Inbox Comics

Your favorite comics emailed to you each morning.

Services & Frameworks used

Client (UI)

1. Typescript with ESLint
2. Vercel CLI for deployment
3. Vercel Next.js for SSR (server-side-rendered) React framework and routing
4. Apollo Client (GraphQL) library for communication with server
5. SCSS modules

Server (Back-End)

1. Typescript with ESLint
2. Vercel CLI for deployment
3. Vercel-managed node.js server
4. Apollo Server (GraphQL) for communication with client
5. MongoDB Atlas for our database cluster
6. Mongoose for interacting with MongoDB database
7. ElasticEmail for sending emails

Developer Instructions

Getting environment set up.

1. Clone the repo with $ git clone https://github.com/elijahcarrel/inbox-comics.git.
2. $ cd ./inbox-comics
3. Install tools you might or might not already have.
   1. Install Homebrew by following the instructions at https://brew.sh.
   2. Install npm with $ brew install npm.
   3. Install MongoDB with:
      • $ brew tap mongodb/brew
      • $ brew install mongodb-community
   4. Install Vercel CLI with $ npm install -g vercel
4. Install client package dependencies with $ npm install.
5. Install api package dependencies with $ cd ./api and $ npm install.
6. Get a staging database dump from the server by following the instructions on https://cloud.mongodb.com after logging in with your credentials.
7. Start the mongo daemon with $ brew services start mongodb-community. By default, homebrew will now keep this service alive at all times, even after a restart. To stop it at any time, you can run $ brew services stop mongodb-community.

Prerequisites to starting server locally

1. $ vercel login.
2. Enter username and password to log into the inboxcomics Vercel team.

Starting the app locally

1. $ vercel dev.
2. App is now running on http://localhost:3000, using a local database and production elasticemail credentials.

Deploying the app to a preview deployment

1. $ vercel
2. App is now deployed to https://app.inboxcomics.vercel.app, using the staging database and production elasticemail credentials.

Deploying the app

1. $ vercel --prod
2. App is now deployed to https://www.inboxcomics.com.

Opening a local database console.

1. $ mongo ic. Note that this connects to your local database, not to the production one.
2. In the database console, you can run commands like > db.users.find({}); or > db.syndications.findOne({ identifier: "calvinandhobbes" });

Opening a production database console.

1. The URL and password for the production and staging database are, of course, secret. Ask @elijahcarrel or find them at the Vercel environment variables settings.