Care Connect

One-time Setup

1. Clone the repo to a "local" directory (on your computer), then change into the directory.

   git clone https://github.com/sfbrigade/care-connect.git
   cd care-connect
   

2. Install Docker Desktop: https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop

   1. Windows users see notes below...

3. Open a command-line shell, change into your repo directory, and execute these commands:

   docker compose pull
   docker compose up
   

   It will take a while the first time you run these commands to download the "images" to run the web application code in Docker "containers". When you see messages that look like this, the server is running:

   server-1       | 5:31:23 PM client.1 |    VITE v4.3.9  ready in 327 ms
   server-1       | 5:31:23 PM client.1 |    ➜  Local:   http://localhost:3333/
   

4. Now you should be able to open the web app in your browser at: http://localhost:3333/

5. Open a new tab or window of your shell, change into your repo directory as needed, and execute this command:

   docker compose exec server bash -l
   

   This will log you in to the running server container, as if you were connecting to a different machine over the Internet. Once you're logged in, you will be in a new shell for the container where you can run the following command. You'll want to execute this command to "log in" to the running container before running any command line tools or scripts that operate on the server. Run the following the first time you log in:

   cd server
   npx prisma db seed
   

   This will populate the database with a complete setup for development, including an admin user that you can use to log in to the web app. The development admin user credentials are:

   • Email: [email protected]
   • Password: abcd1234

6. To stop the server, press CONTROL-C in the window with the running server. If it is successful, you will see something like this:

   Killing care-connect_db_1           ... done
   Killing care-connect_server_1       ... done
   Killing care-connect_mailcatcher_1  ... done
   

   If it is not successful, you may see something like this:

   ERROR: Aborting.
   

   If you get an error, the server may still be running on your computer. To force it to stop, run the following command and wait for the output to report DONE:

   docker compose stop
   Stopping care-connect_db_1          ... done
   Stopping care-connect_server_1      ... done
   Stopping care-connect_mailcatcher_1 ... done
   

7. That's it! After all this setup is complete, the only command you need to run to get started again is the docker compose up command.

Development Tools

This project includes components with helpful developer tools, such as the following:

1. Mailcatcher

   The Docker Compose configuration includes the Mailcatcher development mail server. Email sent from the server will be captured by this mail server and can be viewed on the web at:

   http://localhost:1080

   NO live emails will be sent over the Internet.

2. Prisma Studio

   The Prisma library includes a web interface for browsing the contents of the development database at:

   http://localhost:5555

3. Scalar API Documentation Renderer

   The Scalar library automatically generates web-based API documentation for the server based on the Swagger/OpenAPI schema definitions included with each route, viewable at:

   http://localhost:3333/api/reference

4. Minio

   The Docker Compose configuration includes the Minio object storage server as a local development simulation of AWS S3. You can browse the contents of the storage server at:

   http://localhost:9001

   Username and password are: minioadmin/minioadmin

Analytics

This starter includes optional PostHog product analytics instrumentation on the React client.

• Configure VITE_POSTHOG_KEY (required) and VITE_POSTHOG_HOST (optional, defaults to https://app.posthog.com) in server/.env. The values are copied into the client bundle at build time.
• Install the PostHog browser SDK in the client workspace if you have not already run npm install: npm install posthog-js --workspace client.
• When the env variables are present, the SPA automatically initializes PostHog on the client, identifying signed-in users by their user ID (and falling back to email) and tracking page views.
• Leave VITE_POSTHOG_KEY blank to disable analytics entirely.

CareConnect

CareConnect tooling lives inside this repository. After bringing up the Docker stack (docker compose up), use the following commands from the repo root to seed local data:

1. Geocode clinics

   Ensure OPENROUTESERVICE_API_KEY is defined in server/.env. Enter the server container and run the geocode command:

   cd server
   npm run geocode:facilities
   

   Common options:

   • --dry-run — log the proposed coordinates without saving
   • --force — overwrite existing latitude/longitude values
   • --limit=10 — geocode only the first N facilities (useful for testing)

Testing

Full Integration Testing (PostgreSQL + Docker)

For complete integration tests with PostgreSQL and MinIO, enter the server container and run the test command:

cd server
npm test

Note: If tests terminate unexpectedly, you may have dangling/orphan containers running. Use docker ps to list and check running containers.

Testing the Client

To test the client as it will be deployed to the server (rather than running in the Vite dev server), log in to a running server container and run a build (npm run build), then access the client through the server at: http://localhost:3000

Linting and Formatting

To lint and format your code:

• From Docker container: Log in to a running container and run npm run lint

Shell Command Quick Reference

• Every directory and file on your computer has a path that describes its location in storage. Special path symbols include:

  • The current working directory you are in: .
  • The parent of the current working directory: ..
  • Your home directory: ~
  • The root directory: / (Mac, Linux) or \ (Windows)
    • The same symbol is used as a separator when specifying multiple directories in a path
    • If the path starts with the separator, it means the path starts at the root
      • For example: /Users/myusername/Documents
      • This is called an absolute path
    • If the path does not start with the separator, it means the path starts at the current working directory
      • For example, if the current working directory is: /Users
        then the same path as the previous example is: myusername/Documents
      • This is called a relative path
    • A path can also start with any of the above special path symbols
      • For example, on Mac the same path as the previous example is: ~/Documents

• To print the working directory (i.e. to see the full path of the directory you are currently in):

  pwd
  

• To list the files in the working directory:

  ls -l
  

• To change the working directory:

  cd path
  

• To make a new directory inside the working directory:

  mkdir newpath
  

• To create a new empty file inside the working directory:

  touch filename.ext
  

git Command Quick Reference

• To check the status of the files in your local repo (i.e. what's been added or changed):

  git status
  

• To add all the changed files to the next commit:

  git add .
  

  To add specific file(s) to the next commit:

  git add path/to/file1.ext path/to/file2.ext path/with/wildcard/*
  

• To commit the added files with a message:

  git commit -m "My description of what's changed"
  

• To push the commit to the remote repo:

  git push
  

• To pull any new commits from the remote repo:

  git pull
  

Docker Command Quick Reference

• To start all the containers:

  docker compose up
  

• To log in to the running server container:

  docker compose exec server bash -l
  

• To stop all the containers, in case things didn't shutdown properly with CTRL-C:

  docker compose stop
  

• To run the server container without starting everything using the up command:

  docker compose run --rm server bash -l
  

• To re-build the server container:

  docker compose build server
  

Windows Docker Notes

• On some PC laptops, a hardware CPU feature called virtualization is disabled by default, which is required. To enable it, reboot your computer into its BIOS interface (typically by pressing a key like DELETE, ESC, or F1 during the boot process), and look for an option to enable it. It may be called something like Intel Virtualization Technology, Intel VT, AMD-V, or some similar variation.

  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enable-virtualization-on-windows-11-pcs-c5578302-6e43-4b4b-a449-8ced115f58e1

• Install the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and make sure to check "Use WSL 2 instead of Hyper-V" when installing Docker Desktop for Windows.

  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install
  https://docs.docker.com/desktop/install/windows-install/

• Use Microsoft Terminal to open a command-line shell running in your WSL distribution (typically Ubuntu), and use the git command line to clone this project into your Linux filesystem. If you attempt to run this project in Docker from the Windows file system, performance will be degraded and file change detection will not work. Editors like VSCode can edit files in the Linux filesystem of WSL.

License

Care Connect Copyright © 2025 SF Civic Tech

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.