README

This is the backend code for an experimental project I started with a friend.

Currently the code is largely a database schema with a series of API endpoints (which use token authentication) that allow the data to be queried and modified.

Entities in the data schema include:

groups, which consist of ...
people, ...who can vote in
elections, which have...
choices
membership tiers, which are monthly subscription plans for the service

Additionally,

people can belong to "groups"
people have social credit scores
people can set up a ranked list of voting proxies, so if a given person p-1 does not vote in election e-1, their vote is cast as a clone of proxy-1, if proxy-1 voted, or cast as a clone of proxy-2 if proxy-2 voted, etc
users (online accounts) may be connected to people
there is a facility to import legislator rating data from New Hampshire Liberty Alliance
there is a

This repo can be found at

 https://github.com/TJamesCorcoran/aristillusdotnet

This software is copyrighted, and is not GPL-ed, MIT-licensed, etc., however at least one non-exclusive licenses to use it have been granted; if you want to use it, just ask me.

Installing (first time)

Install rvm (ruby version manager)
rvm install ruby-3.3.5
gem install rails
rake db:init
rake db:migrate
rake db:seed

Updating (every time)

git pull
bundle install
rake db:migrate

Updating (re-seed, if you've modified `db/seeds.rb`)

rake db:seed:replant

Updating (purge the db, start over 100% clean)

rake db:drop
rake db:create
rake db:migrate
rake db:seed

N.B. the above recreates both development and test databases. There is NO NEED to use the RAILS_ENV=test env var in the above process.

In production:

RAILS_ENV=production rake db:drop
RAILS_ENV=production rake db:create
RAILS_ENV=production rake db:migrate
RAILS_ENV=production rake db:seed

To view routes:

rails routes

To run the app

ruby bin/rails server
http://localhost:3000/admin
login with one of these email addrs and password "password" "fred@fred.com"

Security

As of today (2024 Oct 25), security is roughly zero.

Note in particular that:

CORS is turned off entirely config/initializers/cors.rb
CSRF is turned off for APIs e.g. app/controllers/api/v1/users_controller.rb, etc

to run the tests

all

rspec, or bundle exec rspec

just user API tests

rspec spec/requests/api/v1/users_controller_test_spec.rb

code style testing

rubocop -A

modify style enforcer configuration: edit .rubocop.yml

docs:

web host setup

rails install

We want to use 'rvm' (ruby version manager). Install it, create groups, add users to groups

as root:

apt-get install libpq-dev
apt-get install ruby-full # rvm is written in ruby, so we need a base version
apt-get install software-properties-common
apt-add-repository -y ppa:rael-gc/rvm
apt-get update
apt-get install rvm
usermod -a -G rvm deploy # the user 'deploy' needs to be in the 'rvm' group
logout & log back in
rvm -v # verify it worked
rvm install 3.3.5 # (because why not; current version we're using, but these docs will be out of date eventually...)
bundle -v # verify it worked

as deploy:

echo "export PATH=/usr/share/rvm/bin/rvm:$PATH" > ~/.bashrc
logout & log back in
rvm -v # verify it worked

as developer on local machine:

cap production rvm:check # verify it worked

postgres setup

install postgres and create user 'ari_rails_user' as root

su postgres --command=psql
create database aristillus_rails;
create user ari_rails_user with password 'ari_rails_pwd';
grant all privileges on database aristillus_rails to ari_rails_user;
alter database aristillus_rails owner to ari_rails_user;
exit

test:

psql postgresql://ari_rails_user:ari_rails_pwd@localhost:5432/aristillus_rails

deploy infrastructure

on local machine

ssh-keygen -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/keypairs/deploy_domainname
scp ~/.ssh/keypairs/deploy_domainname.pub root@domainname:/tmp

on the web server:

useradd -m deploy
su deploy
cd ; mkdir .ssh
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys # if it is too permissive you will SILENTY fail to log in with your keys!!!!
cat /tmp/deploy_domainname.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

on local machine, test that it worked

ssh deploy@domainname -i ~/.ssh/keypairs/deploy_domainname
whoami (expect "deploy")

on the web server (to set up git access):

as user 'deploy'

mkdir ~/.ssh/keypairs
ssh-keygen -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/keypairs/git_for_deploy # empty password
cp ~/.ssh/keypairs/git_for_deploy.pub /tmp
chmod 666 /tmp/git_for_deploy.pub
write ~/.ssh/config

Host git.domainname Hostname git.domainname IdentityFile ~/.ssh/keypairs/git_for_deploy IdentitiesOnly yes

as user 'git'

cat /tmp/git_for_deploy.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

as user 'deploy': verify correctness

git ls-remote git@git.domainname:/home/git/repositories/aristillus_src.git HEAD

on the git server:

XXX

one time database seeding

cd /var/www/aristillus_back_prod/current
DISABLE_DATABASE_ENVIRONMENT_CHECK=1 RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake db:seed

deploy

overview

deployment is via tool "capistrano"
relevant config files for that tool include ** ./Capfile ** ./config/deploy.rb ** ./config/deploy/production.rb ** ./config/deploy/staging.rb

at command line type

cap staging deploy
cap production deploy

what this does:

ssh as user deploy into target machine (specified in above config files)
as that user, do a git checkout
as that user, do symlink magic to put the newly checked out code in wither /var/www/aristillus_back_prod/releases or /var/www/aristillus_back_stage/releases

and then create a symlink from either

  /var/www/aristillus_back_prod/current

end result:

/var/www/aristillus_back_*/current

has what you want

to staging

cap staging deploy

to production

cap production deploy

production webservers

rails server

The following is not correct, but it's what I'm doing 2024 Oct 26:

cd /var/www/aristillus_back_prod/current
RAILS_ENV=production ruby bin/rails server -p 5000

we need to get cap deploy to run this, or use unix systemctl, or something. TBD.

Jeremy is using tmux

   # as root:
   tmux attach -t rails_server

nginx

config files

   /etc/nginx/sites-available/*

restart

`systemctl restart nginx`

using the API

Before you can make most API calls you need:

to have a user
...who is authenticated
...and who is logged in.

Once you have accomplished those steps (see below), every request needs to contain two JSON fields:

user_email
user_to AE1E ken

A failure to provide a matching pair will result in an HTTP 401 error code (unauthorized).

In such a case, repeat the log in step.

Every response will include

success : true / false
user_token: replacing the previous one

You must pluck this new token out and use it in the next request.

Example:

devel # sign in curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{ "user_email": "tjic@tjic.com", "user_password": "password"}' http://localhost:3000/api/v1/sign_in

=> {"messages":"Signed In Successfully",
"is_success":true,
"data":{"user":{
        "authentication_token":"DppAyJeN2JxZShyybEYd",  # <=== token
		"email":"tjic@tjic.com",
		"name":"Travis Corcoran",
		"id":2,
		"person_id":1,
		"cred":0,
		"created_at":"2024-11-02T18:42:58.806Z",
		"updated_at":"2024-11-08T14:30:24.253Z"}}}


# use the token in an API call
curl -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"user_email":"tjic@tjic.com", "user_token" : "DppAyJeN2JxZShyybEYd"}' http://localhost:3000/api/v1/elections/list_open_elections

=> {"success":true,"data":{"elections":[]}}

# [ optional ] use the token to sign out ; destroys the token at the server, so no further API calls can be made with tyhe current token
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{ "user_email": "tjic@tjic.com", "user_token": "DppAyJeN2JxZShyybEYd"}' http://localhost:3000/api/v1/sign_out

=> {"success":true, "message":"Signed Out Successfully"}

prod # sign in curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{ "user_email": "tjic@tjic.com", "user_password": "password"}' https://api.domainname/api/v1/sign_in

=> {"messages":"Signed In Successfully",
"is_success":true,
"data":{"user":{
        "authentication_token":"DppAyJeN2JxZShyybEYd",  # <=== token
		"email":"tjic@tjic.com",
		"name":"Travis Corcoran",
		"id":2,
		"person_id":1,
		"cred":0,
		"created_at":"2024-11-02T18:42:58.806Z",
		"updated_at":"2024-11-08T14:30:24.253Z"}}}


# use the token in an API call
curl -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"user_email":"tjic@tjic.com", "user_token" : "DppAyJeN2JxZShyybEYd"}' https://api.domainname/api/v1/elections/list_open_elections

=> {"success":true,"data":{"elections":[]}}

# [ optional ] use the token to sign out ; destroys the token at the server, so no further API calls can be made with tyhe current token
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{ "user_email": "tjic@tjic.com", "user_token": "DppAyJeN2JxZShyybEYd"}' https://api.domainname/api/v1/sign_out

=> {"success":true, "message":"Signed Out Successfully"}

create a new user (existing /subscribe)

devel:

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"email":"fred2@fred.com", "password":"fredfred"}' http://localhost:3000/api/v1/users > /tmp/www.html

production:

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"email":"fred2@fred.com", "password":"fredfred"}' https://api.domainname/api/v1/users > /tmp/www.html

success: {"id":16,"nym":null,"email":"fred30@fred.com","person_id":null,"created_at":"2024-10-24T15:31:25.123Z", "updated_at":"2024-10-24T15:31:25.123Z"}

failure: {"error":"Validation failed: Email can't be blank"}

verify a new user (existing /verify/token )

The user will get an email containing, e.g.

Confirm my account

and this works.

However, I have also created an API to access this

devel: curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"token":"G3Rrhi-XEnPFC3P-H4by"}' http://localhost:3000/api/v1/users/verify > /tmp/www.html

production: curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"token":"G3Rrhi-XEnPFC3P-H4by"}' https://api.domainname/api/v1/users/verify > /tmp/www.html

success: {"id":14,"nym":null,"email":"fred3@fred.com","person_id":null,"created_at":"2024-10-23T18:59:50.178Z","updated_at":"2024-10-23T19:24:59.910Z"}

failure: {"error":"user not found with token yyy"}

list all users (experimental ; should be removed)

production: curl -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d ' https://api.domainname/api/v1/users

devel: curl -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" https//localhost:3000/api/v1/users

get user reputation

devel: curl -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"user_email": "tjic@tjic.com", "user_token" : "ar99VzjMJwiUbkkxyqba", "id":"25"}' http://localhost:3000/api/v1/users/get_reputation

production: curl -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"user_email": "tjic@tjic.com", "user_token" : "ar99VzjMJwiUbkkxyqba", "id":"1"}' https://api.domainname/api/v1/users/get_reputation

success: {"id":5,"reputation":25}

failure: {"id":"25","error":"user not found"}

list_open_elections

devel:

curl -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"user_email": "tjic@tjic.com", "user_token" : "ar99VzjMJwiUbkkxyqba"}' http://localhost:3000/api/v1/elections/list_open_elections

vote_in_election

devel: curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"id":"25", "election_id": 12, "choice_id": 99 }' http://localhost:3000/api/v1/elections/vote_in_election > /tmp/www.html

membership tiers

list them all

devel:

curl -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"user_email": "...", "user_token" : "..."}' http://localhost:3000/api/v1/memberships/

curl -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"user_email": "...", "user_token" : "..."}' https://api.domainname/api/v1/memberships/

success: {"success":true, "data"=>[ {"id"=>1, "name"=>"base", "description"=>"description", "price"=>"10.0"}, {"id"=>2, "name"=>"silver", "description"=>"description", "price"=>"20.0"}, {"id"=>3, "name"=>"gold", "description"=>"description", "price"=>"50.0"}] }

payments

create a new subscription:

curl -X POST  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d  { "user_email": "..." ,
                 "user_token": "...",
                 "payment_method_id": "...", # from Stripe
                 "membership_id": 1   # from an earlier call to list membership tiers
               } http://localhost:3000/api/v1/payments/create_subscription

success: {"success":true, "data"=>{"client_secret"=>"pi_3QNcbxK4nKOvSeRh1OZzwvkg_secret_aYfsyz8v0ZcHaCNGRClaAzJfV"}}

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 1 Commit
.husky		.husky
app		app
bin		bin
config		config
db		db
import_data		import_data
lib		lib
log		log
node_modules		node_modules
posts		posts
public		public
rules		rules
spec		spec
test		test
vendor		vendor
.gitignore		.gitignore
.rspec		.rspec
.rubocop.yml		.rubocop.yml
Capfile		Capfile
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
Gemfile		Gemfile
Gemfile.lock		Gemfile.lock
README.md		README.md
Rakefile		Rakefile
config.ru		config.ru
index.html		index.html
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json

TJamesCorcoran/aristillusdotnet

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README

Installing (first time)

Updating (every time)

Updating (re-seed, if you've modified db/seeds.rb)

Updating (purge the db, start over 100% clean)

To view routes:

To run the app

Security

to run the tests

all

just user API tests

code style testing

web host setup

rails install

postgres setup

deploy infrastructure

one time database seeding

deploy

overview

to staging

to production

production webservers

rails server

nginx

using the API

create a new user (existing /subscribe)

verify a new user (existing /verify/token )

list all users (experimental ; should be removed)

get user reputation

list_open_elections

vote_in_election

membership tiers

payments

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