gistfile1.md

This is the content for the website at hackasaurus.org.

Prerequisites

You need Python version 2.6 or higher. All other dependencies are self-contained within the project's code repository.

Setup

Just run this at the terminal prompt:

cd hackasaurus.org
python manage.py runserver

Then, point your browser to http://localhost:8000/.

Development

All static, unlocalized files are in the static directory, which are placed at the root of the web site. The templates directory contains localized Jinja2 templates that are located at /<locale>/ on the web site, where <locale> is the name of a locale like en-US. The single exception to this is the file templates/locale-redirector.html, which is used to redirect a non-localized pathname to a localized one (e.g., redirecting /goggles/ to /en-US/goggles).

Whenever you need to link to a localized template, you can do so either via a relative URL or an absolute one that begins with the template variable {{ LOCALE_ROOT }}.

Testing

When writing JavaScript code, please try to make it testable and add a unit test for it in the static/test directory. These QUnit tests can be run from the development server at localhost:8000/test.

Localization

The site uses GNU gettext for localization via Babel and Jinja2's i18n extension. Soon we'll get the site listed on localize.mozilla.org so that anyone can easily help localize the website.

Deployment

Run this at the terminal prompt:

python manage.py build

This will create a static version of the site, for all supported locales, in the dist directory. You can copy this directory to any web server that serves static files, such as Apache or Amazon S3.

Technical Design Philosophy

The Hackasaurus website is almost entirely static content, so we didn't see much of a need to use a massive server-side framework like Playdoh. Instead, we took an approach more akin to that of Jekyll, whereby a script can be run to generate a fully static site capable of being deployed to any static web server.

However, we pick from Playdoh's toolkit when we need to solve a problem, which results in a code repository that looks more familiar to Mozilla developers as the site's requirements become more complex.

Playdoh Migration

Migrating this site to Playdoh is fairly straightforward due to the design philosophy. It requires no extra dependencies and a tiny bit of glue code.

You'll want to create a new Django app in your Playdoh project and do the following:

1. Copy the the static and templates directories into the Django app.

2. Fill the Django app's views.py with the following helpers:

from django.shortcuts import render
from django.conf import settings
from funfactory.context_processors import i18n

class Locale(object):
    def __init__(self, locale, display_name):
        self.locale = locale
        self.display_name = display_name

    def __str__(self):
        return self.locale

def page(filename):
    def view(request):
        info = i18n(request)
        locales = {}
        for locale, display_name in info['LANGUAGES'].items():
            locales[locale] = Locale(locale, display_name)
        currlocale = locales[info['LANG'].lower()]

        return render(request, filename, {
            'STATIC_URL': settings.STATIC_URL,
            'locales': locales.values(),
            'current_locale': currlocale,
            'LOCALE_ROOT': '/%s/' % currlocale
        })
    return view

3. Fill the Django app's urls.py with the following:

    from django.conf.urls.defaults import *

    from .views import page

    urlpatterns = patterns('',
        url(r'^$', page('index.html')),
    )

This should expose only the website's home page to the Playdoh app. To expose more pages, you'll need to add to urlpatterns.

Note also that you may need to install the staticfiles app in order to get the above code to work. Alternatively, you should be able to achieve the same effect by moving the files in static into your project's media directory and then setting STATIC_URL = MEDIA_URL in your settings.py.

Security

These major known vulnerabilities ought to be fixed before any sensitive information is served from the domain this site is hosted on:

1. On the events page, we load a Lanyrd Badge via HTTP script injection. The secure equivalent of the script's URL doesn't deliver a trusted certificate, so loading the badge over HTTPS may be problematic.