Since we added the end time picker: - we have discovered that broadcasts can’t be longer than 24h - we have observed that most users confuse picking the end time for scheduling the message, or don’t understand exactly what it means for the broadcast to ‘end’ - we’ve developed the concept of ‘training mode’, which you should be going through before sending a real broadcast We also think that, for most scenarios, you won’t necessarily know when a broadcast should end at the time of starting it because the cause of the danger is not within your control. So giving you control of the end time before the broadcast has even been approved is a confusing distraction. Having to pick a time at all also makes the whole process feel more planned and less immediate. Whereas in reality all the phones in the area will be getting the message in seconds. It’s only people coming into the area later to whom the ‘ongoing’ aspect of the broadcast applies. The best place to explain what’s happening with the phones is at the approval stage and once you’ve sent your first (training mode) broadcast. It’s easier to explain what’s happened if it’s in direct response to something you’ve just done. Later on we should add some kind of email reminder after 12 hours to make sure you still want the broadcast live, again after 18 hours, etc. We could let you schedule an end time once the broadcast is live, but don’t think there’s a strong need. Knowing enough that you want to cancel is one thing, but knowing enough to want to cancel but wanting to wait a bit… nah.
notifications-admin
GOV.UK Notify admin application - https://www.notifications.service.gov.uk/
Features of this application
- Register and manage users
- Create and manage services
- Send batch emails and SMS by uploading a CSV
- Show history of notifications
First-time setup
1. Install Homebrew
Install Homebrew, a package manager for OSX:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
2. Make sure you're using correct language versions
Languages needed
Need to install node? Run:
brew install node
2.1. pyenv For Python version management
pyenv is a program to manage and swap between different versions of Python. To install:
brew install pyenv
And then follow the further installation instructions in https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv#installation to configure it.
2.2. n For Node version management
NPM is Node's package management tool. n is a tool for managing
different versions of Node. The following installs n and uses the long term support (LTS)
version of Node.
npm install -g n
n lts
3. Install NPM dependencies
npm install
npm rebuild node-sass
4. Install and use virtualenvwrapper (optional)
We suggest using a virtualenv to separate the python dependencies for this project from python dependencies for other projects.
Install virtualenvwrapper:
pip install virtualenvwrapper
Then follow the virtualenvwrapper installation instructions docs to configure virtualenvwrapper for your terminal.
Set up your virtualenv:
mkvirtualenv notifications-admin
If you need to specify a certain version of python you can do this using -p, for example:
mkvirtualenv -p ~/.pyenv/versions/3.6.3/bin/python notifications-admin
Activate your virtualenv:
workon notifications-admin
5. Install Python dependencies
Install dependencies and build the frontend assets:
./scripts/bootstrap.sh
Note: You may need versions of both Python 3 and Python 2 accessible to build the python dependencies. pyenv is great for that, and making both Python versions accessible can be done like so:
pyenv global 3.6.3 2.7.15
6. Create a local environment.sh file
In the root directory of the application, run:
echo "
export NOTIFY_ENVIRONMENT='development'
export FLASK_APP=application.py
export FLASK_DEBUG=1
export WERKZEUG_DEBUG_PIN=off
"> environment.sh
7. AWS credentials
Your aws credentials should be stored in a folder located at ~/.aws. Follow Amazon's instructions for storing them correctly
8. Running the application
In the root directory of the application, run:
./scripts/run_app.sh
Then visit localhost:6012
Updating application dependencies
requirements.txt file is generated from the requirements-app.txt in order to pin
versions of all nested dependencies. If requirements-app.txt has been changed (or
we want to update the unpinned nested dependencies) requirements.txt should be
regenerated with
make freeze-requirements
requirements.txt should be committed alongside requirements-app.txt changes.
Automatically rebuild the frontend assets
If you want the front end assets to re-compile on changes, leave this running in a separate terminal from the app
npm run watch
Working with static assets
When running locally static assets are served by Flask at http://localhost:6012/static/…
When running on preview, staging and production there’s a bit more to it:
