ForumAI

ForumAI is an online platform which enables AI assistance in structured academic forums, facilitating discussions between students and faculty.

Features

• 24/7 AI assistance to help answer questions about course material, assignments and general logistics
• Discussions boards and Q&A forums for interaction between students, instructors and teaching assistants
• Anonymous posting and messaging for safe and inclusive discussions

Prerequisites

• Node.js
• Yarn or npm
• Supabase CLI
• Deno (required for running tests)
• Docker (required for supabase start)

Installation

Clone the project

git clone https://github.com/ubclaunchpad/forum.git

Frontend

1. Install Node.js

• Download and install the latest version of Node.js from nodejs.org

2. Go to the frontend directory

cd forum/frontend

3. Install dependencies

yarn install # or npm install

Environment Variables For Frontend

Create a .env file with:

NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=YOUR_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=YOUR_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY
OPENAI_API_KEY=YOUR_OPENAI_API_KEY
DATABASE_URL=YOUR_DATABASE_URL
NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL=YOUR_API_BASE_URL

Check here for details on how to find your environment variables

4. Running the server

yarn dev # or npm run dev

Backend

1. Install Supabase CLI

• Follow the instructions here to install the Supabase CLI: Supabase CLI

2. Start Supabase

Ensure Docker is installed and running before executing this command.

supabase start

3. Apply Database Migrations

supabase db up

4. Install Deno

• Follow the instructions here to install Deno: Deno Installation
• For VSCode users, you can also install the Deno extension: Deno Extension

5. Running Tests using Deno

deno test --allow-all --coverage --env-file=./.env.local

If you do not have the Deno extension installed in your IDE, you can run the tests using the following command:

deno test --allow-all --coverage --env-file=./.env.local --unstable --watch

Environment Variables

Create a .env file with in the supabase folder with:

SUPABASE_URL="your_supabase_url"
SUPABASE_ANON_KEY="your_supabase_anon_key"
SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY="your_supabase_service_role_key"
DATABASE_URL="your_database_url"

OPENAI_API_KEY=your_key_here
AUTH_MIDDLEWARE_ENABLED=true # or false
DEV_USER_EMAIL=your_email_here
DEV_USER_PASSWORD=your_password_here
DEV_LOGIN=true # or false

ENV=development # or production

Where to find these?

• When you do supabase start, you will get an API URL, anon key, and service role key. Make sure you populate these in the .env file.
• For most cases you will need to have the AUTH_MIDDLEWARE_ENABLED set to true and the DEV_USER_EMAIL and DEV_USER_PASSWORD set to your email and password
  • On your Supabase project, go to the Auth section and create a new user (you can manually set the email and password); then use these credentials in the .env file
• Go on OpenAI and create a new project (or use an existing one)
  • You do not need this unless you use the OpenAI API

🛠 Development Resources

• Supabase CLI Documentation: Supabase CLI
• Supabase Edge Functions: Supabase Edge Functions
• Deno Documentation: Deno Manual
• Deno Setup for VSCode: Deno Extension

📦 Essential Commands for Local Development

🔄 Supabase Commands

• supabase start - Start the Supabase server
• supabase stop - Stop the Supabase server
• supabase db up - Apply database migrations
• supabase db reset - Reset the database

⚙️ Supabase Edge Functions

• supabase functions new function_name - Create a new edge function
• supabase functions deploy function_name - Deploy an edge function

🛠 Deno Commands

• deno test --allow-all --coverage=coverage - Run tests with coverage
• deno coverage --html - Generate an HTML coverage report

Contributing

Contributions are always welcome!

See CONTRIBUTING.md for ways to get started.

License

GNU