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tshirt
- What is this?
- Assumptions
- What's in here?
- Install requirements
- Project secrets
- Adding a template/view
- Run the project locally
- Editing workflow
- Run Javascript tests
- Run Python tests
- Compile static assets
- Test the rendered app
- Deploy to S3
- Deploy to EC2
- Install cron jobs
- Install web services
- Run a remote fab command
What is this?
NPR's Planet Money wanted to see the hidden world behind clothes sold in this country, so they decided to make a T-shirt. They wanted to make an ordinary shirt like the vast majority of the shirts sold in this country — not organic cotton, not hand-sewn in the United States.
See the live app — combining video, text, photos and graphics — here: http://apps.npr.org/tshirt/
This is a single-page app, using the following key libraries:
- Hasher to manage page state
- Froogaloop to interface with the Vimeo API
- D3 for charts
- SmoothScroll for page scrolling
- FitVids.js for video resizing
Assumptions
The following things are assumed to be true in this documentation.
- You are running OSX.
- You are using Python 2.7. (Probably the version that came OSX.)
- You have virtualenv and virtualenvwrapper installed and working.
For more details on the technology stack used with the app-template, see our development environment blog post.
What's in here?
The project contains the following folders and important files:
confs
-- Server configuration files for nginx and uwsgi. Edit the templates thenfab <ENV> render_confs
, don't edit anything inconfs/rendered
directly.data
-- Data files, such as those used to generate HTML.etc
-- Miscellaneous scripts and metadata for project bootstrapping.jst
-- Javascript (Underscore.js) templates.less
-- LESS files, will be compiled to CSS and concatenated for deployment.templates
-- HTML (Jinja2) templates, to be compiled locally.tests
-- Python unit tests.www
-- Static and compiled assets to be deployed. (a.k.a. "the output")www/live-data
-- "Live" data deployed to S3 via cron jobs or other mechanisms. (Not deployed with the rest of the project.)www/test
-- Javascript tests and supporting files.app.py
-- A Flask app for rendering the project locally.app_config.py
-- Global project configuration for scripts, deployment, etc.copytext.py
-- Code supporting the Editing workflowcrontab
-- Cron jobs to be installed as part of the project.fabfile.py
-- Fabric commands automating setup and deployment.public_app.py
-- A Flask app for running server-side code.render_utils.py
-- Code supporting template rendering.requirements.txt
-- Python requirements.
Install requirements
Node.js is required for the static asset pipeline. If you don't already have it, get it like this:
brew install node
curl https://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh
Then install the project requirements:
cd tshirt
npm install less universal-jst -g --prefix node_modules
mkvirtualenv --no-site-packages tshirt
pip install -r requirements.txt
Project secrets
Project secrets should never be stored in app_config.py
or anywhere else in the repository. They will be leaked to the client if you do. Instead, always store passwords, keys, etc. in environment variables and document that they are needed here in the README.
Adding a template/view
A site can have any number of rendered templates (i.e. pages). Each will need a corresponding view. To create a new one:
- Add a template to the
templates
directory. Ensure it extends_base.html
. - Add a corresponding view function to
app.py
. Decorate it with a route to the page name, i.e.@app.route('/filename.html')
- By convention only views that end with
.html
and do not start with_
will automatically be rendered when you callfab render
.
Run the project locally
A flask app is used to run the project locally. It will automatically recompile templates and assets on demand.
workon tshirt
python app.py
Visit localhost:8000 in your browser.
Editing workflow
The app is rigged up to Google Docs for a simple key/value store that provides an editing workflow.
View the sample copy spreadsheet here. A few things to note:
- If there is a column called
key
, there is expected to be a column calledvalue
and rows will be accessed in templates as key/value pairs - Rows may also be accessed in templates by row index using iterators (see below)
- You may have any number of worksheets
- This document must be "published to the web" using Google Docs' interface
This document is specified in app_config
with the variable COPY_GOOGLE_DOC_KEY
. To use your own spreadsheet, change this value to reflect your document's key (found in the Google Docs URL after &key=
).
The app template is outfitted with a few fab
utility functions that make pulling changes and updating your local data easy.
To update the latest document, simply run:
fab update_copy
Note: update_copy
runs automatically whenever fab render
is called.
At the template level, Jinja maintains a COPY
object that you can use to access your values in the templates. Using our example sheet, to use the byline
key in templates/index.html
:
{{ COPY.attribution.byline }}
More generally, you can access anything defined in your Google Doc like so:
{{ COPY.sheet_name.key_name }}
You may also access rows using iterators. In this case, the column headers of the spreadsheet become keys and the row cells values. For example:
{% for row in COPY.sheet_name %}
{{ row.column_one_header }}
{{ row.column_two_header }}
{% endfor %}
Run Javascript tests
With the project running, visit localhost:8000/test/SpecRunner.html.
Run Python tests
Python unit tests are stored in the tests
directory. Run them with fab tests
.
Compile static assets
Compile LESS to CSS, compile javascript templates to Javascript and minify all assets:
workon tshirt
fab render
(This is done automatically whenever you deploy to S3.)
Test the rendered app
If you want to test the app once you've rendered it out, just use the Python webserver:
cd www
python -m SimpleHTTPServer
Deploy to S3
fab staging master deploy
Deploy to EC2
You can deploy to EC2 for a variety of reasons. We cover two cases: Running a dynamic web application (public_app.py
) and executing cron jobs (crontab
).
Servers capable of running the app can be setup using our servers project.
For running a Web application:
- In
app_config.py
setDEPLOY_TO_SERVERS
toTrue
. - Also in
app_config.py
setDEPLOY_WEB_SERVICES
toTrue
. - Run
fab staging master setup_server
to configure the server. - Run
fab staging master deploy
to deploy the app.
For running cron jobs:
- In
app_config.py
setDEPLOY_TO_SERVERS
toTrue
. - Also in
app_config.py
, setINSTALL_CRONTAB
toTrue
- Run
fab staging master setup_server
to configure the server. - Run
fab staging master deploy
to deploy the app.
You can configure your EC2 instance to both run Web services and execute cron jobs; just set both environment variables in the fabfile.
Install cron jobs
Cron jobs are defined in the file crontab
. Each task should use the cron.sh
shim to ensure the project's virtualenv is properly activated prior to execution. For example:
* * * * * ubuntu bash /home/ubuntu/apps/$PROJECT_NAME/repository/cron.sh fab $DEPLOYMENT_TARGET cron_test
Note: In this example you will need to replace $PROJECT_NAME
with your actual deployed project name.
To install your crontab set INSTALL_CRONTAB
to True
in app_config.py
. Cron jobs will be automatically installed each time you deploy to EC2.
Install web services
Web services are configured in the confs/
folder.
Running fab setup_server
will deploy your confs if you have set DEPLOY_TO_SERVERS
and DEPLOY_WEB_SERVICES
both to True
at the top of app_config.py
.
To check that these files are being properly rendered, you can render them locally and see the results in the confs/rendered/
directory.
fab render_confs
You can also deploy the configuration files independently of the setup command by running:
fab deploy_confs
Run a remote fab command
Sometimes it makes sense to run a fabric command on the server, for instance, when you need to render using a production database. You can do this with the fabcast
fabric command. For example:
fab staging master fabcast:deploy
If any of the commands you run themselves require executing on the server, the server will SSH into itself to run them.