bsheldon / map_center

Vote 2012 Map Center

This is the client side of the NewsHour's Vote 2012 Map Center.

Documentation: http://vote-2012-map-center.readthedocs.org/

Project Dependencies

This project requires the following software:

• Node.js (available at http://nodejs.org/)
• Redis (available at http://redis.io/)

Once installed, run the following command from this project's root directory:

npm install

This will install the requisite packages from the Node Package Manager.

The "grunt" build tool is required to build the project. You can check if it is already installed by typing:

grunt --version

If not, you may install it globally by running the following command:

npm install -g grunt

Building the Project

Issue the following command to build the required source files:

grunt

Alternatively, you may build a development version of the code, which creates unminified JavaScript for easier debugging:

grunt dev

Running the Services

The standalone map application will function correctly when accessed locally over the file:// protocol--simply open the frontend/dist/index.html file in a web browser.

In order to excersize the network functionality, the files in frontent/dist must be served over a network protocol. Run the web server of your choice from that directory. The backend component is a Node.js service, which can be run from the backend directory with the following command:

node server.js

Serving the Application in Production

By default, the service will run on port #8000 of the IP address 127.0.0.1. These locations can be overridden by defining the NODE_PORT and NODE_HOST environmental variables, respectively.

After defining one or both of these parameters, re-build the project and re-start the service.