Torn Apart / Separados

Please see our site for a thorough discussion of what our project and its goals are. This README is here more just to satisfy people curious as to how this was all technically done.

Installation

Upon cloning or pulling the repo, run:

npm i

to install the Node dependencies. If this presents some kind of error, make sure you have Node installed. See this link to download your appropriate Node installer.

To serve the website locally, change into the docs/ directory and run bundler there. Something like this:

cd docs/
gem install bundler
bundle install
jekyll serve

This will make the website available at http://localhost:4000/torn-apart/.

This distribution assumes a current installation of Ruby, namely 2.5.1. If you have an earlier version, you can use rvm to set up a local environment. Assuming rvm is not installed, run this instead of the code above:

gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 409B6B1796C275462A1703113804BB82D39DC0E3 7D2BAF1CF37B13E2069D6956105BD0E739499BDB
\curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable
rvm install ruby-2.5.1
cd docs/
gem install bundler
bundle install
jekyll serve

The presence of the files .ruby-version and .ruby-gemset in docs/ should trigger the use of Ruby 2.5.1 and create and use a gemset called “torn-apart.”

When Nokogiri invariably fails to install on bundle install, run gem install nokogiri -v '1.8.3' and then bundle install again.

To stop serving the webserver, type control-C.

Structure

Under version control:

• data/ All data, saved as csv or json, should be in this folder. In future versions, it should have only csvs, all of which are packed up into the JavaScript bundle where needed.
• docs/ The Jekyll website. See its README for details.
• ruby/ All of the Ruby scripts. Using them may require rerunning bundle install and installing Nokogiri.
• src/ All of the JavaScript.
  • src/i18n/ The internationalization json files.
• .eslintrc.yml A yaml version of the ESLint configuration.
• README.md This file!
• TA-S-logo.ai An Adobe Illustrator file of our logo, as it were.
• frequencies.py A Python script.
• package.json and package-lock.json The configuration files for the Node environment.
• webpack.config.babel.js The configuration file for Webpack.

Not under version control:

• cache/
• dist/ Source of built and transpiled Node files.
• node_modules/ All of the Node dependencies.

Backend

Data was gathered by our team and put into various Google spreadsheets. Once the data reached an appropriate level of correctness, it was frozen and converted either into a CSV or a JSON file. The data is all publicly available.

Frontend

Thank heavens for the following:

• Leaflet, which powers the maps
• d3, which provides the charts and more complex visualizations
• Bootstrap, which allowed us to quickly develop a coherent visual style
• Jekyll, which provides the structural frame for the project
• GitHub, which hosts everything… well…
• Imgur, except the images, which are hosted on Imgur
• Google Maps Platform, which provides the static overhead images for the various visualizations site.
• Esri, who provide the basemap
• And everyone who’s written tutorials or answered questions or written API documentation!

This is all based on muziejus/leaflet-quickstart, which lets learners build much, much simpler maps online quickly.