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ELC x H4I: Template Law Form Filler

Introduction

The Template Law Form Filler is a webiste created by the Cornell Hack4Impact team made to simplify the process of creating eco-centric laws by legislators. This project is a web application deployed on Heroku using:

  • React for the front-end, bootstrapped with "Create React App".
  • express.js for the server
    • Serves the React app
    • Provides the JSON API for the React app using http

Commands

The package.json provides all the commands needed to test and run this application.

  • npm install install all dependencies for the server and the client.
  • npm run build builds the static files for the React app.
  • npm start starts the complete MERN app.
  • npm run react-dev starts the React app in development mode on http://localhost:3000. Only works if the server is started separately.
  • npm run gdocs runs the google docs api code.

During development of the React app, use npm run react-dev or simply navigate to the client folder and run npm start. Remember to start the server running as well.

If you want reload-functionality for the server code, I recommend using something like nodemon. You can then navigate to the server folder and start it using nodemon src/index.js.

Before deploying, build and start the app, and test that everything works on http://localhost:8080. The react app should open when you visit http://localhost:8080 in the browser and the API should be available on http://localhost:8080/api/.

Configuration

The app opens on port 8080 by default. If the environment variable PORT is set, that port will be used instead.

In production mode, the React app expects to find the API on the same port as itself on the /api path. In development mode, the React app expects to find the api on http://localhost:8080/api/ instead. You can change this behaviour in the React .env files.

Server implementation

It's worth noting that a few tricks are used in the server implementation to concurrently serve the API and the React app from the same server app.

By default when the express.js server receives a request, it tries to match it with one of the API routes. If none matches it serves one of the static files instead. If none of those matches it serves the React index.html file. This enables client-side routing in the React app (with React Router or similar library) without overriding the server API or hiding any of the other static assets.

Relevant code snippets from server.js:

  // Serve the static files
  app.use(express.static(path.resolve('..', 'client', 'build'))); 
  // "Redirect" all non-API GET requests to React's entry point (index.html)
  app.get('*', (req, res) =>
    res.sendFile(path.resolve('..', 'client', 'build', 'index.html'))
  );