Ground station setup

The following assumes that you have already read Initial Setup guide. You should be able to develop from any of the platforms mentioned: Linux, WSL or Mac.

General setup

All our Ground Station code is hosted in the ground-station repository on our Github. So let’s clone that first. Run the following command in a directory of your choice to clone the repository:
Terminal window
```
# if you use https (common way of doing git)
git clone https://github.com/UWOrbital/ground-station.git

# or if you use SSH
git clone git@github.com:UWOrbital/ground-station.git
```
Setup the pre-commit by running the following command in the repository’s root directory:
Terminal window
```
pre-commit install
```
Now you can follow either the Backend section for Backend setup or the Frontend for Frontend setup.

Backend setup

Be sure to have python version 3.12 installed on your system.
Install a python build tool called uv. Instructions can be found here.
From the repository’s root run the following command to add all the necessary packages you need.
Terminal window
```
uv sync --extra dev
```
(Highly Recommended) If you are working with the database, you should set it up as well. The guide can be found below in the Database Setup section.

To run the backend, run the following from the repository root:

# Make sure the db container is running if it isn't already
docker compose up -d postgres

# Run the backend server
uv run fastapi dev backend/main.py

# Or if virtual environment is activated
fastapi dev backend/main.py

To run tests, use the following command:
Terminal window
```
uv run pytest

# Or if virtual environment is activated
pytest
```
You can abort the test run with the shortcut Ctrl+C.

Database setup

Install Docker and Docker Compose with the official installation guide
Verify the installation by running the following commands in your terminal.
Terminal window
```
docker --version
docker-compose --version
```
Make sure you are added to the docker group:
Terminal window
```
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
```
Log out and log back in to apply the docker group changes.
From the root directory, run the following commands to create a new .env file:
Terminal window
```
cp ./template.env .env
```

Start the database by running the following command:

docker compose up postgres -d   # Start the container in detached mode

Check that the database is running properly:

docker ps                     # List all running containers and get the container ID (first column)
docker logs <container_id>    # View the logs of the database container: make sure there are no errors

Replace <container_id> with the actual container ID from the output of docker ps, or use the container name in the NAME column.

From the root directory, run the following command to initialize your database with the correct schema:

sudo apt install alembic
# Make sure you are running the venv located in .venv in the root directory
source .venv/bin/activate
cd backend
alembic upgrade head
# Go back to the root
cd ..

Your database should now be setup! Now you can revisit the Backend Setup section and do the remaining steps (Step 5 and 6)

If you ever want to stop the database, run the following:

# Stops all running containers related to this project
docker compose down

# Alternatively, if you need to keep other containers running, use:
docker stop <container_id>
# The container_id can be found using `docker ps`

Frontend setup

Install Nodejs on your systems using the instructions found here. It is recommended you choose the instructions for Linux or macOS using nvm.
Go to the website of your choice in the frontend/ directory: either aro or mcc. Run the following command to install dependencies:
Terminal window
```
npm install
```
To see a preview of the site you can run the following command to see a dev preview:
Terminal window
```
npm run dev
```
Alternatively, if you have docker, run the docker scripts!
Terminal window
```
docker-compose up --build
```

Contributing

Before you get coding and build some amazing skills make sure you understand the task workflow which you can find below!

Task Workflow