Poe-it

This repository holds our CS4750 Database Systems Project developed during Fall 2022. Poe-it is a social network for poetry. Poets can publish their poems in a public feed. Other users can then rate the poem, which affects its placement in the feed. No underperforming poems will be tolerated. Consequently, if a poem is rated too low, it will be deleted and thus kicked out of the feed.

How to run

There are two options to run the frontend and the backend concurrently in a Docker container by now:

• docker-compose --profile local up -V --build

  • This will start a local MySQL container alongside the Poe-it application, for which the basic database schema and its values will be imported.

• docker-compose --profile cloud up -V --build

  • For this instead of a local MySQL container, the Google Cloud SQL Auth Proxy will be started in a Docker container alongside the Poe-it Application.

Both options require a file named secrets.env in the project root directory with the format:

DB_HOST='db_hostname'
DB_PORT='db_portnumber'
DB_USER='api'
DB_PASS='PASSWORD_FOR_DB' # same as MYSQL_API_PASSWORD
DB_NAME='PoeItDB'
PASSWORD_PEPPER='PEPPER_VALUE'
SESSION_SECRET='express_session_key'
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD='a_password'
MYSQL_API_PASSWORD='PASSWORD_FOR_DB'
APP_ADMIN_PASSWORD='yet_another_password'
APP_ADMIN_HASH='argon2_hash_of_APP_ADMIN_PASSWORD'
# Note hash must be with PASSWORD_PEPPER
# Set NODE_ENV to either 'development' or 'production'
NODE_ENV='development' # or 'production'

The frontend will currently be served at http://localhost:4200/ while the backend is available at http://localhost:8080/.

The local files are mapped as volumes into the Docker container, so changes to the backend and frontend take effect immediately. Note, however, that the container must be rebuilt when packages are added or removed.

Dependencies

Global dependencies

Installed with npm install -g <package>

• @angular/cli - Angular developer tools. NOTE: Node 18 not supported, since it is not an LTS version.

Project dependencies

• @poe-it - The overall project.
  • npm-run-all - Used to run the frontend and backend concurrently during development.
• @poe-it/ui - The frontend ui-code of the project.
  • ng-validate-equal - Used to validate that two form inputs are equal.
  • async-mutex - A generic mutex/semaphore library that we use to prevent race conditions in parts of our code.
• @poe-it/api - The backend api-code of the project based on node.js.
  • express.js - Used to ease the development in node.js.
  • express-session - Used to create sessions and session-cookies.
  • express-mysql-session - Used to store the session data in a MySQL database.
  • express-validator - Used to validate the input from users.
  • cors - Needed, since the API is called from different locations.
  • mysql2-promise - Used for the interaction with the MySQL database.
  • argon2 - Used for secure hashing of passwords with salt and pepper.
  • apidoc - Used to document the features of the api.
  • nodemon - Used to automatically restart the node server on file change.

Installing new dependencies:

• Global dependency: npm install -W <package>
• Workspace dependency: npm install <package> -w @poe-it/<api / ui>

Documentation:

The documentation for the api is automatically generated from the comments in the source code using apidoc. They will be served at: http://localhost:8080/docs

Known issues:

• If the MySQL container does not start up and prints the following log entry:

  [Server] --initialize specified but the data directory has files in it. Aborting.

  Run docker volume prune to reclaim disk space.

Authors:

• Kai Helli <dpd3zd@virginia.edu>
• Daniel Endean <dpe7pye@virginia.edu>
• Cole Rogers <cbr9yef@virginia.edu>
• Gideon French <grf3suu@virginia.edu>

Acknowledgements:

• Monorepo setup using npm workspaces: Sitepen
• Dockerfile using multiple npm workspaces while preserving the cache: Post 1, Post 2
• Using anchors and aliases in YAML: Blog