Alexandria

Surveys metrics dashboard and user research library.

Research library: Host and catalog all your research findings, along with searchable and filterable meta data.

Metrics dashboard: Create projects and campaigns and import survey responses and view monthly or quarterly quarterly historical NPS scores and all responses.

Included/installed Features:

"Switch user" admin feature
Basic flexible page template
Custom error pages
Custom error handling, and email and slack room notifications
Debugging toolbar
Django extensions
Site-wide banner notifications
Template helpers for preset design components; buttons, icons, header, tabs, etc
UI framework using Tachyons, select2, tooltip and overlays

Install Requirements

Python 3.9 ish +

Postgres 14 ish +

Install

Setup a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv /path/to/env/<name>

Activate the environment:

source /path/to/env/<name>/bin/activate

Clone the repo:

git clone git@github.com:ecumike/alexandria.git

CD to the repo, wherever you just cloned it, and install the dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Setup some localhost variables: They can be set as environment variables, or you can add a local_settings.py file alongside the Django default settings.py file. If you set them as env variables you will only have to do this once and each of our Django app will use those same settings.

You only need to replace the two ___s with your local Postgres DB user ID and PW. SCRIPT_NAME is intentionally blank.

  export DJANGO_DB_USER=____
  export DJANGO_DB_PASSWORD=____
  export DJANGO_DEBUG_FLAG=True
  export DJANGO_FORCE_SCRIPT_NAME=

Create a postgres DB called alexandria (Ensure your user account can write to the database)

Have Django setup the database according to the models. From the repo root:

./manage.py migrate

Create a superuser (follow the prompts):

./manage.py createsuperuser

Running and developing

Activate your environment:

source /path/to/env/<name>/bin/activate

CD to the repo:

cd /some/path/to/repo

Start Django:

./manage.py runserver

Go to http://127.0.0.1:8000/ and you should see it.

Creating sample data

You can run a script that will generate random projects, responses, metrics, and research items. This takes a couple minutes to run.

NOTE: This will remove any existing data every time you run it.

./manage.py generate_sample_data

Uploads

For file uploads, you need to setup S3 (Cloud Object Storage) via vars set in settings.py

Pro tip

Create a script alias to do startup Alexandria all this for you:

alias startalexandria'source /path/to/this-app-env/bin/activate && cd /some/path/to/repo/ && ./manage.py runserver'

Coding style guidelines

We follow the basic Django and Python coding principles and styles:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/misc/design-philosophies/
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/internals/contributing/writing-code/coding-style/