MapX

MapX is a spatial data infrastructure that aims to support the sustainable use of natural resources and the environment by increasing access to the best available geospatial information and related monitoring technologies. MapX is supported by an online platform that provides authoritative spatial data at local, national and global scales, an authentication data integrity framework using a scorecard and a set of on-line tools to visualize, analyse and access geospatial data. Originally created for stakeholders involved in the extractives sector, MapX has expanded in 2017 to other fields where spatial data can help inform stakeholder dialogue, prioritization of investments and impact monitoring such as disaster risk reduction, chemicals management, biodiversity planning, renewable energy and environmental security.

Development

Development servers are launched from within Docker containers, to match as closely as possible the environment found in production. Some commands, tools and config are still currently needed on your local computer.

Requirement

• docker v20.10+, with docker-compose
• node v14.15+
• g++

Hosts

Some browsers require to modify your hosts file to link custom MapX local "subdomains". It could be as simple as adding those lines to /etc/hosts/ and restarting your browser, if needed:

127.0.0.1 app.mapx.localhost 
127.0.0.1 api.mapx.localhost
127.0.0.1 wsecho.mapx.localhost
127.0.0.1 probe.mapx.localhost
127.0.0.1 apidev.mapx.localhost
127.0.0.1 dev.mapx.localhost
127.0.0.1 geoserver.mapx.localhost

Docker

The included docker-compose.yml allows to setup a development environment.

Trigger the following script which init some required directories and copy the default environment variable to ./mapx.dev.env (if missing):

./docker-compose.init.sh

Finally, launch the mapx stack:

docker-compose pull
docker-compose up

The application should be available at http://app.mapx.localhost:8880/ (curl -H Host:app.mapx.localhost http://127.0.0.1:8880/).

An admin user is available as admin@localhost which can be used to login; get the password by browsing the web mail at http://mail.mapx.localhost:8880/.

Known issues

Postgis: OperationalError: could not access file "$libdir/postgis-X.X Solution: run docker-compose exec pg update-postgis.sh

Development session for the app service

Install all modules listed as dependencies in package.json for the app service, the sdk and the websocket handler ws_handler :

cd ./app
npm install
cd ./app/src/js/sdk/
npm install
cd ./app/src/js/ws_handler/
npm install

Optionally, if you want to develop submodules as el, mx_valid or rebuilding glyphs:

cd ./app/src/js/el/
npm install
cd ./app/src/js/is_test/
npm install
cd ./app/glyphs/
npm install 

Start a development session for the app service:

• Automatically build all client side dependencies, included dictionaries and translation ( which needs some config, see below )

$ cd ./app
$ npm run dev

• Launch the server from within the running app container. In another terminal window, launch the dev server :

docker-compose exec app /bin/bash
$ cd /appdev
$ R
> source('run.R') 
# OR, as a single line :
docker-compose exec app R -e 'setwd("/appdev");source("run.R")'

Then, an instance of mapx should be available at http://dev.mapx.localhost:8880/ for which the source code from ./app/ is mounted as /appdev/ in the container.

Note for auto-translation: Automatic translation requires a valid Google cloud config file, which path should be refered in the host – not inside the docker container – as an environment variable named GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS, accessible from your local node. You can test this with :

$ node -e 'console.log(process.env.GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS)'
# Should return, as an example :
# > /home/<your name>/.google_cloud_<your service>.json

Development session for the api service

Setup the environmental variables for the api service in mapx.dev.env as follows:

API_HOST=api
API_PORT=3030
API_PORT_DEV=3333
API_PORT_PUBLIC=8880
API_HOST_PUBLIC=api.mapx.localhost
API_HOST_PUBLIC_DEV=apidev.mapx.localhost

Start the Express.js development server:

$ docker-compose up -d
$ docker-compose exec api node inspect /apidev/index.js port=3333
debug> c

The instance now should use the api service at http://apidev.mapx.localhost:8880/ for which the source from ./api/ is mounted as /apidev/ in the container.

If you want to use the prod version of the api service, setup the environmental variables in mapx.dev.envas follows:

API_HOST=api
API_PORT=3030
API_PORT_DEV=3030
API_PORT_PUBLIC=8880
API_HOST_PUBLIC=api.mapx.localhost
API_HOST_PUBLIC_DEV=api.mapx.localhost

api tests

Run tests within the development container:

docker-compose exec api sh
cd /apidev
npm run