notifications-api/README.md

US Notify API

This project is the core of Notify. It's cloned from the brilliant work of the team at GOV.UK Notify, cheers!

This repo contains:

• A public-facing REST API for Notify, which teams can integrate with using API clients built by UK
• An internal-only REST API built using Flask to manage services, users, templates, etc., which the admin UI talks to)
• Asynchronous workers built using Celery to put things on queues and read them off to be processed, sent to providers, updated, etc

Local setup

Direct installation

1. Set up Postgres && Redis

2. Install dependencies into a virtual environment

   pipenv install --with dev
   createdb notification_api
   flask db upgrade
   

3. Create the .env file

   cp sample.env .env
   # follow the instructions in .env
   

4. Run Flask

   pipenv run make run-flask
   

5. Run Celery

   pipenv run make run-celery
   

VS Code && Docker installation

If you're working in VS Code, you can also leverage Docker for a containerized dev environment

1. Create .env file as described in the .env section below.

2. Install the Remote-Containers plug-in in VS Code

3. With Docker running, create the network:

   docker network create notify-network

4. Using the command palette (shift+cmd+p) or green button thingy in the bottom left, search and select “Remote Containers: Open Folder in Container...” When prompted, choose devcontainer-api folder (note: this is a subfolder of notification-api). This will startup the container in a new window, replacing the current one.

5. Wait a few minutes while things happen

6. Open a VS Code terminal and run the Flask application:

   make run-flask

7. Open another VS Code terminal and run Celery:

   make run-celery

NOTE: when you change .env in the future, you'll need to rebuild the devcontainer for the change to take effect. Vscode should detect the change and prompt you with a toast notification during a cached build. If not, you can find a manual rebuild in command pallette or just docker rm the notifications-api container.

Deeper documentation

Infrastructure

• Checklist for onboarding to all of the things
• Setting up the initial infrastructure using AWS
• Database management

Common dev work

• Testing
• Running one-off tasks

UK docs that may still be helpful

• Writing public APIs
• Updating dependencies