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nprapps' Project Template

About this template

This template provides a a project skeleton suitable for any project that is to be served entirely as flat files. Facilities are provided for rendering html from data, compiling LESS into CSS, deploying to S3, etc.

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")
• 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

Copy the template

git clone git@github.com:nprapps/app-template.git $NEW_PROJECT_NAME
cd $NEW_PROJECT_NAME
rm -rf .git
git init
git add *
git add .gitignore
git commit -am "Initial import from app-template."
git remote add origin git@github.com:nprapps/$NEW_PROJECT_NAME.git
git push -u origin master

Configure the project

• Update app_config.py with the name of the new project.

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

Bootstrap your project issues

The app-template can automatically setup your Github repo with our default labels and tickets.

• Run fab bootstrap_issues and enter your Github username and password.

Generate index.html

The app-template ships with several example templates and corresponding views.

• Choose from the available templates which one to base your project on, e.g. templates/table.html. Move this template to templates/index.html and delete the others.
• Never edit www/index.html or other dynamically generated assets. Instead edit the templates.
• Choose the view from app.py that matches your chosen index template. Rename it to index, apply the @app.route('/') decorator to it and delete the others.
• Uncomment and update the ad code and Facebook tags at the top of templates/_base.html. (or make yourself a ticket to do it later).

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.

Compile with 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 a server

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.