BC Parks CMS

Summary

An API-driven, fully responsive web site that provides potential BC Park visitors with information on provincial parks, conservation areas, and ecological reserves. Content on these pages includes descriptions, activities, amenities, park status, etc.

This site is built using Strapi CMS, a headless CMS, and Gatsby; an open-source static site generator built on top of Node.js using React and GraphQL.

Table of Contents

• Links
• Getting Started
  • Prerequisites
  • Backend Development - Strapi Localhost
  • Frontend development - Gatsby
  • Staff Portal development
• Commit/branching
• Application walkthrough
• Communication Channels
• Additional Documentation
• Deployment

Links

The application can be accessed using the links below:

Prod	Test	Dev	Alpha-Test	Alpha-Dev
Staff App	Test - Staff App	Dev - Staff App	Alpha-Test - Staff App	Alpha-Dev - Staff App
Public	Test - Public	Dev - Public	Alpha-Test - Public	Alpha-Dev - Public
CMS	Test - CMS	Dev - CMS	Alpha-Test - CMS	Alpha-Dev - CMS
API Docs	Test - API Docs	Dev - API Docs	Alpha-Test - API Docs	Alpha-Dev - API Docs
Sample API endpoint	Test - Sample API Endpoint	Dev - Sample API Endpoint	Alpha-Test - Sample API Endpoint	Alpha-Dev - Sample API Endpoint
GraphQL	Test - GraphQL	Dev - GraphQL	Alpha-Test - GraphQL	Alpha-Dev - GraphQL

Getting Started

Running a local environment allows users to quickly see changes without waiting for a full build (10+ minutes). The local environment setup described below uses Gatsby JS to render the site frontend locally, and you can choose to set up a local Strapi CMS instance or use an external Strapi CMS instance (TEST or PROD) as the datasource.

IMPORTANT: this process is not currently working on Windows without virtualisation. It is known to work on OS X, and inside a Linux container running in VMWare Player.

Prerequisites

1. Ensure you have a command-line shell (like PowerShell, iTerm or the terminal integrated with Visual Studio Code) and Node JS 18 installed.

2. If you're running Strapi locally, you'll need to have Docker installed.

3. Create a fork of the repo from https://github.com/bcgov/bcparks.ca

4. Clone your forked git repository into a local directory

Backend Development - Strapi Localhost

• Strapi setup instructions

Frontend development - Gatsby

• Gatsby setup instructions

Staff Portal development

• Staff portal setup instructions

Commit/branching

Each developer should create a feature branch for work on their forked repo that relates to the associated JIRA issue. (example: username/bcparks.ca/CM-123-brief-description

Ensure you've added the upstream repo on your local: git remote add upstream [email protected]:bcgov/bcparks.ca.git

Prior to creating a PR, it's good practice to sync your fork with the upstream repo. git checkout main and then git pull upstream main followed by checking out your branch and then running git rebase main

Alternatively, you could do this in GitHub, and use the 'Sync fork' button in your forked repo, and then pull it into your local.

Application walkthrough

For detailed instructions on how to perform common tasks in the CMS, contact Leah Wilcock, Manager of Information Services.

Communication Channels

Most communications are handled through the BC Parks Service Transformation Microsoft Teams instance. Please reach out to your Project Manager for access.

Additional Documentation

Coming soon.

Deployment

For deployment and content sync information, contact Leah Wilcock, Manager of Information Services.