciate your interest in contributing to our project. This guide will help you set up your development environment and run a local instance of POWERBACK for testing and development.

• Prerequisites
• Installation
  • Environment Variables
  • Backend Constants
  • Development Server
• Making Contributions
• Questions and Support

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following prerequisites installed on your development machine:

• Node.js (recommended version: Node v18.12.0)
• npm (usually comes with Node.js)
• Git

Installation

1. Clone the Repository:

   Start by cloning the POWERBACK repository to your local machine. Run the following command in your terminal:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/powerback.git

2. Install Dependencies:

   Navigate to the project directory and install the project dependencies using npm:

   cd powerback && npm install

3. Customize aliases

   Copy webpack.config.js and jquery-stub.js from the root folder of your project into /client/node_modules/react-scripts/config/. Overwrite any files of the same name in the folder with these copies.

4. Environment Variables:

   POWERBACK relies on environment variables for configuration. Create an .env file in the project root and define the necessary variables. You can start with the following template:

   REACT_APP_BRANDED_URI=POWERBACK.me
   REACT_APP_PHONE_NUMBER=123.456.7890
   REACT_APP_STRIPE_PROCESSING_ADDEND=0.3
   REACT_APP_DEV_URI=http://localhost:3000
   REACT_APP_PROD_URI=https://powerback.me
   REACT_APP_EMAIL_USER=myname@[EMAIL SERVICE].me
   REACT_APP_STRIPE_PROCESSING_PERCENTAGE=0.029
   REACT_APP_EMAIL_SUPPORT=support@[EMAIL SERVICE].me
   REACT_APP_API_URI=https://api.powerback.me/api/
   REACT_APP_PROPUBLICA_CONGRESS_SUBDIR=congress/v1/
   REACT_APP_TWITTER_URI=https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?
   REACT_APP_PROPUBLICA_BASEURI=https://api.propublica.org/
   REACT_APP_BTC_ADDRESS=1Q1HmBh9Wiqg5Kv12aY2zqhAnfz1CDz7Wr
   REACT_APP_PATREON_URI=https://www.patreon.com/join/powerback/1
   REACT_APP_CIVICS_API_URI=https://civicinfo.googleapis.com/civicinfo/v2/representatives
   REACT_APP_TWITTER_HASHTAGS=NoDonationWithoutRepresentation,NoRepGetStepped,TakeThePowerBack
   REACT_APP_FEC_INDIVIDUAL_CONTRIBUTIONS=https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/

5. Backend Constants

   1. Create a new file constants.js in the root folder of your project.

   2. Copy and paste the following boilerplate code into the new file:

   module.exports = {
     SERVER: {
       MONGODB_CONNECTION_STRING:
         'mongodb+srv://[username]]:[pLaCeHoLdEr]@cluster0.cmxbp.mongodb.net/powerback?retryWrites=true&w=majority',
       SESSION_SECRET: '[passphrase]',
     },
     EMAIL: {
       PASS: '[email account password]',
       PORT: '[email service port #]',
     },
     STRIPE: {
       API: {
         SK_LIVE: '[sk_live_pLaCeHoLdEr1234567890]',
         SK_TEST: '[sk_test_pLaCeHoLdEr1234567890]',
         PK_TEST: '[pk_test_pLaCeHoLdEr1234567890]',
         PK_LIVE: '[pk_live_pLaCeHoLdEr1234567890]',
       },
       FEES: {
         PERCENTAGE: 0.029,
         ADDEND: 0.3,
       },
     },
     API: {
       PROPUBLICA: {
         CONGRESS_KEY: '[pLaCeHoLdEr1234567890]',
         // if you have more than one key you can put in *"ALTERNATE"*, otherwise replace placeholder with your key again here
         CONGRESS_ALTERNATE_KEY: '[pLaCeHoLdEr1234567890]',
       },
       CIVICS: {
         KEY: '[pLaCeHoLdEr1234567890]',
       },
     },
     FEC: { LEGAL_LIMIT: [200, 3300] }, // [noncompliant, compliant] per candidate, per campaign cycle.,
     APP: {
       SETTINGS: {
         emailReceipts: true,
         showToolTips: true,
         autoTweet: false,
       },
     },
   };

   3. Acquire all API keys needed to run POWERBACK. Check out the API Key list on how to do that.

   4. You will need an email service as well as a MongoDB database. Such services will provide you with credentials that you put in constants.js.

   5. Replace the MONGODB_CONNECTION_STRING, PASS, PORT, CONGRESS_KEY, CONGRESS_ALTERNATE_KEY, and (CIVICS) KEY with the correct credentials and/or keys.

   6. Replace the SESSION_SECRET placeholder with a secure passphrase.

6. Start the Development Server:

   1. Ensure you have a running MongoDB instance, and the connection string is correctly defined in the in your app.js file in your project's root folder.

   2. Once you've set up your environment variables and ensured your MongoDB instance is running, start the development server:

   npm run dev

   This will launch the POWERBACK server and make it accessible at http://localhost:3000.

   3. Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000 to access your local instance of POWERBACK. You can now start working on features, testing, or making contributions.

Making Contributions

If you plan to contribute to POWERBACK, follow our Contribution Guidelines. We appreciate your contributions and look forward to working together to make POWERBACK even better.

The API Directory may be a good starting point to understand how the application works.

Questions and Support

If you have any questions or need support during the development process, feel free to reach out to us on our GitHub repository or by email at support@powerback.me. We're here to assist you.

Thank you for contributing to POWERBACK and being a part of our mission.

Happy coding! The POWERBACK Team