README.md

This is DEPRECATED!

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Development inside a CoCalc project

Notes for doing development inside a cocalc project.

Initial check

Things you might want to check when starting a new cocalc dev task. Use a .term for these.

• If you think your project has state left over from previous development, you might want to remove or move aside:

  • ~/.local (but see below about installing forever command)

  • ~/.smc (you MUST restart your project if you delete this directory)

  • ~/.npm

  • any files in ~/bin that override system commands

• It also helps to restart your project before starting a new dev task, to kill leftover processes and environment settings.

  • If you delete ~/.smc, you must restart your project

Setup

Make a fork of the cocalc repository (optionally) and then clone via git clone --recursive git://.... You should have a $HOME/cocalc directory now.

Run npm run make inside the cocalc/src/ subdirectory.This will install all the dependencies and does some additional setup. See cocalc/src for more discussion.

If you ever need to update dependencies or think there is a problem with them, just run npm run clean to get rid of them and run npm run make again.

The servers

In order to use CoCalc in your dev project, start the database and the hub. Then visit https://cocalc.com/[project_id]/port/5000/ . Note the slash at the end. This URL is accessible precisely to collaborators on your project and nobody else; in particular, it is NOT public.

1. The Database

Make sure to set the environment with source smc-env first from ~/cocalc/src , then type ./start_postgres.py here.

2. The Hub

In /cocalc/src type npm run hub. If you need to change the port from 5000 to something else, set the env variable PORT before starting the hub.

Changing the web frontend

To see your changes when doing frontend development, type npm run webpack in packages/static. See the README.md in packages/static for more details.

Changing the hub server backend

Edit files in smc-hub, e.g., hub.coffee. Then hit control+c, then run npm run hub again.

Connecting directly to the compute client from command line

Set the environment variable, e.g.,

> . $HOME/cocalc/src/dev/project/postgres-env
> . smc-env

From the directory ~/cocalc/src you can do:

> coffee
coffee> require './c'; db()

Then use the db object's methods. After doing the above (or starting the hub once), then the smc database will be created, and you can do

> psql

Add this line to your ~/.bashrc to set the environment automatically on login:

. $HOME/cocalc/src/dev/project/postgres-env

Creating an admin user

You can get the account emails & id's by doing:

psql -c 'select account_id, email_address, groups from accounts'

              account_id              |  email_address   | groups
--------------------------------------+------------------+--------
 c286277f-e856-4a30-a2c7-a2791a9bec79 | [email protected] |
(1 row)

Then, to make your user into an admin, do this from the root of your install:

~/cocalc/src/scripts/make-user-admin [email protected]

Obviously, you should make the user you created (with its email address) an admin, not [email protected] .

Now refresh your browser, and in account settings some new admin configuration options will appear in the lower right. Also, you can open any project (though some things may look messed up).

You can also confirm that your user is now an admin:

psql smc -c 'select account_id, email_address, groups from accounts'

              account_id              |  email_address   | groups
--------------------------------------+------------------+---------
 c286277f-e856-4a30-a2c7-a2791a9bec79 | [email protected] | {admin}

Connecting to the test instance from an automated client

This technique is useful for making API calls or running puppeteer scripts on your test instance of CoCalc. The calls must come from code running in the project that is running the instance.

Use the following URL modifications.

API call:

http://localhost:39187/92234d52-8a1c-4e63-bde3-f2727f5ab8b1/port/5000/api/v1/query

Puppeteer page fetch:

http://localhost:39187/92234d52-8a1c-4e63-bde3-f2727f5ab8b1/port/5000/app

NOTES:

• It's not https encrypted

• The explicit port is used (:5000)