Welcome to Chapter
After several years of being dissatisfied with existing group event tools (Meetup, Facebook events) we decided to build our own.
This will be a self-hosted Docker container that you can one-click deploy to the cloud, then configure through an admin panel. No coding required.
Your organization can host an instance of Chapter under a sub-domain of your website, such as chapter.sierraclub.org or chapter.womenwhocode.org.
You can use your own authentication tools. And all your user data will stay on your own server.
Our Vision statement provides more details on the reasons for Chapter.
Terminology
To better communicate and more easily build an API and UI, the current contributors have decided on a collection of terminology to clarify discussions surrounding the Chapter project:
| Term | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| instance | a web server deployment of the "Chapter" application, managed by an organization. | a Docker container running on a web host |
| organization | a non-profit with multiple chapters | Women Who Code at the sub-domain: chapter.womenwhocode.org |
| chapter | a container for events and users | Women Who Code - New York City |
| event | a meeting with a specific location and time to which users can RSVP | Coffee And Code - BistroOne, New York City, NY - April 9, 2020 |
| administrator | a role to manage the entire "Chapter" application instance for an organization | Women Who Code - Global Chapter Administrator |
| organizer | a role to manage a chapter's events, RSVPs, communications, and users | Women Who Code - New York City, Local Organizer |
| user | the role of a person who can follow and receive notifications from a chapter and RSVP to events | Sally Gold - SallyG@example.com |
Tech Stack
We are planning to use the following tools:
- Node.js / Express for our backend using JavaScript/TypeScript
- Postgres with TypeORM
- Next.js for both client and server-side rendering of the frontend (NextJS is based on React)
- JavaScript/TypeScript
- Styled Components for styling.
- Functional Components with Hooks
- chai for writing unit tests.
A lot of people know these tools, and they're proven to work well at scale.
We will focus on building an open API first. Then developers can use the API to build their own mobile clients and voice interface clients.
Development Setup
Requirements: Node.js, Docker, internet access
Installing Node.js
Follow instructions for downloading and installing Node.js for your operating system from the official Node.js website.
Ensure you are installing Node 10 or greater and npm 6 or greater.
Installing Docker
See the Docker installation "Supported platforms" section and follow the instructions to download & install Docker Desktop for your operating system (or Docker CE for Linux).
You can find more resources on Docker here:
Starting the Development Server
Open up Terminal/Powershell/bash and navigate to the directory where you want the project to live.
Clone this repository:
git clone https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/chapter
Navigate to the newly cloned repo:
cd chapter
Install dependencies:
npm install
If needed, set up environment variables under 'app -> environment' in the docker-compose.yml file.
Ensure that Docker Desktop is up and running, then run the following command:
docker-compose up
Wait for the logs to show "server started on port 8000", then navigate to localhost:8000 to view the app.
The server will automatically restart anytime you save a .ts or .js file within the server/ directory.
You can run any command within the container by prefixing it with docker-compose exec app, e.g. docker-compose exec app npm install express
Additional DB docs can be found in server/docs/README.md
Testing
Run tests
npm run test
Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:watch
API Specification
We use Open API 3.0 to define the API structure of the application. You can see the full documentation with:
npm run speccyNavigate to http://localhost:8001 to see API docs
Schema
User Stories
MVP
The MVP user stories are shown in the MVP Project kanban / cards and as issues marked with "MVP".
Post-MVP
We are maintaining a list of post-MVP conversations and user stories using the "Roadmap" tag.
Quincy Larson is the project lead. FreeCodeCamp will start "dogfooding" the MVP with several of its local study groups.
Here's an out-dated example of an app with similar functionality: The freeCodeCamp Study Group Directory.
Contributing
- You should join our Discord server to get connected with people interested in this project and to be aware of our future announcements.
- Please read the suggested steps to contribute code to the Chapter project before creating issues, forking, or submitting any pull requests.
License
Copyright © 2019 freeCodeCamp.org
The computer software is licensed under the BSD-3-Clause license.
Contributors ✨
Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):
This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!