The following image depicts the overall structure of the Step Up codebase:
AirTable serves as the master database for tutor, student, and other information.
In order to link the data in AirTable to the portal frontend, Firebase Authentication and Cloud Functions are used for authentication and server-side code to make requests to AirTabel, respectively.
Although AirTable does have an API, it is rate-limited to 5 requests per second, so in the case of potentially high-volume usage (such as the SMS messaging system), we set up a system to copy some of the most relevant information from AirTable to Firebase Cloud Firestore, which serves as our primary user database, storing information about the tutors and students.
The SMS system uses Twilio phone numbers as proxies to connect the tutors with their student’s guardian. We have 5 proxy numbers, and we have a routing system that uses the information in Firestore to deliver messages and calls to the right people.
The bulk of the setup will be getting the Firebase emulators running. The first step will be to install the Firebase CLI; instructions for doing this can be found here, but for macOS or Linux users you can do this by running the following command:
curl -sL https://firebase.tools | bash
In addition to installing the CLI, you will need to login to Firebase from the CLI so it can connect to the project. For this to work, the Google account you intend to use with Firebase must be added as a user in the Firebase admin console - if it has not yet been added, please talk to Caleb Hester.
If your account is added in Firebase, simply login via:
firebase login
Make sure to log in with the same Google account that was used for Firebase.
In addition to the Firebase CLI, you will need to make sure Java is installed on your computer, and that you have NodeJS and npm installed.
Clone this repository, then cd into the firebase-code folder. From here, run:
npm install
This installs the dependencies for the startup script, but there are also separate dependencies for Cloud functions.
To install these, cd into the functions folder, then run:
npm install
You will also have to get the configuration file for Cloud Functions; to do this, run:
firebase functions:config:get > .runtimeconfig.json
in the functions folder.
Once this is done, run:
cd ..
./startup
This will start the Firebase emulators and begin watching the JS files in the src folder, so any changes you make to the frontend or backend code should be immediately reflected.
To view the onboarding portal in your browser, go to http://localhost:5000/onboarding_dashboard.html.
This will redirect you to a sign in page. DO NOT click "Start our Application"; that button is only relevant for the production environment. Instead, change the URL for the page to include ?email=<email_you_applied_with> (so the full link should now be https://localhost:5000/signin.html?email=<email_you_applied_with>). This will create an account for you and bring you to the onboarding dashboard.
NOTE: At various times, you may have to either change the email you sign in with, create test accounts, or have your data updated by a supervisor in Airtable in order to test the state of the app.
To view the tutor portal in your browser, go to http://localhost:5000/tutor_portal.html. It will show a sign in screen saying no accounts have been created - click "Add an account", and enter your Step Up email (@stepuptutoring.org) in the "email" section. This will sign you in to the tutor portal.
