Prerequisites
This page is what you arrange before you set up a development machine. Most of it is access, and some of it is information you will be asked for on the pages after this one.
The machine
You need one computer running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, with an account that can use sudo. Eight
gigabytes of memory is enough; the build, the bundler and a database engine run on it at once.
You will spend the whole setup in a shell on that machine. Nothing here needs a desktop, and the browser you read a facility in can be anywhere that can reach the machine.
The source
The repository is private on GitHub. You need a GitHub account that can read it, and a way for
git on the machine to use that account, such as an ssh key registered with the account. What you
need by the end of this page is an account that can clone tmoens/zebrafish-facility-manager.
A copy of a live facility
A developer usually works on a copy of a live facility rather than on invented records, because real records are what find real problems. So it is worth arranging, before you start, for a copy of each facility you will work on. A copy is two things:
- the facility's settings file, which says how that facility is configured, and
- a dump of the facility's database.
Ask whoever runs the live deployment for them, or for an account there that can read the settings files and dump the databases. Collect them; you will be told where they go when you build a dev facility.
Something to sign in with
A dev facility holds the real accounts of the facility it was copied from, with their real passwords. You sign in as one of them. Two choices, and collect the password for whichever you will use:
- the platform owner, which exists in every facility. Collect its password; you'll need it the first time a dev facility serves.
- a facility's own administrator, if the facility's people have agreed to that.
The facility built for automated browser tests also carries three test accounts with known passwords, and those are set up for you when that facility is built.