The Guardian website frontend.

Frontend is a set of Play Framework 2 Scala applications.

• A Mac or Linux pc
• Installed Node.js (https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Installing-Node.js-via-package-manager)
• Installed npm (Node package manager - you quite possibly already have this) sudo apt-get install npm
• Installed GraphicsMagick
• Installed Grunt (build tool) sudo npm -g install grunt-cli
• Installed Ruby >= v1.9.x & bundler (You will already have this installed, but run ruby -v to check version number)

Sometimes when you install npm it ends up owned by root (but in your home directory).

Check that you own your own .npm directory ls -ld ~/.npm

If it is owned by root then take ownership of it sudo chown -R username:username ~/.npm

On Linux machines you may run into a "too many files open" error during compilation or reloading. You can find out how many file handles you are allowed per process by running ulimit -n. This can be quite low, e.g. 1024

To increase the limit do the following (instructions from Ubuntu 12.10)...

In the file /etc/security/limits.conf add the following two lines

*  soft  nofile 20000
*  hard  nofile 65000

And in the file /etc/pam.d/common-session add the following line.

session required pam_limits.so

restart the machine.

For more info see http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-increase-the-maximum-number-of-open-files/

You'll need a config file called /etc/gu/install_vars with the following content :-

STAGE=DEV
INT_SERVICE_DOMAIN=gudev.gnl
EXT_SERVICE_DOMAIN=

And one called ~/.gu/frontend.properties, ( alternatively /gu/etc/frontend.properties ) with the following content :-

content.api.key=XXXX
content.api.host=http://XXXX
pa.api.key=XXXX

Get the correct key and host from another developer on the project (or for external developers, sign up for a key at http://guardian.mashery.com).

To set up a proxy

export proxy_host=proxy.somewhere.com
export proxy_port=1234

Assuming you have checked out this project, open a console and change directory into the root of the project.

Start Simple Build Tool (sbt) by running ./sbt012

Once sbt is running (it may take a while first time) then compile the project by typing compile (also can take a while first time)

Switch project by typing project dev-build

Now start the local server by typing run (this too will take long the first time)

Now test you are up and running by hitting the following URLs:

• http://localhost:9000/books
• http://localhost:9000/media/2012/dec/05/newspaper-editors-sign-up-leveson
• http://localhost:9000/news/gallery/2012/dec/04/24-hours-in-pictures-gallery

To use in Eclipse, use the eclipsify command. This will create Eclipse project and settings files which can be imported using the Import Existing Project options in Eclipse.

To use in IntelliJ, see https://github.com/mpeltonen/sbt-idea

Further information on using the Play console is available here.

Virtualisation provides for robust development environments and a controlled system dependency solution. See the instructions in README.vagrant.md for using Vagrant virtualisation with this project.

The available endpoints are listed in conf/routes of each application and typically include:

• /management: Operations support as per standard webapp guidelines. See guardian-management.
• /pages/<path>: Serve the Guardian URL at <path> if supported by this application.
• /assets/<file>: A convenience for DEV machines. Assets are CDNed in PROD and would not be available on DEV.
• /<path>: A synonym for /pages/<path> as a convenience for DEV machines.

Deployment uses the Magenta library.

You can debug your local Frontend application, by attaching a debugger.

• Start Simple Build Tool in debug mode by typing ./sbt012 --debug
• Build and run your application. See "Running" for steps.
• Use a debugger to attach to the remote Java process, on localhost:1044.

Any IDE debugger should be compatible. In IntelliJ, add a new Debug Configuration, based on the Remote default. Ensure the Transport is Socket, the Debugger mode is Attach, and the port is set to 1044. Start a new Debug session, and your breakpoints should be active.

Further documentation notes and useful items can be found in dev.