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Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool

Getting Started

The repository is a monorepo which contains multiple components, structured to streamline collaboration while providing autonomy and tailored workflows without the overhead of multiple repositories.

Each component contains its own README with specific, detailed getting started instructions.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure the following tools are installed on your machine:

  • Git: For version control.
  • .NET 10.0 SDK: Required for Core infrastructure, Platform, and Web components.
  • Node.js 22 (LTS): Required for Front-end and Web components.
  • Terraform: Required for infrastructure management.
  • terraform-docs: Required for generating infrastructure documentation (used by make tf-check).
  • Make: Required to run the root Makefile and component scripts.
  • Git Bash (Windows): Required for Windows users to execute make commands correctly in a Bash environment.
  • Python 3.x: Required for certain build scripts and pre-commit hooks.
  • pre-commit: For running local quality checks before committing.
  • Docker & Docker Compose: Required for running local dependencies (SQL Server, Redis, etc.) and the data pipeline. See the Local Environment with Docker guide for setup instructions.
  • Visual Studio 2022 or JetBrains Rider (for .NET development)
  • Visual Studio Code or WebStorm (for Front-end and Terraform)

Project Architecture

The following diagram illustrates the high-level dependencies between the components:

graph TD
    Web[Web Application] --> Platform[Platform APIs]
    Web --> Core[Core Infrastructure]
    Platform --> Core
    Data[Data Pipeline] --> Core
    Support[Support & Analytics] --> Web
    Support --> Platform
    Support --> Data
    Support --> Core
    FrontEnd[Front-end Components] -.->|consumed by| Web

First-time Setup

Follow these steps to set up the repository for local development:

  1. Clone the repository:

    git clone https://github.com/DFE-Digital/education-benchmarking-and-insights.git

  2. Set up pre-commit hooks:
    Run the following from the root directory:

    pipx install pre-commit
pre-commit install

  3. Configure custom scripts:
    Some repository tools require local settings.json files. Copy the examples provided:

    cp scripts/env-tool/settings.example.json scripts/env-tool/settings.json
cp scripts/terraform-tool/settings.example.json scripts/terraform-tool/settings.json

    Note: Populate these files with your specific local or environment-specific values as needed.

  4. Navigate to a component:
    Choose the component you wish to work on and follow its specific README instructions:

Local Development

A root Makefile is provided to consolidate common infrastructure and tooling commands.

Common Commands

Run make help to see all available commands.

  • make up: Start local Docker dependencies (Azurite, SQL Server, Redis).
  • make down: Stop local Docker dependencies.
  • make build-pipeline: Force a rebuild of the data-pipeline Docker image.
  • make lint-md: Lint and fix all markdown files in the repository.
  • make kill-dotnet: Kill any hanging dotnet processes.
  • make tf-check: Run the custom Terraform validation helper (format, validate, lint, docs).
  • make set-env all local: Switch the local environment settings.

Using Make on Windows

To ensure a seamless experience on Windows, execute all make commands from Git Bash. This provides the necessary environment for the Makefile’s shell commands to run correctly.

Build & deployment

Continuous integration, delivery and testing is automated via Azure Pipelines. Terraform is used for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to allow for the build, change, and versioning of the infrastructure safely and efficiently.

Quality checks

The following quality checks are automated in the pipelines (PR and merge) and should be run locally where possible:

Component Automated Checks
Core infrastructure Linting, Validate, Static analysis
Front-end components Unit tests, Linting (npm run lint)
Platform .NET Solution Linting, Terraform Linting/Validate/Static analysis, Unit tests
Web .NET Solution Linting, Terraform Linting/Validate/Static analysis, Unit & Integration tests
Prototype Linting, Validate, Static analysis
Support & analytics Linting, Validate, Static analysis

Tools & commands

Terraform

  • terraform fmt: Rewrites Terraform configuration files to a canonical format.
  • terraform validate: Validates configuration files in a directory.

.NET

  • dotnet format: Formats code to match .editorconfig settings.

JavaScript / React

  • npm run lint: Checks code against ESLint/Prettier settings.
  • npm run lint:fix: Automatically fixes linting issues.

Static Analysis (Checkov)

Checkov is used for scanning IaC files for misconfigurations and security issues.