Rederly Backend

Getting started:

1. Make sure below configurations are made in environment variables or .env file
2. Make sure the database specified (DB_NAME) exists and is accessible by the given user (and the user has the correct password)
3. Run npm install (first time and any time modules might have updated)
4. Run npm start (this will generate the database and then run the server)
5. If not already there run query for any required initial data

Configurations

• Configurations are read from an environment variables in: src\configurations.ts
• These environment can be set by the system or by a .env file located at the root of this project (gitignored), .env expects key-value pairs with no space (i.e. SERVER_PORT=8080)
• You can not include or leave these values blank to get default values (however there is a configuration which defaults to true in production that the app will crash when missing configurations)

Available configurations

Environment

Environment variable	Description	Default value
NODE_ENV	This is a standard environment variable which will make libraries behave differently (i.e. express). If set to production our application will be less verbose about error responses
BASE_DOMAIN	This is the base domain that should be used for all links. This is something like rederly.com.

Configuration handling

Environment variable	Description	Default value
LOG_MISSING_CONFIGURATIONS	Whether or not to log missing configurations	true
FAIL_ON_MISSING_CONFIGURATIONS	Whether or not to reject the loading promise on missing configurations	true in prod, false in dev
CONFIG_SALT	A random seed to better mask the configuration hash

Temp files

Environment variable	Description	Default value
AUTO_DELETE_TEMP_FILES	Whether or not to delete temp files once done with them, meant for debugging and will log a warning in production	true

Monitoring

Memory

| MONITORING_MEMORY_DEBUG_THRESHOLD | The memory usage percent that when crossed logs a debug statement | 40 | | MONITORING_MEMORY_WARNING_THRESHOLD | The memory usage percent that when crossed logs a warning | 60 | | MONITORING_MEMORY_ERROR_THRESHOLD | The memory usage percent that when crossed logs an error | 80 | | MONITORING_MEMORY_INTERVAL | How often the memory is checked | 10000 |

Server

Environment variable	Description	Default value
SERVER_PORT	The port the server listens for requests on	3000
SERVER_BASE_PATH	The prefix for all path (i.e. /rederly/api	/backend-api
SERVER_LOG_INVALIDLY_PREFIXED_REQUESTS	Should there be an extra warning log when bad requests come in	true
SERVER_BLOCK_INVALIDLY_PREFIXED_REQUESTS	Should the socket be closed and end prematurely	true
SERVER_LOG_ACCESS	Whether or not to log healthy requests (faster than the threshold)	true
SERVER_LOG_ACCESS_SLOW_REQUEST_THRESHOLD	At what point to log an request with a warning that it is slow	30000
SERVER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT	The amount of time before the server gives up on responding in millis	150000

Limiter

Environment variable	Description	Default value
SERVER_LIMITER_WINDOW_LENGTH	The window in which the max requests are allowed to be made (provided in milliseconds)	60000 (ms, which is 1 minute)
SERVER_LIMITER_MAX_REQUESTS	The amount of requests that a single client is allowed to make in the above window	100

Database

Environment variable	Description	Default value
DB_HOST	The host url for the database	localhost
DB_PORT	The connection port for the database	5432
DB_NAME	The name of the database	rederly
DB_USER	The user the login to the database	postgres
DB_PASSWORD	The password for the user to login to the database	password
DB_LOGGING	Whether or not queries should be output, used for debugging	false
DB_SYNC	Whether or not to sync with the database	false
DB_STATEMENT_TIMEOUT	Number of millis a db query is allowed to take (does not affect transactions)	60000

Email

Environment variable	Description	Default value
EMAIL_ENABLED	Whether or not emails should be sent (for dev this should be false	false
EMAIL_FROM	The email address that will be sending the email	verifiedsendgridemail
EMAIL_SENDING_RATE	A throttle for how quickly requests should be pushed out (this avoids dropped requests based on limits)	null
AWS_SES_ACCESS_KEY	AWS SES access key
AWS_SES_SECRET_KEY	AWS SES secret key
AWS_REGION	The region for AWS SES	us-east-2

Auth

Environment variable	Description	Default value
AUTH_SESSION_LIFE	The number of minutes a session token is good for	1440 (1 day)
AUTH_COST_FACTOR	The cost factor for bcrypt to hash the password (this is important for preventing brute force attacks as it makes the hash take time to calculate)	8
AUTH_TOKEN_LIFE	The default value for all other auth tokens	1440
AUTH_FORGOT_PASSWORD_TOKEN_LIFE	The amount of time you have to claim forgot password token	AUTH_TOKEN_LIFE=1440
AUTH_VERIFY_INSTUTIONAL_EMAIL_TOKEN_LIFE	The amount of time you have to claim email verification	AUTH_TOKEN_LIFE=1440

Renderer

Environment variable	Description	Default value
RENDERER_URL	The base url for the renderer	http://localhost:3000
RENDERER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT	The number of millis before requests to the renderer timeout	75000

Renderer Open Labs

Environment variable	Description	Default value
OPENLAB_URL	The url for "Ask For Help" that links to open labs
OPENLAB_REQUEST_TIMEOUT	The amount of time that openlabs has to respond to requests before timing out	75000

Jira

Environment variable	Description	Default value
JIRA_ENABLED	Whether or not to try to make the ticket with jira. If false it makes info log with details	true
JIRA_EMAIL	The email used to authenticate with jira
JIRA_API_KEY	The api key used to authenticate with jira
JIRA_HOST	Where jira is hosted (currently cloud)	rederly.atlassian.net
JIRA_PROTOCOL	Protocol to use	https
JIRA_STRICT_SSL	Enforce ssl	true
JIRA_API_VERSION	API version	2
JIRA_PROJECT_KEY	The project to add tickets to (currently Rederly Support)	RS

Logging

• Right now we use the default logging levels from winston (see logger-logging-levels.ts)
• This can be provided as a case insensitive string
• null is also an option to turn off that logger (case sensitive), if both are turned off winston will do console logs warning you that there are no transports

Logging Levels

• ERROR
• WARN
• INFO
• HTTP
• VERBOSE
• DEBUG
• SILLY
• null

Environment variable	Description	Default value
LOGGING_LEVEL	Fallback logging level for values below that are not provided	debug
LOGGING_LEVEL_FOR_FILE	The logging level for use with the file, pass null to turn off file logging	LOGGING_LEVEL
LOGGING_LEVEL_FOR_CONSOLE	The logging level for use with the console, pass null to turn off console logging	LOGGING_LEVEL
LOGGING_URL_IN_META	Whether or not to include the url in the request meta	false
LOGGING_META_IN_LOGS	Only applicable when LOGGING_LOG_JSON is false, whether or not to append meta to the end of the message	false
LOGGING_LOG_JSON	Whether or not logs to the console should be formatted or output as json	false in development true in production

Scheduler

Environment variable	Description	Default value
SCHEDULER_BASE_PATH	The url to the scheduler	http://localhost:3003
SCHEDULER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT	The amount of time it is allowed to take to make the request to the scheduler	60000
SCHEDULER_RESPONSE_TIMEOUT	The default amount of time it is allowed for the scheduler to respond back the backend	180000

Attachments

Environment variable	Description	Default value
ATTACHMENTS_PRESIGNED_URL_BASE_URL	The base url to fetch the presigned url from for uploads (i.e. http://example.com/base/path)	''
ATTACHMENTS_PRESIGNED_URL_BASE_PATH	The base path to fetch the presigned url for uploads (i.e. http://example.com`/base/path`)	''
ATTACHMENTS_BASE_URL	The base path to be combined with the cloud filename for attachments	''
ATTACHMENTS_PRESIGNED_URL_TIMEOUT	The amount of time it is allowed to take to get a presigned url	60000

Importer

Environment variable	Description	Default value
IMPORTER_MISSING_FILE_THRESHOLD	The total amount of PG and asset files allowed to be missing while declaring a course archive import successful	10

Course Export

Environment variable	Description	Default value
COURSE_EXPORT_URL	The location of the course exporter	'http://localhost:3008'

Bulk PDF Export

Environment variable	Description	Default value
BULK_PDF_EXPORT_URL	The location of the bulk pdf exporter	'http://localhost:3005'

Library Browser

Environment variable	Description	Default value
LIBRARY_BROWSER_BASE_URL	The location of the library browser	'http://localhost:3004'