funding-frontend

Running locally on Ubuntu WSL2

Setting up WSL2 with Ubuntu

Firstly, check that WSL is on within Windows features. Secondly, check that Hyper-V is on within Windows features.

Open a new windows terminal or powershell instance.

Install WSL

wsl --update --web-download

Install Ubuntu

This will install Ubuntu by default.

Then run

wsl --install--web-download

Alternatively, list the available distros to install explicitly

wsl --list –online

wsl –install –d Ubuntu

When installed. Create a username and password (whatever you like)

Then update:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

Allow WSL2 internet access

Note for managed machines. To allow the virtual linux machine to access the internet, the DNS config will need to be amended to the address 8.8.8.8. This is because the local DNS server on managed machines does not work. 8.8.8.8 is Google's public DNS server. Run the commands below to amend the config and preserve it after the host machine is rebooted.

To prevent this, amend with:

sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf` 
sudo bash -c 'echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" > /etc/resolv.conf' 
sudo bash -c 'echo "[network]" > /etc/wsl.conf' 
sudo bash -c 'echo "generateResolvConf = false" >> /etc/wsl.conf' 
sudo chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf

Restart terminal to take effect.

Install ZShell (optional)

Z Shell is an extension of the Bourne Shell that supports custom plugins and customisation not possible with the given Bash Shell. It allows for the integration of git and other tools directly into the cmd line with oh-my-zsh.

To install ZShell as the default terminal:

sudo apt-get install zsh

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Configuring zsh/oh-my-zsh by adding the following line under the first comment of the ~/.bash.rc file.

Run:

vim ~/.bashrc

and add

if test -t 1; then 
  exec zsh 
fi

Then restart your terminal instance. You should see a newly styled ZSH terminal. An example guide on how to customise the shell further to your needs can be found here.

Install RVM

Follow the installation instructions at https://github.com/rvm/ubuntu_rvm

Follow the instructions at https://github.com/rvm/rvm for info on how to use RVM

You can test by writing some ruby

$ irb

$ puts("a string")

Install and setup Postgres

Installation

If Postgres has been installed directly onto windows, consider removing. It could reserve port 5432 for itself and prevent the Ubuntu version from using the default port. This means rails yml config would need to be changed, for your setup, to use the different port.

See: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/tutorials/wsl-database#install-postgresql

To install:

sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib

Then test with

psql –version

Start postgres manually with the command below. There are instructions to automate later in this document. See link for other commands:

sudo service postgresql start

Create a Postgres User

The username should match your Ubuntu username, for which you installed Rails.

sudo -u postgres createuser -s <YOUR USER>

Check the user by logging into psql with

sudo –u postgres psql

and running the list describe users cmd in the psql terminal

 # \du;

Then while still in PSQL, create the database

 # create database funding_frontend_development;

Script startup services

These steps will sync your Ubuntu clock from the host machine, the start the postgres server when the host is started.

Firstly allow the postgresql service and hwclock to run without sudo by navigating to the /etc/sudoers.d folder with

cd /etc/sudoers.d

Then create a new file with no full stop or tilda in the name:

Touch startupservices01

Edit the file and add the following lines. The file must end with a new line.

%sudo ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/service postgresql *
%sudo ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/hwclock *

Next create a batch file, used by Windows startup, to start postgres and sync the clock.

First, press Windows+r, to open the run dialog, and enter:

shell:startup

This opens the startup folder. Create a new txt file that contains:

wsl sudo hwclock --hctosys

wsl sudo service postgresql start

Save the file, then change the extension from txt to bat

Next time the host machine is started, this batch file will execute, and startupservices01 will negate the need for the user’s password.

Installing & Running Rails

Postgres gem dependency

libpq-fe.h is needed to run the pg gem on Ubuntu. These are psql devtools.

sudo apt-get install libpq-dev

bundler

gem install bundler -v 2.3.11

Rails

gem install rails -v 7.0.6

Spinning up FFE

Firstly, add the .env file. Get this from another dev or from password manager. Copy to the root of your cloned folder and ensure you have completed the database steps from the postres section above.

Next install gems

bundle install

Next install v16.14.2 of node so that the Yarn dependencies can be met

Consider NVM as a way to manage and install node versions.

Next install npm if you haven't done so already

sudo apt install nodejs npm

Next install yarn

sudo npm install -g yarn

And run the yarn install:

yarn install --check-files

Next setup the database for FFE with

bundle exec rails db:setup

bundle exec rails db:migrate

Run bundle exec rails db:seed in your terminal. This will have the effect of populating relevant database tables with the necessary rows to run the application.

Then run FFE with

bundle exec rails server

The application will now be running locally and can be accessed by navigating to https://localhost:3000 in your browser. Use 127.0.0.1:3000 if localhost doesn't resolve.

To get past the open-ssl issue run this command

sudo apt install libssl-dev=1.1.1l-1ubuntu1.4 openssl=1.1.1l-1ubuntu1.4

Running the automated test suite

RSpec

Server-side code is tested using RSpec.

To run the RSpec test suite, run bundle exec rspec in your terminal.

Jest

Client-side code is tested using Jest.

To run the Jest test suite, run yarn jest in your terminal.

Caching

Addresses are cached after searching by postcode so that they can be referred to later in the user journey. By default, Ruby-on-Rails in development mode runs with caching disabled. In order to see caching work in development, run bundle exec rails dev:cache in your terminal.

Toggling feature flags

Some elements of functionality are sat behind feature flags, which have been implemented using Flipper.

To toggle functionality, a Flipper needs to exist. Flipper rows exist within the flipper_features and flipper_gates tables on the database. The flipper_gates are populated with a database migration. The flipper_features are populated at app runtime, provided rows exist in flipper.rb.

Update a flipper_gates row by running a SQL statement such as (after running psql funding_frontend_development in your terminal to connect to the database):

UPDATE flipper_gates SET value = true WHERE feature_key = '<key_name>';

bitzesty / funding-frontend