Coronavirus response service directory

A simple, production-ready directory of services that can help residents cope if they're staying at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Originally commissioned by Camden Borough Council. There are alternate skins for different councils on branches. Read about the project here.

It has:

• 🕵️‍♀️ A simple search page where the user selects the kind of help they need and gives their postcode
• 📍 A results page showing relevant services, nearest first
• 👩‍💻 A read-only JSON API for other applications to consume. Available at /api/services

It uses the geocoder gem and Google's geocoding API to power geographical functionality.

Configuration

The list of categories that can be searched by are defined in app/model/service.rb. Make sure the data source matches these.

The following environment variables can be set:

• GOOGLE_API_KEY: an API key from google with the geocoding API enabled
• DATASOURCE: optional, public URL to a csv data source, see below
• GA_PROPERTY_ID: optional, for Google Analytics tracking

Running it locally

You need ruby, rails, node.js, npm and a local postgresql server ready.

bundle install
npm install

# create database and run migrations
rails db:setup

# populate initial database
rails db:seed

rails s

It will be on localhost:3000.

If you're using Docker, docker-compose up will set up a local database for you.

Running it on the web

Suitable for 12-factor compliant hosting like Heroku.

Don't forget to run the database migrations:

rails db:migrate

Seeding the production database

You can consume data straight from a Google Sheet, if it's formatted in the right way.

We think this is a good way to get new products up and running fast, because there are no new admin tools to train people on.

1. Get your data into the right format. Here's an example sheet to get you started.
2. Make sure your sheet is publicly sharable
3. Add /export?format=csv to the end of the URL to get a link to a CSV version, and save that as an environment variable called DATASOURCE.
4. Run rails csv on the hosted app, using the Heroku console or your hosting's equivalent

It should pull in all the rows from your data sheet and geocode postcodes into latitudes and longitudes.

If your data schema is different, you might need to adjust the rails csv task a little. You can see what the task does in lib/tasks/csv.rake.

You can use Heroku's Scheduler add on to run the task regularly - for example, every hour.

Roadmap

Over the next few weeks to months, we're looking to add:

• an optional map view
• a recommended service feature, which bumps one service per category to the top of the list
• admin user accounts and a proper admin panel
• a form for the public to submit their own service suggestions