admin-panel/README.md

RideAware Admin Center

This project provides a secure and user-friendly Admin Panel for managing RideAware subscribers and sending update emails. It's designed to work in conjunction with the RideAware landing page application, utilizing a shared database for subscriber management.

Features

Secure Admin Authentication:

• Login protected by username/password authentication using Werkzeug's password hashing.
• Default admin credentials configurable via environment variables.

Subscriber Management:

• View a comprehensive list of all subscribed email addresses.

Email Marketing:

• Compose and send HTML-rich update emails to all subscribers.
• Supports embedding unsubscribe links in email content for easy opt-out.

Shared Database:

• Utilizes a shared PostgreSQL database with the landing page application for consistent subscriber data.

Centralized Newsletter Storage:

• Storage of newsletter subject and email bodies in the PostgreSQL database

Logging:

• Implemented comprehensive logging throughout the application for better monitoring and debugging.

Architecture

The Admin Panel is built using Python with the Flask web framework, using the following technologies:

• Backend: Python 3.11+, Flask
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Template Engine: Jinja2
• Authentication: Werkzeug Security
• Email: SMTP (using smtplib)
• Containerization: Docker
• Configuration: .env file using python-dotenv

Setup & Deployment

Prerequisites

• Docker (recommended for containerized deployment)
• Python 3.11+ (if running locally without Docker)
• A PostgreSQL database instance
• An SMTP account (e.g., SendGrid, Mailgun) for sending emails
• A .env file with configuration details

.env Configuration

Create a .env file in the project root directory with the following environment variables. Make sure to replace the placeholder values with your actual credentials.

# Flask Application
SECRET_KEY="YourSecretKeyHere" #Used to sign session cookies

# PostgreSQL Database Configuration
PG_HOST=localhost
PG_PORT=5432
PG_DATABASE=rideaware_db
PG_USER=rideaware_user
PG_PASSWORD=rideaware_password

# Admin credentials for the Admin Center
ADMIN_USERNAME=admin
ADMIN_PASSWORD="changeme"  # Change this to a secure password

# SMTP Email Settings
SMTP_SERVER=smtp.example.com
SMTP_PORT=465 #Or another appropriate port
SMTP_USER=your_email@example.com
SMTP_PASSWORD=YourEmailPassword
SENDER_EMAIL=your_email@example.com #Email to send emails from
BASE_URL="your_site_domain.com" # used for unsubscribe links, example.com not https://

#Used for debugging
FLASK_DEBUG=1

Running with Docker (Recommended)

This is the recommended approach for deploying the RideAware Admin Panel

Building the Docker image:

docker build -t admin-panel .

Running the container mapping port 5001:

docker run -p 5001:5001 admin-panel

The application will be accessible at http://localhost:5001 or http://<your_server_ip>:5001

Note: When running locally with Docker, ensure the .env file is located at the project root. Alternatively, you can pass the variables in the CLI.

Running locally

Install Dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Set Environment Variables:

Ensure all the environment variables specified in the .env configuration section are set in your shell environment. You can source the .env file:

Then run the admin app:

python app.py

The app will be accessible at http://127.0.0.1:5001

Contributing

Contributions to the RideAware Admin Panel are welcome! Please follow these steps:

• Fork the repository.
• Create a new branch for your feature or bug fix.
• Make your changes and commit them with descriptive commit messages.
• Submit a pull request.