This repository contains the source code for the backend of a currently unnamed HackZurich 2023 project.

• Didem Istar
• Ishwor Giri
• Quan Zheng
• Sam Hirst

You will need to have NodeJS and Node Package Manager (NPM) installed to run this project.

First, install TypeScript using npm install -g typescript. Then, install all remaining dependencies using npm install.

To avoid hardcoding secrets and some other data into the codebase, environment variables are used in this project. To use them, clone the .example.env file and call the new file .env. Then, set the environment variables as follows:

• GOOGLE_CLOUD_AUTH_TOKEN: An access token for Google Cloud, linked to an account with access to the project defined in GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT_ID. *
• GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT_ID: A Google Cloud Project ID.
• PORT: The port which the ExpressJS web server should listen on.

* Refer to https://stackoverflow.com/a/48734637

An ExpressJS web server is created in src/index.ts. It will make the server listen to whatever port has been defined in the environment variables.

The projects routes are defined in the src/routes directory. Within each subdirectory (image-handling, nearby-services, and policy-parsing), the endpoints are defined in the index.ts file. Each index.ts file contains documentation in comment form. Additional helper functions may also appear in separate files within these subdirectories.

Additionally, some data which helps the functionality of the server is stored in the data directory.