Notify UI

This is the Notify front-end for government users and admins. To see it in action, check out the demo site (contact team for credentials).

Through the interface, users can:

• Register and manage users
• Create and manage services
• Send batch SMS by uploading a CSV
• View their history of notifications

The Notify API provides the UI's backend and is required for most things to function. Set that up first!

Local setup

Common steps

1. Install pre-requisites for setup (on a Mac):

   • Install XCode or at least the XCode Command Line Tools
   • Homebrew (follow instructions on page)
   • jq: brew install jq
   • terraform: brew install terraform or brew install tfenv and use tfenv to install terraform ~> 1.4.0
   • cf-cli@8: brew install cloudfoundry/tap/cf-cli@8

2. Log into cloud.gov: cf login -a api.fr.cloud.gov --sso

3. Ensure you have access to the notify-local-dev and notify-staging spaces in cloud.gov

4. Run the API setup steps

5. Run the development terraform with:

   ```
   $ cd terraform/development
   $ ./run.sh
   ```
   

6. If you want to send data to New Relic from your local develpment environment, set NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY within .env

7. Follow the instructions for either Direct installation or Docker installation below

Direct installation

1. Get the API running

2. Install poetry

3. Install nvm (Node Version Manager)

4. Install Python and Node dependencies

   make bootstrap

   If you run into certificate errors at the playwright install step, try doing this:

   1. Run brew --prefix to see Homebrew's root directory

   2. Create or modify the local .env file in the project and add this line:

      NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=/CHANGE-TO-HOMEBREW-INSTALL-PATH/etc/ca-certificates/cert.pem

      Make sure to change CHANGE-TO-HOMEBREW-INSTALL-PATH to the path given by brew --prefix in the step above. For example, if brew --prefix gave /opt/homebrew as output, then the line would look like this:

      NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=/opt/homebrew/etc/ca-certificates/cert.pem

   3. Save the changes to the .env file

   4. Run make bootstrap again

5. Run the Flask server

   make run-flask

6. Go to http://localhost:6012

Docker installation

If you are using VS Code, there are also instructions for running inside Docker

Python dependency management

We're using Poetry for managing our Python dependencies and local virtual environments. When it comes to managing the Python dependencies, there are a couple of things to bear in mind.

For situations where you manually manipulate the pyproject.toml file, you should use the make py-lock command to sync the poetry.lock file. This will ensure that you don't inadvertently bring in other transitive dependency updates that have not been fully tested with the project yet.

If you're just trying to update a dependency to a newer (or the latest) version, you should let Poetry take care of that for you by running the following:

poetry update <dependency> [<dependency>...]

You can specify more than one dependency together. With this command, Poetry will do the following for you:

• Find the latest compatible version(s) of the specified dependency/dependencies
• Install the new versions
• Update and sync the poetry.lock file

In either situation, once you are finished and have verified the dependency changes are working, please be sure to commit both the pyproject.toml and poetry.lock files.

Keeping the notification-utils dependency up-to-date

The notifications-utils dependency references the other repository we have at https://github.com/GSA/notifications-utils - this dependency requires a bit of extra legwork to ensure it stays up-to-date.

Whenever a PR is merged in the notifications-utils repository, we need to make sure the changes are pulled in here and committed to this repository as well. You can do this by going through these steps:

• Make sure your local main branch is up-to-date
• Create a new branch to work in
• Run make update-utils
• Commit the updated poetry.lock file and push the changes
• Make a new PR with the change
• Have the PR get reviewed and merged

To test the application

From a terminal within the running devcontainer:

# run all the tests
make test

# continuously run js tests
npm run test-watch

To run a specific JavaScript test, you'll need to copy the full command from package.json.

Running a11y-scans locally

Unlike most of the tests and scans, pa11y-ci cannot currently be run from within the VSCode dev container.

1. make run-flask from within the devcontainer
2. Run make a11y-scan from your host computer.

Further docs from UK

• Working with static assets
• JavaScript documentation
• Updating dependencies

License && public domain

Work through commit 543be77 is licensed by the UK government under the MIT license. Work after that commit is in the worldwide public domain. See LICENSE.md for more information.

Contributing

As stated in CONTRIBUTING.md, all contributions to this project will be released under the CC0 dedication. By submitting a pull request, you are agreeing to comply with this waiver of copyright interest.

About the TTS Public Benefits Studio

The Public Benefits Studio is a team inside of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS), home to innovative programs like 18F and Login.gov. We collaborate with benefits programs to develop shared technology tools and best practices that reduce the burden of navigating government programs for low income individuals and families.

We’re a cross-functional team of technologists with specialized experience working across public benefits programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and unemployment insurance.

For more information on what we're working on, the Notify tool, and how to get involved with our team, see our flyer.