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Development Setup

Complete guide to setting up a development environment for ODE.

Prerequisites

Before setting up the development environment, ensure you have:

  • Node.js 20.0 or higher
  • pnpm 10.33.2 (ODE pins this via packageManager in each package; enable with Corepack: corepack enable && corepack prepare [email protected] --activate)
  • Go 1.24 or higher (for server and CLI development)
  • PostgreSQL 13.0 or higher (for server development)
  • Git for version control
  • Docker and Docker Compose (optional, for containerized development)

Repository Structure

ODE is a monorepo containing multiple components:

ode/
├── formulus/              # React Native mobile app
├── formulus-formplayer/   # React web form renderer
├── synkronus/            # Go backend server
├── synkronus-cli/        # Go command-line utility
├── synkronus-portal/     # React web portal
└── packages/
    ├── tokens/           # Design tokens package
    └── components/       # Shared UI components

Package manager (pnpm)

ODE JavaScript/TypeScript packages use pnpm ([email protected] via Corepack) with a per-package pnpm-lock.yaml (there is no root workspace install). Run pnpm install inside each component directory you work on.

Recommended install order when setting up several components:

  1. packages/tokens — pnpm install then pnpm run build
  2. Consumers — pnpm install in formulus-formplayer, formulus, packages/components, synkronus-portal, or desktop as needed

CI and Docker use pnpm install --frozen-lockfile for reproducible installs.

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/OpenDataEnsemble/ode.git
cd ode

Formulus Development

Setup

cd packages/tokens && pnpm install && pnpm run build && cd ../..
cd formulus
pnpm install

Android builds require the Notifee native core (gitignored). pnpm run android runs preandroid to vendor it automatically; or run pnpm run vendor:notifee before ./gradlew directly.

Running

# Start Metro bundler
pnpm start

# Run on Android
pnpm run android

# Run on iOS (macOS only)
pnpm run ios

Code Quality

ODE enforces consistent formatting and linting:

# Run linting
pnpm run lint

# Run linting with auto-fix
pnpm run lint:fix

# Format code
pnpm run format

# Check formatting (no writes)
pnpm run format:check

Generating Files

# Generate WebView injection script
pnpm run generate

# Generate API client from OpenAPI spec
pnpm run generate:api

Formplayer Development

Setup

cd packages/tokens && pnpm install && pnpm run build && cd ../..
cd formulus-formplayer
pnpm install

Running

# Development server
pnpm start

# Build and copy assets into Formulus (and ODE Desktop)
pnpm run build:copy

Code Quality

# Run linting
pnpm run lint

# Run linting with auto-fix
pnpm run lint:fix

# Format code
pnpm run format

# Check formatting (no writes)
pnpm run format:check

ODE Desktop Development

Setup

cd packages/tokens && pnpm install && pnpm run build && cd ../..
cd desktop
pnpm install

Running

pnpm run dev          # Vite dev server
pnpm run build:tauri  # Build formplayer assets + desktop + Tauri app

See ODE Desktop developer mode for local custom app iteration.

Synkronus Development

Setup

cd synkronus
go mod download

Configuration

Create a .env file:

PORT=8080
DB_CONNECTION=postgres://synkronus:password@localhost:5432/synkronus?sslmode=disable
JWT_SECRET=your-secret-key-for-development
LOG_LEVEL=debug
APP_BUNDLE_PATH=./data/app-bundles

Running

# Build
go build -o bin/synkronus cmd/synkronus/main.go

# Run
./bin/synkronus

# Or run directly
go run cmd/synkronus/main.go

Database Setup

Ensure PostgreSQL is running and create a database:

CREATE DATABASE synkronus;

The schema will be created automatically on first run.

Synkronus CLI Development

Setup

cd synkronus-cli
go mod download

Building

# Build
go build -o bin/synk ./cmd/synkronus

# Run
./bin/synk

Development Workflow

1. Create a Feature Branch

git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name

2. Make Changes

Make your code changes following the coding standards.

3. Test Locally

# Run tests (from each package directory)
cd formulus && pnpm run test --ci --coverage --watchAll=false
cd formulus-formplayer && pnpm run test run
go test ./...  # For Go projects (from synkronus/, etc.)

# Check code quality
pnpm run lint
pnpm run format:check

4. Commit Changes

git add .
git commit -m "Description of changes"

5. Push and Create Pull Request

git push origin feature/your-feature-name

Create a pull request on GitHub.

Code Quality Standards

Frontend (React/React Native)

  • Linting: ESLint with project-specific rules
  • Formatting: Prettier with consistent configuration
  • TypeScript: Strict type checking enabled
  • Testing: Jest for unit tests

Backend (Go)

  • Formatting: gofmt or goimports
  • Linting: golangci-lint (if configured)
  • Testing: Standard Go testing package
  • Documentation: Godoc comments for exported functions

CI/CD

The CI pipeline automatically:

  • Runs linting and formatting checks
  • Runs tests
  • Builds components
  • Publishes Docker images (for synkronus)

Development Tools

  • VS Code: With extensions for TypeScript, Go, and React
  • IntelliJ IDEA: With Go and JavaScript plugins
  • Android Studio: For Android development
  • Xcode: For iOS development (macOS only)

Useful Commands

# Check all components
cd formulus && pnpm run lint && cd ..
cd formulus-formplayer && pnpm run lint && cd ..
cd synkronus && go test ./... && cd ..

# Format all code
cd formulus && pnpm run format && cd ..
cd formulus-formplayer && pnpm run format && cd ..
cd synkronus && go fmt ./... && cd ..

Troubleshooting

Node Modules Issues

# Clear and reinstall (run inside the package directory, e.g. formulus/)
rm -rf node_modules
pnpm install

If dependencies are missing after clone, ensure you ran pnpm install in that package directory (and built packages/tokens first when using @ode/tokens or @ode/components).

Go Module Issues

# Clean module cache
go clean -modcache
go mod download

Database Connection Issues

  • Verify PostgreSQL is running
  • Check connection string format
  • Ensure database exists
  • Verify user permissions