Running locally

Running locally

Contents:

Quickstart

To use the tool for your own set of domains:

  • Clone the repository
  • Install NodeJS
  • Run npm install
  • Delete CNAME
  • Update the User-Agent header in the headers object in scraper.js
  • (Optional) Use custom domains or disable www validation
  • Run node scraper
    • To only run one domain from the list, append the domain name to the end of the command (example: node scraper domain.gov)
      • Make sure to run the scraper with all domains first
  • Run with or without the website

Running with the website

  • Install Jekyll
  • Run bundle exec jekyll serve to start the website
  • The URL of the local site will be printed
  • (Optional) Publish to GitHub

Single-level government

If your organization doesn’t have sub-organizations:

  • Open /_includes/jumbotron.html and search for single-level
  • Delete or comment out everything between the two comments
  • Open /scripts/home.js
  • Set MULTI_LEVEL to false

Running without the website

If you don’t want to have a graphical version and only want to use the data (located in /data), delete:

  • Any folder starting with _
  • /assets
  • /blog
  • /css
  • /scripts
  • _config.yml
  • Gemfile and Gemfile.lock
  • /.jekyll-cache if it exists

Customization

Custom domains

To use your own list of domains:

  • Open data/domains.csv
  • Delete all lines except for the first
  • Add in your domains in the format domain,agency (example)
    • Domains can be any case
    • Domains shouldn’t start with http or www

Example list:

domain1.gov,Department of X
domain2.gov,Department of Y
domain3.gov,Department of Z

To add a single domain:

  • Run the scraper as node scraper new-domain.gov
  • Fill in the organization name

Adding/removing metadata parameters

To add/remove parameters from the data:

  • Open scrapers/metadata.js
  • Edit the properties, variables, and csvVariables arrays
    • Make sure each index lines up (first element in properties matches first element in variables)

To add/remove parameters to the site:

  • Make sure the parameter is in the data
  • Open scripts/variables.js
  • Add an item in the properties, names, variables, and descriptions arrays
    • Make sure the name in variables matches the one in the data
    • Make sure each index lines up

Removing WWW validation

If you don’t want to check for www canonicalization:

  • Open scrapers/url.js
  • Change CHECK_WWW to false
  • Open scripts/util.js
  • Change CHECK_WWW to false