Go


A project of GMU SRCT.

Go is a drop-in URL shortening service. This project aims to provide an easy to use URL branding service for institutions that wish to widely disseminate information without unnecessarily outsourcing branding.

Go is currently a Python 2.7 project written in the Django web framework, with MySQL as our backend database.

Setup instructions for local development

Go currently supports developers on Linux, macOS and Windows platforms through both the Docker and Vagrant virtualization platforms. You may use either one though we have included instructions for manual setup as well. Here's our walk-through of steps we will take:

1. Install git on your system.
2. Clone the Go codebase.
3. Get Go up and running with the method of your choice.

1) Install git on your system.

git is the version control system used for SRCT projects.

On Linux Based Systems

with apt:

Open a terminal and run the following command:

sudo apt update

This retrieves links to the most up-to-date and secure versions of your packages.

Next, with:

sudo apt install git

you install git onto your system.

On macOS

We recommend that you use the third party Homebrew package manager for macOS, which allows you to install packages from your terminal just as easily as you could on a Linux based system. You could use another package manager (or not use one at all), but Homebrew is highly reccomended.

To get homebrew, run the following command in a terminal:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)

Note: You do NOT need to use sudo when running any Homebrew commands, and it likely won't work if you do.

Next, to make sure Homebrew is up to date, run:

brew update

Finally we can install git with:

brew install git

On Windows

Instructions on how to setup git on Windows goes here.

2) Clone the Go codebase.

Now, we're going to clone down a copy of the Go codebase from git.gmu.edu, the SRCT code respository with SSH.

a) Configure your ssh keys by following the directions at:

git.gmu.edu/help/ssh/README.

b) Now, on your computer, navigate to the directory in which you want to download the project (ie. perhaps one called development/SRCT), and run

git clone git@git.gmu.edu:srct/go.git

3) Get Go up and running with the method of your choice.

Now that we have git setup and cloned down the code you can

cd go/

and get to working on setting up a development environment!

Docker

Docker is an emerging containerization platform written in Google's Go language. Instead of running a full VM that runs Go, we package up all the various bits that make up Go and run that as a container (two containers: one for Go and the other for mysql) that act as normal processes to the OS.

Check out docker.com for more details.

Pros:

• Lightweight
  • Can be run on most machines without needing significant resources.
  • SRCT members report minimal battery impact on laptops.
• Fast
  • Compared to other methods, Docker is comparatively faster than Vagrant or manual setup.
• Minimal setup
  • You run one command. Really easy to get up and running once you install Docker.
• Good cross platform support
  • Runs smoothly on macOS, Linux, and Windows
  • Great docs to help if you get stuck.
• Can easily destroy and rebuild the docker images
• Loads in changes to code on the fly

Cons:

• Challenging to debug problems
  • Cannot interact with attached images and as a result, you cannot really interact with the database.

There are instructions on how to setup/develop with Docker at the docker-configuration page in the Go project wiki.

Vagrant + Ansible

Vagrant boots up a full virtual machine (VM) through VirtualBox that then runs Go. A script written with Ansible will then run on that VM to automate the setup process for you. It is similar in a way to running Go on a legitimate server.

Pros:

• Very similar to a production environment
• Can use vagrant ssh to "ssh" into the VM to debug things such as the database.
• Relatively straightforward and easy setup.
  • One Command.
• Can easily destroy and rebuild the VM.
• Loads in changes to code on the fly.
• Fast-ish (Initial provision takes a bit).

Cons:

• Heavier on resources.
  • It's literally a full VM.
• Occasional issues/hiccups.
  • Documented fixes are in the wiki.

There are instructions on how to setup with Vagrant at the vagrant-configuration page in the Go project wiki.

Additionally, there is documentation about developing with Vagrant at the vagrant-usage page in the Go project wiki.

Manual Setup

Manual setup (or: the old fashioned way) is where you install all dependecies on your system and run Go as a local server with Django. Granted you are technically doing that with Vagrant and Docker except those platforms automate the steps that are laid out in this section.

Pros:

• Experience setting up a Django project for local development

Cons:

• Greater potential for things to go wrong
• Way more steps

Head to:

https://git.gmu.edu/srct/go/wikis/manual-setup

Some words about contributing to Go.

CONTRIBUTING.md

This document goes into detail about how to contribute to the repo, plus some opinions about using git.

Opening issues

There is a template for issue descriptions located on the new issue page. I will close issues with poor descriptions or who do not follow the standard.

Authentication

The authentication service used for Go is CAS. In local development however we utilize a test server. You can log in with just your CAS username to simulate logging in. By default, the Django superuser is set to dhaynes3.

In order to approve yourself to be an 'approved user' you must navigate to 127.0.0.1:8000/admin and log in. Once in the admin page go to "registered users", and create a new registered user in the top right. Be sure to use the same username and Full Name as your main account and select "approved" in the bottom row.

Coding style

You should adhere to the style of the repo code. Consistancy is key! PEP8 guidelines are strongly reccomended but not enforced at the time. Please comment your code, I will not accept commits that contain uncommented code.

Getting Help

I encourage you to join the #go channel in SRCT's Slack Group if you have any questions on setup or would like to contribute.

Some words about deploying Go.

Check out our admin guide:

https://git.gmu.edu/srct/go/wikis/administration-guide

In order to expire links, you need to set up a cron job to run the manage.py expirelinks command regularly. A sample cron script is available in the repository and is named go-cleanlinks.cron. Drop this in cron.hourly and change the paths so that they point to the virtualenv activate script and manage.py.

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Note:

Link by Viktor Vorobyev from the Noun Project.