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Technology choices

Document about the tech stack used for developing code in the City of Helsinki.

Backend services

  • For most things: Python 3 with Django.
    • Suggested versions for the new projects are Python 3.7 and Django 2.2 LTS.
    • Django REST framework for REST APIs
    • Graphene for GraphQL APIs, using Graphene-Django.
    • Postgres / PostGIS for background databases
  • For stateless GraphQL proxies / API gateways:
    • Node.js with Apollo
  • For serving static files of React apps:
    • Node.js with express (and server-side rendering)
  • Make all APIs available through api.hel.fi

Frontend services

  • For most things: React with "standard" extensions (= just use create-react-app).
    • preferably TypeScript
    • yarn and webpack
    • redux for state
    • Always set up and use server-side rendering
  • always use components from Helsinki Design System (https://github.com/City-of-Helsinki/helsinki-design-system).
    • Contribute your components into HDS and use them by including the package as a dependency
  • Usually, the front pages of citizen directed services should be made with Wordpress. (So that they can be changed without coder intervention)
    • don't customise wordpress if you can avoid it
      • if you can't, adhere to their coding standards to try to make the code work across upgrades

Creating Libraries

  • use npm and PyPI for distribution
  • always include own libraries via npm/PyPI, never directly via version control / local installation

Helpers & tooling

  • docker (and Dockerfiles) for creating runnable, publishable images
    • make the image so that docker run XXX (with environment variables) brings up a working service
    • test, stage, and production environments are always installed by the Docker images in dockerhub
    • docker-compose for reproducibly bringing up dev environments
  • Use bash (for simple tasks) or Python 3 (for complex ones).
    • if it has more than one loop, or any data processing, it's complex
  • Gitlab or Travis for build, test and deployment automation
    • the build instructions should be one command only. If it's multiple commands, put it in a script.
  • Ansible for remote configuration of hosts
  • Terraform for remote configuration of deployment environments
  • Helm for remote configuration of Kubernetes