epr-frontend

Core delivery platform Node.js Frontend Template.

• Requirements
  • Node.js
• Server-side Caching
• Redis
• Local Development
  • Setup
  • Development
  • Production
  • Npm scripts
  • Update dependencies
  • Formatting
    • Windows prettier issue
• Docker
  • Development image
  • Production image
  • Docker Compose
  • Dependabot
  • SonarCloud
• Licence
  • About the licence

Requirements

Node.js

This project is written in Node.js and uses npm to manage dependencies.

It uses nvm to install and manage Node via a .nvmrc file which is set to reference the latest Active LTS version.

To use the correct version of Node.js for this application, via nvm:

cd epr-frontend
nvm use

Server-side Caching

We use Catbox for server-side caching. By default the service will use CatboxRedis when deployed and CatboxMemory for local development. You can override the default behaviour by setting the SESSION_CACHE_ENGINE environment variable to either redis or memory.

Please note: CatboxMemory (memory) is not suitable for production use! The cache will not be shared between each instance of the service and it will not persist between restarts.

Redis

Redis is an in-memory key-value store. Every instance of a service has access to the same Redis key-value store similar to how services might have a database (or MongoDB). All frontend services are given access to a namespaced prefixed that matches the service name. e.g. my-service will have access to everything in Redis that is prefixed with my-service.

If your service does not require a session cache to be shared between instances or if you don't require Redis, you can disable setting SESSION_CACHE_ENGINE=false or changing the default value in ~/src/config/index.js.

Proxy

We are using forward-proxy which is set up by default. To make use of this: import { fetch } from 'undici' then because of the setGlobalDispatcher(new ProxyAgent(proxyUrl)) calls will use the ProxyAgent Dispatcher

If you are not using Wreck, Axios or Undici or a similar http that uses Request. Then you may have to provide the proxy dispatcher:

To add the dispatcher to your own client:

import { ProxyAgent } from 'undici'

return await fetch(url, {
  dispatcher: new ProxyAgent({
    uri: proxyUrl,
    keepAliveTimeout: 10,
    keepAliveMaxTimeout: 10
  })
})

Local Development

Setup

Install application dependencies:

npm install

Development

To run the application in development mode run:

npm run dev

Production

To mimic the application running in production mode locally run:

npm start

Npm scripts

All available Npm scripts can be seen in package.json To view them in your command line run:

npm run

Update dependencies

To update dependencies use npm-check-updates:

The following script is a good start. Check out all the options on the npm-check-updates

ncu --interactive --format group

Formatting

Windows prettier issue

If you are having issues with formatting of line breaks on Windows update your global git config by running:

git config --global core.autocrlf false

Docker

Development image

Build:

docker build --target development --no-cache --tag epr-frontend:development .

Run:

docker run -p 3000:3000 epr-frontend:development

Production image

Build:

docker build --no-cache --tag epr-frontend .

Run:

docker run -p 3000:3000 epr-frontend

Docker Compose

Important

Please ensure you have at least version 2.22.0 of Docker Compose installed.

A local environment with:

• Localstack for AWS services (S3, SQS)
• Redis
• MongoDB
• Defra ID stub

Start services in Docker

docker compose up

# run frontend in the terminal
npm run dev

Run with frontend

docker compose --profile all up --build --watch

Delete Redis storage

docker compose down -v

Dependabot

We have added an example dependabot configuration file to the repository. You can enable it by renaming the .github/example.dependabot.yml to .github/dependabot.yml

SonarCloud

Instructions for setting up SonarCloud can be found in sonar-project.properties.

Licence

THIS INFORMATION IS LICENSED UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF THE OPEN GOVERNMENT LICENCE found at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3

The following attribution statement MUST be cited in your products and applications when using this information.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government license v3

About the licence

The Open Government Licence (OGL) was developed by the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) to enable information providers in the public sector to license the use and re-use of their information under a common open licence.

It is designed to encourage use and re-use of information freely and flexibly, with only a few conditions.