Plaid Bank Transaction Dashboard

Plaid is an app which allows 3rd party connection to many banking institutions. The merit of this app is the functionality that makes multi-access possible.

Further, the app conveniently extracts transaction histories of each account, which is the primary reason for me to study Plaid for my personal finance organization.

Environment

Current app was tested in Ubuntu 20.04. Also required is up-to-date Docker for installation.

Installation

1. Set up dotenv file for log in credential

cp .env.template .env

• Setting up dotenv file

  • Initially we have to create an environment file for login credential. Simple use .env.template and create .env file. The PLAID_CLIENT_ID and PLAID_SECRET_KEYS can be found on the key section of the Plaid dashboard.

  • PLAID_ENV takes either sandbox or development. In order to actually test the connection to banking institutions, the app has to be loaded as a dev mode, otherwise it will throw credential error when prompted.

  • REDIRECT_URI must be matched to the receiving end of the Plaid server. If not deploying for actual service, the local address (https://localhost:3001/oauth-link) is used here. It can be set from the api section of the Plaid dashboard. Note that as opposed to Plaid tutorial, the address is secure protocol is used (i.e., https instead of http).

    • When run locally, or has any issue with authentification, leave the redirect empty

2. Pull docker image (note that sudo is used in case base environment is used)

sudo make start

3. Open https://localhost:3001
4. For closing service, use the following command

sudo make stop

Additional Information

• More in-depth explanation can be found from the original Plaid manual
• Other nfcu projects are found here and here