WenDE – Wissensplattform

The shift from a traditional supply infrastructure to a regenerative, decentralized energy system introduces increased complexity and necessitates the integration of previously independent sectors. The efficient operation of these systems relies on modern IT communication and control technologies. This transition poses significant changes and new challenges for all stakeholders, alongside a substantial need for research.

Research, development, and innovation projects in the field of energy in buildings, construction, as well as real-world energy transition laboratories, focus on various aspects of this multifaceted topic. They conduct in-depth analyses of the economic, political, and user-specific requirements and challenges.

A key objective of the WenDE project is to simplify and disseminate the findings from these projects. The EWB knowledge platform is being developed as a central element of this initiative. It serves as a repository where knowledge is aggregated and tailored for different user groups. The platform emphasizes the visual presentation of data, examines the impacts of varying conditions, and facilitates the application of technological advancements. It also involves the verification of digital tools and supports the testing and development of new methodologies. A web interface with database system conatins project infromation of and from the "Begleitforschung Energiewendebauen 2020" (03EWB004A-C). The title of this system is: "Wissensplattform".

Main concept

The Web-Application consists of three services, which are containerized, with each running in a seperate container. In the backend, the python based Django-Framework is used. Data is stored in a relational-database, wtih PostgreSQL chosen as the DBMS. A nginx-instance is used as a reverse-proxy to redirect HTTP-requests to the Django-Backend, using the uwsgi-protocol. Static-content is directly served by nginx as it has access to a Docker-Volume, which is shared with the Django-application. Structure of the Project

How to use

To start all needed services, networks, and volumes Docker-compose can be used. Is is possible to use the app in development- or production-mode. As a prerequesite, the .env.example-file needs to be reviewed. It contains the secrets of the application. Please change the values of the environmental-variables inside there. E.g. the DJANGO_SUPERUSER_USERNAME contains the username, which can be used to access the admin-panel and DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD is the corresponding password. With the POSTGRES_*-variables a database with the name POSTGRES_DB together with a database-user POSTGRES_USER is created on the first startup of the Application. The created database lives in the volume pgdata. When changing the values of the POSTGRES_*-variables after database creation, it wont be possible for the web-application to access the database.

As a first step a .env-file needs to be created from the .env.example-file. On linux, that can be done with the cp-command. From within the project-folder execute the following command in a shell:

   cp .env.example .env

Execute the command npm install to install the node.js-dependencies these are used to transpile the scss-stylesheets into a bundled css-stylesheet.
To build the development environment execute:
```
./run build_initial dev
```
In the Wissensplattform images like logos of in the database included tools, are not located in the repository. These files have to be downloaded from the following link https://tubcloud.tu-berlin.de/f/3546499069. The media-folder has to be copied to webcentral/src/.
Start the setup process by calling the run script with the argument up_initial and providing a database dump file.
```
./run up_initial dev postgres/webcentral_db_20240910_rm_session_data.sql
```
If the app should is to be started in production-mode, SSL-certificates need to be provided to the nginx-instance. The files need to be put into the proxy/conf/-folder. If the conf/-folder does not exist, it needs to be created. The filename of the SSL-Certificate and the SSL-Certificate Key need to be placed inside the NGINX_SSL_CERTIFICATE_FILENAME and NGINX_SSL_CERTIFICATE_KEY_FILENAME respectivly.
After that, the run-script can be used to start the project.

For the development-mode use:

   ./run up dev

For the production-mode use:

   ./run up prod

Now that the app is running it is possible to eighter import dummy-data or start with an empty database. Please consult the documentation for further details.

Importing Dummy-Data

For importing the dummy-data the run-script can be used. Open a seperate terminal, while the app is still running in the first shell and execute:

   ./run restore_db postgres/dummy_data.sql

That imports the sql-dump from the postgres-folder into the database. After that go back to the shell where the web-app is running and stop it by pressing `CTRL+C and restart it with the ./run up <env> command. You can access the web-app UI by going to

   http://127.0.0.1:8000

when you started the development environment or

   http://127.0.0.1:PORT_TO_OUTSIDE

where PORT_TO_OUTSIDE needs to be replaced by the port, which is set in the .env-file.

Starting the App with an empty database

Leave the app running in the terminal and open another one. There run the following two commands:

   ./run makemigrations

and

   ./run migrate

After that, restart the app from the first terminal by pressing CTRL+C and run the command ./run up <env> again.

Style Guide

The Style guide for the project can be viewed here.

Hosted

wissen-digital-ewb.de

License / Copyright

This repository is licensed under MIT License.

This repo contains images, which have been created using the open-source Privay Icons.

Funding

Alt text

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), promotional reference: 03EWB004A-C.

Contributors Software (in no particular order)

Falk Cudok, Felix Rehmann, Rita Streblow, Martin Tobias Degner, Siling Chen, Ibukun Odeyemi, Kaifeng Xu, Ngoc Long Nguyen, Johanna Tengler, Marius Bieker

Contributors Content (in no particular order)

Astrid Aretz, Swantje Gährs, Jan Kegel, Torsten Grothmann, Valentin Rupp, Max von Grafenstein, Isabel Kiefaber, Falk Cudok, Felix Rehmann, Rita Streblow, Martin Tobias Degner, Siling Chen, Ibukun Odeyemi, Kaifeng Xu, Ngoc Long Nguyen, Johanna Tengler, Marius Bieker

Contact

info@dvg.tu-berlin.de

TUB-DVG / wissen-digital-ewb

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