heliosian/docs/dev.md

Local development

Run

go run .

http://localhost:8080 (override with PORT). With DIRECTORY_SHEET unset the server serves the fictional community in sampledata/, signs every request in as a sample parent, and geocodes with a deterministic fake — no credentials or configuration. Templates, static assets, and sample data are read from disk on every request; edit a file and refresh.

Sample-mode limits: the map section needs a real Maps JavaScript key (GOOGLE_MAPS_BROWSER_KEY) to render tiles, and self-service edits and media uploads need real-data mode — there is no writable backend or blob store behind the sample CSVs.

sampledata/ mirrors the production Sheets layout: one directory per app, one CSV per table, first row is the schema, served through the same data-source interface the Sheets backend implements. It stays fictional — real community data never goes here.

In sample mode tools/screenshot captures pages directly, no session needed (see docs/screenshots.md).

Real data

DIRECTORY_SHEET=<spreadsheet id> go run .

serves from the production spreadsheet and media drive (see docs/data.md) and turns on the full stack. The model loads at startup — the server refuses to start if the load fails — and reloads every five minutes. Real data never leaves the process: nothing is written to disk. Requirements:

• Sign-in — everything sits behind Google sign-in restricted to the school's Workspace domain (API paths get a 401 instead of the login page). The OAuth web client is read from creds/oauth-client.json or GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID; its authorized JavaScript origins must include http://localhost:8080. The server issues its own HMAC-signed session cookie; set SESSION_KEY to keep sessions valid across restarts.
• Service account — key at creds/service-account.json (the directory is gitignored), Sheets API enabled, the spreadsheet shared with it as editor (self-service edits write cells and append to the Change Log tab), the media shared drive shared as content manager (uploads create files and archive old versions).
• Maps — a server key for the Geocoding API (creds/geocoding.key or GOOGLE_MAPS_SERVER_KEY; never rendered into pages, restrict by server IP or leave unrestricted for dev) and a browser key for the Maps JavaScript API (creds/maps.key or GOOGLE_MAPS_BROWSER_KEY; rendered into pages, restrict by HTTP referer). Geocoding results are cached in memory per address.

To capture authenticated real-data pages, launch the capture browser (go run ./tools/capturebrowser), sign in to the local server there once, and use tools/browse or tools/screenshot -remote — the session cookie lives in the capture profile.

Setup

Development happens on macOS. Two Homebrew installs cover everything here and in docs/screenshots.md:

brew install go
brew install --cask google-chrome

• Go 1.26 or later — builds and runs the server and all tooling (go run, go vet).
• Google Chrome — launched headless by the screenshot tool from its standard install location; never opened by hand.

No Node, no Docker, and no cloud credentials are needed for local development. Repository layout is in the README.