korsord

Solve crosswords collaboratively.

Development

1. In the root directory, install the dependencies using yarn
2. Run the migration scripts in backend/migrations individually in alphabetical order with sqlite3 backend/app.db backend/migrations/migration_name.sql
3. Start continuous building of the types: yarn types start
4. In a new tab, start the backend server: yarn backend start
5. In a new tab, start the frontend: yarn frontend start
6. View the page at http://localhost:3000

Deployment

1. In the root directory, build the project with yarn build
2. Run with yarn backend start
3. If desired, configure the server port using the environment variable SERVER_PORT or specify the secret token for publishing crosswords as ADMIN_TOKEN. Do this by specifying them in .env or as environment variables.

Stack overview

The project consists of two parts: a frontend and a backend server. The frontend and backend communicate using an REST API and WebSockets where all traffic passes through the backend (i.e., the clients do not communicate directly with each other).

Frontend

React. The crosswords as well as any lines and text are drawn on canvases.

Backend

Node. Express for serving static files. Data is persisted with SQLite.

Adding crosswords

Crossword files (images and square metadata) are stored in the backend/uploads/ directory. Entries in the Crosswords table refer to these files and provide extra data such newspaper and published date.

Adding crosswords is currently only possible by manually transfering the files to the server and calling the API.

First, transfer the crossword image file and the associated square metadata file to the uploads/ directory. This can be done with e.g. SCP.

Then, do a POST request to /api/crossword:

# Add one of the example crosswords like this
curl -X POST localhost:8080/api/crossword -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{ "newspaper": "HBL", "publishedDate": "2020-04-03", "imageUrl": "uploads/2020-03-27/crossword.jpg", "metadataUrl": "uploads/2020-03-27/metadata.json", "adminToken": "simple_example_token" }'

adminToken is an access token that is set according to the ADMIN_TOKEN environment variable on the server.

Note that the backend has to be running when when adding crosswords, playing etc. Either define the ADMIN_TOKEN in the command line with ADMIN_TOKEN=my-token yarn start or by changing it in the .env file file in the backend root directory.