Notator is a post-it note application with secure signup/login and the ability to organize the notes under different topics.

Note: The app is still in development and therefore this setup guide relates only to setting up a development environment.

The app uses SSL encryption to communicate between front, back and database. To enable it in a development environment the following certificates must be added to the project folders:

// in ./back/
myCA.crt        // Root certificate
localhost.crt   // Certificate
localhost.key   // Private key

// in ./front/
localhost.crt   // Certificate
localhost.key   // Private key

// Same key and certificate can be used for both front and back 
// but the files must be present in both folders

SSL must also be enabled separately for the database (more on this below).

All front end setup is done inside the ./front/ folder.

1. Run npm install
2. Create a .env file with the following information:

   // in ./front/.env
   HTTPS=true
   SSL_CRT_FILE=localhost.crt
   SSL_KEY_FILE=localhost.key

3. To run the front end use npm start

All back end setup is done inside the ./back/ folder.

1. Run npm install
2. Creata a .env file with the following information:

   // in ./back/.env
   PGHOST=          // Postgres server URL
   PGPORT=          // Postgres port
   PGUSER=          // Postgres username
   PGPASSWORD=      // Postgres password
   PGDATABASE=      // Postgres database name
   
   SESSION_SECRET=  // Random string used for signing sessions

3. To run the back end use npm start or run server.ts with nodemon or equivalent

This app uses Postgres as its database. To set it up follow the guidance offered on the official Postgres site.

Running the back end server and successfully connecting it to the database will automatically generate all the necessary tables and relations. This may destroy some or all existing data, so using an otherwise empty database is recommended.

To enable SSL on a Postgres server you need to:

1. Change SSL to on in postgresql.conf found inside your db data folder
2. Add following certificate files to your database data folder:

   // In Postgres database data folder
   server.key      // Private key
   server.crt      // Certificate
   
   // Same key and certificate can be used here also
   // but the files must be named as shown above

3. Restart the databse server

• Typescript
• Node
• React
• TailwindCSS
• Express
• Typeorm
• Postgres