backend

Backend Disaster Donations Application

This directory contains the backend application to the disaster donations website.

It's a simple python application that takes in transaction data over an exposed RESTful API (JSON payload expected), and translates into calls to a backend Mongo DB instance.

For a cloud-based Mongo instance to use, we will be using a IBM Cloud Hyper Protect DBaaS for MongoDB instance.

Create your MongoDB service

1. From the IBM Cloud Catalog, search for Hyper Protect DBaaS and select Hyper Protect DBaaS for MongoDB.

   

2. Complete the following fields to start your MongoDB service.

   • Select a region: Frankfurt
   • Service name: SecureDB
   • Cluster/Replicaset name: DonationsDB
   • Database admin name: admin
   • Database admin password: xxxxxxxxxxx
   • Check: I agree to the Terms
   • Select Create.

   

3. Carry on to the next section while your database is provisioning.

Create your virtual server

1. From the IBM Cloud Catalog, search for Hyper Protect Virtual Server and select Hyper Protect Virtual Server.

   

2. Complete the following fields to create your virtual server.

   • Select the Lite plan.

   • Enter a Service name: DonationsVS

   • Copy and paste in the public half of a SSH key. If you don't one already, please follow the guide here.

   • Select Create.

     

3. Once your virtual server is provisioned, click on DonationsVS from the Resource list to open up the details page.

   

   

4. Open a ssh-capable terminal on your local machine. We will use the terminal to SSH into the virtual server. You will need to obtain the following information:

   • Obtain the IP of the virtual server from the details you opened in the prior step

   • Locate the private key you created earlier on your local machine.

     ssh -i your_private_key [email protected]
     

5. Run the following commands to setup the pre-requisites for your system.

   apt update
   
   apt-get install wget
   
   wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IBMDeveloperUK/secure-cloud/master/setupVS.sh
   
   chmod u+x setupVS.sh
   
   ./setupVS.sh
   
   cd secure-cloud/backend/
   

Build and Run the Backend Application

We will be running a python backend application that directs the web front endto talk to MongoDB in the backend. config.py contains the hostname or IP address, and port of a listening Mongo DB instance. To make things easier, config.py has been setup with environment variables that will be initialised when we start our Docker container.

The backend application will listen on port 5000. The application reads your Mongo instance username and password from environment variables, passed through into the Docker container with the -e flag. The base Docker image used is multi-arch compatible.

Run the following command(s) to create and run your Docker container:

docker build -t disaster-backend .

docker run -dp 5000:5000 -e PASSWORD='your_password' -e USERNAME='your_username' -e DBNAME='your_db_name' -e ENDPOINT='primary_hostname:port' -e REPLICASET='replica_set_name' disaster-backend

Note: You will need to make up your own DBNAME. It will be created when the application runs.

You can find the variables needed for the command above by selecting your service from the Resource List.

Test the Application

To confirm that the application is running, issue

curl 'localhost:5000/'

and the following JSON should be returned:

{
  "apiVersion": "v1.0", 
  "message": "Welcome to the Disaster Funding API", 
  "status": "200"
}

The application accepts a JSON payload in the form in transaction.json.

curl -vX POST 'localhost:5000/api/v1/transactions' -d @transaction.json --header "Content-Type: application/json"