danwainwright / datastringer

Monitor datasets, gets alerts when something happens

Data-stringer

NOTE: Datastringer is still under heavy development. Please check out the releases and changelog

Works on Ubuntu-based OS only. See the issue for installing on Mac OS

Was ist das?

Data stringer: the exact equivalent of wire agencies' (AFP/AP/Reuters) local journalists who feed the organisation with news (called wires). Except that here, that's a software living in a dataset, not in Iran, that's going to do the job.

Installation, configuration

Getting started with Datastringer is easy:

Installation

Just clone the repo and run the installation script located at its root. You only have to do this once.

$ git clone http://github.com/BBC-News-Labs/datastringer.git && cd datastringer
$ ./install.sh

install.sh will take care of installing the needed dependencies:

• node
• npm
• postifx (needed to be able to send mail)

It will then proceed to fetch node modules dependencies.

The install script has been written and tested on Linux Ubuntu 14.04.

Docker image

A Dockerfile is also available to build a datastringer Docker image:

• Build with docker build -t datastringer . (This will expose port 3000 which should be mapped when running a container)
• Run with docker run -d -p 3000:3000 datastringer
• Visit http://localhost:3000

Introduction tour

node wizard.js will start a small web server. Point towards localhost:3000 with your favourite web browser.

When you are done with the configuration, you can stop the server by CTRL-Cing it.

Voilà!

You just set up your first datastringers with two basic examples. You will be notified by email when alerts are triggered! Here is what these examples do.

Do more with Datastringer

Datastringer is built on Javascript and Node.js, and we make sure it won't be hard for you to extend it. Refer to the documentation to understand the architecture, rummage the examples and... build your own stringers!

Contributing

Before submitting pull-requests, please refer to the road-map.

About the license

Datastringer is distributed under the MIT License, and developed by Basile Simon, Clément Geiger, for BBC News Labs. Read more about the MIT License.