p# UL API web site.

This repository contains the client-side code for the UL API web site, and the Docker files required to build and launch it in production.

Running Standalone

If you already have your own CouchDB, couchdb-lucene, and mail server, you can just run the website and API as a standalone service using a command like:

node ./launch.ul.js

Running Using docker-compose

Before you can run using docker-compose, you will need to create /srv and all of the subdirectories referenced in the docker-compose.yml file in this repository.

Once those installation steps are complete, you can start the UL API with live server log messages using a command like:

docker-compose up

To stop services, break out of the session using Ctrl-C. If you want to leave services running in the background, you can use a command like:

docker-compose up -d

In that case, to stop services you will either need to issue the relative docker commands to stop individual containers or stop and remove all containers using a command like:

docker-compose down

For additional options, consult the docker and docker-compose documentation.

Please note: The first time you run, you will also need to synchronis the database as described here.

Configuration Files Required for Docker

Key environment variables used within the three docker containers created by docker-compose are configured using (non-version-controlled) files stored wherever you have the repository checked out.

.docker-env-couchdb

Field Name	Description
COUCHDB_USER	The administrator username to configure for CouchDB.
COUCHDB_PASSWORD	The administrator password to configure for CouchDB.

.docker-env-mail

Field Name	Description
HOSTS__SMTP	The hostname on which the mail server is running.

.docker-env-ul-imports

Field Name	Description
USERNAME	The UL API username to use when running imports.
PASSWORD	The UL API password to use when running imports.
COMMIT	Set to true to commit any changes rather than simply previewing them.

Running Imports

The ul-imports container does not start and stay running in the background. Rather, it is intended to be launched to run a single named import, as in the following example, which synchronises the UL API with all remote data sources:

docker-compose run ul-imports full-sync

For the full list of supported commands, see the package.json file in the ul-imports repository.

When the import scripts or configuration change, you will likely need to rebuild the ul-imports container, which can be done using commands like:

rm -rf node_modules/*
NODE_ENV=production npm install
docker-compose build ul-imports

More Information

For a more detailed breakdown on executing common maintenance tasks, see the operations handbook.