Hackathon WebApp, OSU + Baker Hughes

The hackathon web application is the main organization component of the partnered event betweeen Oklahoma State University and Baker Hughes Inc. This event usually happens in September. The WebApp is used to organizer sponsors, registration, team assignment, and project voting.

Students

Before the event, OSU students are able to visit the site and apply to the hackathon. At the end of the event, OSU students are able to vote on the other projects.

Judges

At the end of the event, judges are able to vote on the projects.

Organizers

Can define event settings via an admin area, such as start dates, sponsors, team placement, judges, organizer profiles, etc.

Screenshots

Architecture

This web application uses MVC (Model, View, Controller) architecture for serving pages, includes Bootstrap for mobile interfaces, and some basic coloring to match Baker Hughes and OSU branding.

Since the application is still young, some features are still hard-coded, but this is in transition. Important notes that may not be obvious:

• Unit testing is sparse. It is only present for difficult process like the team placement algorithm.
  • Please consider the cascade of any changes to existing functions.
• A MongoDB NoSQL database is used for storing most user, team, sponsor, and event settings. This is a work in progress.
• The architecture is being shifted to support multiple events, so past events can still be highlighted.

Configuration

Deployment settings are configured via environment variables. After that, all other settings for the appliction features, events, users, voting, etc. are managed via the web interface.

ENV: Database + Emails

The registered users, teams, sponsors and other event data are all stored in a MongoDB NoSQL database.

• Emails during registration are sent via google's email service.
• If a recaptcha token is provided, forms are protected by Google reCAPTCHA
• If a google analytics tag is provided, usage statistics are collected via Google Analytics.

Configuration for all of the above must be defined via environment variables.

• During development this can be provided via the file .env.develop.
• There is also an option for the file .env.prod for running the local app against the production database, but it is not recommended and should be avoided.

Example: .env.develop

MONGODB_URL=mongodb+srv://user-dev:pass@<datbasename>.mongodb.net
MONGODB_IDENTITY_DB_NAME=<user collection name>
MONGODB_HACKATHON_DB_NAME=<events collection name>
EMAIL_USERNAME=<email address>
EMAIL_PASSWORD=<email password>

# OPTIONAL - If set to false, sign up page is hidden. default=true.
# ALLOW_CREATING_ACCOUNTS=true

# OPTIONAL - If provided, the application will protected from robots.
# RECAPTCHA_SITE_KEY=<public key from google recaptcha service>
# RECAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY=<private key from google recaptcha service>

# OPTIONAL - If provided, the application will collect usage statistics.
# GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_TAG=<gtag id>

Application Configuration

How to become Admin

The first account is automatically assigned as an admin.

1. Start the web application service.
2. Navigate to the home page.
   • If locally, something like: http://localhost:5001
   • The exact URL will be listed in the terminal after it has started.
3. In the top right, click Sign In.
4. Underneath the login area, click the link for Create an Account.
5. Fill in the required information and click Create.

How to change settings

The application settings are only available to admin accounts.

1. If necessary, sign in to the web application using a known admin account.
2. On the home page, find the user icon in the top right. Click it to reveal the menu.
3. On the user menu, near the bottom, find the Admin option, and click it. This will navigate to the backend configuration settings area.

Developer Notes

Prerequisites

• .Net SDK for VS Code, v3.1+
• Visual Studio Code
• VS Code Extension: C#
• VS Code Extension: .NET Core Test Explorer
• MongoDB Database - Locally for development, something in the cloud for production.

  For simplicity, we use MongoDB Atlas with a free tier.

How to verify compatible dotnet version

When working locally, you may have several runtimes installed. Run the following terminal command to list all available SDKs and runtimes.

dotnet --info

The result will looks something like the below. If 3.1.x is listed, the application should run as expected.

...

.NET SDKs installed:
  2.1.202 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk]
  3.1.425 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk]
  3.1.426 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk]
  6.0.404 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.31 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.32 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.12 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.0.9 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.31 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.32 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.12 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]

...

How to Run Locally

1. Ensure the above prerequisites are installed/ready.

   Installation of DotNet may require restarting your computer for dotnet to be recognized in PATH.
   Note: Warning - If using a cloud database, connection may fail if running behind a proxy, VPN, or other restricted network.

2. Clone this repository to your local machine.
3. Create or update develop.env
   • See above Configuration sections for required environment variables.
4. After opening this project, give VS Code some time to install any extensions and dotnet some time to restore the packages.
5. In VS Code, select the debugging tab. Select Launch (dev) and click the Run button (or press F5) to launch.

   These settings are preconfigured in the .vscode folder.
   The first launch may take a moment while packages are downloaded. Status can be viewed from the debug console.

6. The web server will launch in the background. The page can be viewed by opening http://localhost:5001.

How to Deploy

This web application is hosted on Azure using an app service.

1. Ensure that an app service is available on Azure.
2. Configure the environment variables on the app service. (See Configuration section above.)
   • In Azure: (Web App) --> All Settings --> Application Settings