ElectOMate-Backend

This repository contains the backend code for the ElectOMate project. The backend is built using Python and provides various functionalities related to election data management and processing.

Table of Contents

• Docker Development
• Production Deployment
• Available Commands

Docker Development

All development for ElectOMate-Backend happens through Docker Compose, which provides a consistent environment and handles all dependencies automatically.

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose installed

Quick Start

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/ElectOMate/ElectOMate-Backend.git
   cd ElectOMate-Backend

2. Setup environment variables:

   cp .env.example .env
   # Edit .env with your API keys (Weaviate, OpenAI)

3. Start the development stack:

   make dev
   # or: docker-compose up --build

4. Access the application:

   • API: http://localhost:8000
   • Database: localhost:5433 (from host)
   • API Docs: http://localhost:8000/docs

Development Workflow

• View logs: make dev-logs
• Access container shell: make dev-shell
• Create migrations: make migration message="your change"
• Run migrations: make db-migrate
• Stop services: make down

Production Deployment

Production deployments use external PostgreSQL databases only (no containerized database). Supports managed databases like AWS RDS, Azure Database, Google Cloud SQL, etc.

Setup External Database

1. Configure environment variables:

   cp .env.example .env
   # Edit .env with your database configuration

2. Required environment variables for production:

   POSTGRES_HOST=your-database-host.amazonaws.com
   POSTGRES_PORT=5432
   POSTGRES_DB=em_prod
   POSTGRES_USER=postgres
   POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your-secure-password

   make prod
   # or: docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up --build -d

Manual Container Deployment

1. Build the container:

   docker build -t em/backend .

2. Run with external database:

   docker run --env-file ./.env -p 8000:8000 em/backend

Available Commands

All commands are available via Makefile for easy development:

Development Commands

• make dev - Start full development stack
• make dev-logs - View application logs
• make dev-shell - Access development container shell
• make down - Stop all services

Database Commands

• make db-migrate - Run database migrations
• make migration message="description" - Create new migration

Production Commands

• make prod - Start production stack
• make clean - Clean up containers and volumes

Development Features

Hot Reload

The development setup includes:

• ✅ Source code hot reload
• ✅ Automatic database migrations on startup
• ✅ Development database with proper extensions
• ✅ Comprehensive logging and debugging

Database Access

# Connect to development database
docker-compose exec postgres psql -U postgres -d em_dev

# Or from host (when postgres port is exposed)
psql -h localhost -p 5433 -U postgres -d em_dev

Environment Variables

The application requires these environment variables:

• WV_URL - Weaviate vector database URL
• WV_API_KEY - Weaviate API key
• OPENAI_API_KEY - OpenAI API key for LLM services
• ENV - Environment (dev/production)
• POSTGRES_URL - Database connection string (auto-configured in Docker)

Architecture

The backend provides:

• FastAPI REST API with automatic OpenAPI documentation
• PostgreSQL database with Alembic migrations
• Vector search via Weaviate integration
• LLM integration with OpenAI for intelligent responses
• Document processing with automatic chunking and embedding
• Real-time capabilities with WebSocket support

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Use make dev for development
4. Run tests and ensure migrations work
5. Submit a pull request

For detailed development setup, see the Docker Development section above.