Copyright 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No part of these materials may be reproduced, modified, stored in a retrieval system, or retransmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without prior written permission from NPR.

(Want to use this code? Send an email to nprapps@npr.org!)

oscars

What's in here?

The project contains the following folders and important files:

• 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
• www -- Static and compiled assets to be deployed (a.k.a. "the output")
• 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.
• fabfile.py -- Fabric commands automating setup and deployment

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 $NEW_PROJECT_NAME
npm install less universal-jst
mkvirtualenv $NEW_PROJECT_NAME
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 call fab 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 $NEW_PROJECT_NAME
python app.py

Visit localhost:8000 in your browser.

Run Javascript tests

With the project running, visit localhost:8000/test/SpecRunner.html.

Compile static assets

Compile LESS to CSS, compile javascript templates to Javascript and minify all assets:

workon $NEW_PROJECT_NAME
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

The current configuration is for running cron jobs only. Web server configuration is not included.

• In fabfile.py set env.deploy_to_servers to True.
• Run fab staging master setup to configure the server.
• Run fab staging master deploy to deploy the app.