This screening tool enables renters to find sources of rental assistance for which they may be eligible by asking them a series of questions about their background. The final result of the screening tool is a downloadable / printable document listing the names, locations and documentation required by each matching source of rental assistance.
This screening tool is built on Docassemble, an open-source expert system for guided interviews and document assembly, based on Python, YAML, and Markdown. If you are unfamiliar with Docassemble, the Hello World tutorial provides a good starting place.
The easiest way to locally develop the Philly Tenant Assistance Screener is by running Docassemble on Docker. More detailed instructions on getting Docassemble running are available on the documentation site.
Install Docker on your development machine
Download the Docassemble Docker image
On OS X, this can be done in the Terminal as follows:
docker run -d -p 80:80 jhpyle/docassembleNote that it can take up to 20 minutes for the local Docassemble instance to become accessible in the browser
Clone the Philly Tenant Assistance Screener repository to a local directory
Make your changes to the Philly Tenant Assistance Screener code
Zip the parent directory
On OS X, this can be done in the Terminal as follows:
zip -r -X docassemble-housingassistance.zip docassemble-housingassistanceUpload the Philly Tenant Assistance Screener ZIP to the Docassemble playground's package manager
Run the interview in the Docassemble playground
Once Docker and Docassemble have been installed and the repository cloned, only steps 4 - 7 are necessary for further development.
You may consider regularly upgrading your system's Docassemble version by running the following in your terminal:
docker pull jhpyle/docassembleThe Philly Tenant Assistance Screener is styled through two CSS files stored in the static folder:
phillytenant_bootstrap.min.css - This file is a minified version of the Bootstrap CSS framework, v3.3.7 generated by running the LESS variables stored in phillytenant.less through the CSS generator at https://www.bootstrap-live-customizer.com/. Any styling changes to underlying bootstrap classes should be made by updating the LESS variables in phillytenant.less and regenerating and saving the phillytenant_bootstrap.min.css file on the https://www.bootstrap-live-customizer.com/ site. Do not add any custom CSS classes to the phillytenant_bootstrap.min.css file - those should go in phillytenant_custom.css. Make sure to save any changes in LESS variables to phillytenant.less before committing styling changes.
phillytenant_custom.css - This file is intended to hold any CSS that cannot be addressed by modifying Bootstrap LESS variables.