CRDC DataHub Backend

Last Updated: 06 June 2023

GitHub Repository

Contents

• Introduction
• Prerequisites
• Configuring Environment Variables
  • List of Environment Variables
  • Creating a .env File
• Running the CRDC DataHub Backend API
• List of API Endpoints

Introduction

This API is used to store and query data related to the CRDC DataHub pre-submission form workflow.

Prerequisites

• Node.js version 18.16.0 is installed on the runtime environment
• A MongoDB deployment is accessible, running, and a user has been created for this API

Configuring Environment Variables

Environment variables can either be set in the runtime environment or specified using a .env file.

List of Environment Variables

• VERSION - The API version
• DATE - The date that the API was built
• MONGO_DB_USER - The MongoDB username for this API connection
• MONGO_DB_PASSWORD - The MongoDB password for this API connection
• MONGO_DB_HOST - The MongoDB deployment host address
• MONGO_DB_PORT - The MongoDB connection port
• SESSION_SECRET - A session secret key, this must match in all services that will share a session
• SESSION_TIMEOUT_SECONDS - The number of seconds before a session created or updated by this service will expire
• EMAIL_SMTP_HOST: email server hostname
• EMAIL_SMTP_PORT: email server port number
• EMAIL_USER: email server's username as an additional parameter
• EMAIL_PASSWORD: email server's password as an additional parameter
• EMAIL_URL: the website URL in the email template sent to the user.
• EMAILS_ENABLED: If not set to "true", then the email notifications will be disabled
• SCHEDULE_JOB: Set a time expression to schedule a cron job
• SUBMISSION_DOC_URL: Set the url for submission documentation

Creating a .env File

1. Locate the env.template file and create a copy
2. Rename the copy to .env
3. Replace the variable values in the ".env" file with the correct values for your target runtime environment
4. Save the .env file

Running the CRDC DataHub Backend API

1. Verify that all the prerequisites listed in this document are satisfied
2. Set up the required runtime environment variables
3. Install dependencies with npm using the following command: npm install
4. Run the CRDC DataHub Backend API with the following command: npm start

Note: Steps 1-3 are only required the first time that you are running this program. If there are no changes to the code, then this can be re-run using only step 4.

List of API Endpoints

• /version - Accepts GET requests and returns the values of the VERSION and DATE environment variables in JSON format
• /ping - Accepts GET requests and returns the string "pong", used primarily to check if this API is running
• /api/graphql - Accepts POST requests containing GraphQL queries and returns the query results