Jeffpardy

A Jeopardy-style trivia gamebuilt with ASP.NET Core, React/TypeScript, and SignalR for real-time multiplayer gameplay. Game data is stored in Azure Blob Storage.

Prerequisites

• .NET 10 SDK
• Node.js 22+ (includes npm)

Getting Started

git clone https://github.com/JeffSteinbok/jeffpardy.git
cd jeffpardy
npm install

Azure Blob Storage (optional)

Game categories are loaded from Azure Blob Storage. To connect, store the connection string as a user secret:

dotnet user-secrets --project src/backend set "BlobConnectionString" "[string from Azure Portal]"

Don't have Azure access? Add ?debugMode=2 to the URL to use locally generated placeholder categories — no Azure connection needed.

Running the App

npm run build        # Build the frontend
dotnet run --project src/backend   # Start the server

For development with auto-rebuild:

npm run dev                          # Watch & rebuild frontend
dotnet watch run --project src/backend   # Watch & rebuild backend (in a second terminal)

The app will be available at the URL shown in the terminal output (typically https://localhost:5001).

Build Commands

Command	Description
npm run build	Development frontend build
npm run buildProd	Production frontend build
dotnet build src/backend	Build the backend (does not trigger a frontend build)
dotnet run --project src/backend	Run the server
dotnet watch run --project src/backend	Run with auto-rebuild

Note: Frontend and backend builds are fully decoupled. dotnet build never runs npm — build the frontend separately with npm run build.

Testing

npm test                                                       # Frontend tests (vitest)
dotnet test src/backend/Jeffpardy.Tests                              # Backend tests (xUnit)

Linting & Formatting

npm run lint           # ESLint check
npm run lint:fix       # ESLint auto-fix
npm run format:check   # Prettier check
npx prettier --write <files>   # Prettier auto-fix

Pre-Push Checklist

Run all checks before pushing:

npm run lint
npm run format:check
npm test
dotnet test src/backend/Jeffpardy.Tests

CI Pipeline

GitHub Actions runs on every push to main and on PRs targeting main. It runs three parallel jobs:

1. Backend Build & Test — restores, builds, and tests the .NET project
2. Frontend Build & Test — installs deps, builds with Vite, and runs vitest
3. Lint & Format Check — runs ESLint and Prettier checks

Project Structure

src/
  web/                  # TypeScript/React frontend
    components/         # Reusable React components
    pages/              # Page-specific entry points
    utilities/          # Shared utilities and helpers
  backend/              # ASP.NET Core backend
    api/                # Web API controllers
    Hubs/               # SignalR hubs
    Pages/              # Razor Pages (views)
    Jeffpardy.Tests/    # xUnit backend tests
wwwroot/                # Static web assets (Vite output goes to wwwroot/js/dist/)

PR Workflow

Always create a pull request to merge changes into main. PRs trigger the CI pipeline automatically.

Debug Mode

Add ?debugMode=<value> to the host URL to enable debug flags. Values are hex and can be combined by adding them together.

Flag	Bit	Hex	Description
VerboseLogging	0	1	Enable verbose console logging
LocalCategories	1	2	Use locally generated lorem ipsum categories (no Azure needed)
SkipIntro	2	4	Skip the lobby/intro screen
DailyDouble00	3	8	Force daily double at position 0,0
FixedGameCode	4	10	Use a fixed game code
ShortRound	5	20	Use fewer clues per round
ShortTimers	6	40	Use 1-second timers
FinalJeffpardy	7	80	Jump straight to Final Jeffpardy
FastFinalJeffpardy	8	100	Shorten Final Jeffpardy timer
SkipCategoryReveal	9	200	Skip the category reveal animation
FakeTeams	10	400	Create 3 fake teams with 4 players each

Common Combinations

Value	Flags	Description
4	SkipIntro	Skip lobby only
6	SkipIntro + LocalCategories	Skip lobby, fake categories
1E	SkipIntro + LocalCategories + DD + FixedGameCode	Full dev mode with category reveal
46	SkipIntro + LocalCategories + ShortTimers	Quick dev iteration
21E	SkipIntro + LocalCategories + DD + FixedGameCode + SkipCategoryReveal	Full dev mode, no reveal
61E	SkipIntro + LocalCategories + DD + FixedGameCode + FakeTeams + SkipCategoryReveal	Full dev mode with fake teams

Custom Game Data

You can paste your own game data JSON into the Modify Game Data dialog or load from a file. See GameDataFormat.md for the full format specification and examples. An Excel template is also available at wwwroot/JeffpardyGameDataTemplate.xlsx.

Access Code

Category API endpoints are gated behind an access code. The code can be provided via:

• X-Access-Code header — used by the frontend automatically
• ?accessCode= query parameter — useful for testing APIs directly in a browser

Example: https://localhost:5001/api/Categories/GameData?accessCode=buzzer123

Configuration

Environment	How to set
Local dev	dotnet user-secrets --project src/backend set "AccessCode" "yourcode"
Azure App Service	Add AccessCode app setting in Configuration
GitHub Actions	Stored as ACCESS_CODE repository secret

If no AccessCode is configured on the server, only an empty string will be accepted (the header/param must still be present).

On the host page, the access code is stored in a session cookie so it persists across page refreshes until the browser is closed.