Return to Cinder

A searchable, browseable index of the works of Jacques Derrida and other authors. Part of the Databyss project.

Local Development

Prerequisites

Node.js v16

v18+ not supported due to native dependency constraints.

Recommended installation:

• install NVM
• run nvm use 16

MongoDB >=6

• Installation on Linux
• Installation on MacOS using Homebrew

1. Install dependencies

npm install

2. Configure environment

Create a .env file in the project root:

DATABASE_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017
DB_NAME=databyss
PORT=3030
API_URL=http://localhost:3030/api
DEFAULT_AUTHOR=DD

For a remote MongoDB connection, set DATABASE_URL to a full connection string (e.g. mongodb+srv://...).

3. Start MongoDB locally

mongod &

Or, if you're on MacOS and installed via Homebrew:

brew services start mongodb-community`

4. Restore a database dump (first time)

mongorestore --uri "mongodb://localhost:27017" --db databyss /path/to/dump

5. Run the development server

First start Express API server:

npm run dev-server

Then starts the Webpack dev server with hot reload (frontend):

npm run dev

The app will be available at http://localhost:8080 (webpack dev server) and the API at http://localhost:3030/api.

Production Build & Deployment

Build

Compiles the server with Babel and bundles the frontend with Webpack:

npm run build

Start

npm start

The server listens on PORT (default 8080) and 0.0.0.0 (localhost).

Environment variables (production)

Variable	Description
DATABASE_URL	Full MongoDB connection string
DB_NAME	Database name to select after connecting
PORT	HTTP port (default 8080)
API_ADMIN_TOKEN	If set, serves the admin UI instead of the public app

Data Management Scripts

All scripts are run with npm run <script> and require the env vars above.

Script	Description
dump	Dump the database to a local file
supplement	Import supplemental entries

API Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
GET /api/config	App configuration
GET /api/authors	List all authors
GET /api/sources	List all sources
GET /api/motifs	List all motifs
GET /api/motifs/:mid	Motif detail with sources
GET /api/motifs/:mid/_all	All entries for a motif
GET /api/motifs/:mid/:sid	Entries for a motif within a specific source
GET /api/sources/:sid	Source detail with entries
GET /api/pages/:path	Page content by path
GET /api/menus/:path	Menu content by path
GET /api/search?query=&author=	Full-text entry search

Admin

The admin interface is available when API_ADMIN_TOKEN is set. Build with:

npm run build:admin