zammad/doc/developer_manual/development_environment/how-to-set-up-a-development-environment.md

How to Set Up A Development Environment for Zammad

To be able to start developing some fancy features or to make Zammad even greater by fixing some issues, you'll need a development environment.

The following software/tools are needed for this.

Right now, we only have instructions for macOS users and Linux users using an dpkg/apt package manager based distribution. Users of Linux distributions with other package managers should adapt accordingly and are encouraged to contribute their info!

Dependencies for Zammad

The following tools are either required or highly recommended to start hacking Zammad.

For macOS:

brew install postgresql forego imlib2 openssl@1.1 direnv geckodriver chromedriver shellcheck

For Linux:

sudo apt install postgresql libimlib2 libimlib2-dev openssl direnv shellcheck

Unfortunately there is no forego package / binary available for Linux. We recommend to build it from source or alternatively use foreman.

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/gecko
curl -L -k -s https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver/releases/download/v0.32.0/geckodriver-v0.32.0-linux64.tar.gz -o - | sudo tar -xzf - -C /usr/local/lib/gecko/
sudo mv /usr/local/lib/gecko/geckodriver /usr/local/lib/gecko/geckodriver-0.32.0
sudo ln -sf /usr/local/lib/gecko/geckodriver-0.32.0 /usr/local/bin/geckodriver

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/chrome
curl -L -k -s https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/109.0.5414.74/chromedriver_linux64.zip -o - | zcat - | sudo tee /usr/local/lib/chrome/chromedriver-109.0.5414.74 >/dev/null
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/lib/chrome/chromedriver-109.0.5414.74
sudo ln -sf /usr/local/lib/chrome/chromedriver-109.0.5414.74 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver

Beware chromedriver version has to match your installed Chrome browser version.

RVM

To maintain different Ruby versions, we encourage the usage of RVM.

Attention: Please look up the Ruby version in the Gemfile and adapt it in the snippet.

For Linux and macOS:

curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --rails
rvm install ruby-3.2.4
rvm --default use 3.2.4

NVM, Node.js and Yarn

We're using NVM to manage all Node.js versions which are in use with Zammad.

Before executing the following snippet, please, make sure to look up the most recent version of NVM.

For Linux and macOS:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.5/install.sh | bash
nvm install node
npm install -g yarn

# Then, in the zammad directory, install required modules:
cd </path/to/zammad-develop>
yarn install

Linting tools

To ensure a well-readable and maintainable code base, we're using linting tools like:

• CoffeeLint
• Stylelint
• ESLint

For Linux and macOS:

npm install -g @coffeelint/cli
npm install -g stylelint

Elasticsearch

Proper operation of Zammad requires Elasticsearch.

For macOS:

brew tap elastic/tap
brew install elastic/tap/elasticsearch-full
elasticsearch-plugin install ingest-attachment
brew services start elastic/tap/elasticsearch-full

For Linux:

sudo apt install apt-transport-https
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/elasticsearch-keyring.gpg] https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/8.x/apt stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/elasticsearch.list
wget -qO - https://artifacts.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/elasticsearch-keyring.gpg
sudo apt update
sudo apt install elasticsearch
sudo /usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch-plugin install ingest-attachment
sudo systemctl restart elasticsearch.service

Redis

For macOS:

brew install redis
brew services start redis

For Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

sudo apt install lsb-release

curl -fsSL https://packages.redis.io/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/redis-archive-keyring.gpg

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/redis-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.redis.io/deb $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/redis.list

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install redis

Most major Linux distributions provide packages for Redis.

Ruby

All Ruby dependencies (including development dependencies) can be installed easily via

For Linux and macOS:

$ cd </path/to/zammad-develop/>
$ bundle install

Using HTTPS

Zammad uses the gem localhost to automatically generate self-signed certificates. This will place ~./localhost/localhost.crt and ~/.localhost/localhost.key files if needed. Then you can use one of the following commands to start the development server:

$ VITE_RUBY_HOST=0.0.0.0 VITE_RUBY_HTTPS=true RAILS_ENV=development forego start -f Procfile.dev-https
# or
$ yarn dev:https

The application will be listening on https://localhost:3000.

Self-signed Certificate Exemption

By default, the browser will not allow you to access an HTTPS site with a self-signed certificate. You will need to add an exemption by clicking on Advanced and choosing Proceed (unsafe) or Accept the Risk and Continue.

In Firefox, you will also have to add an exemption for WebSocket addresses, since they use a different port. Visit https://localhost:6042 and https://localhost:3036 to kick-start the process and then try to reload the app.

Signed Certificate Issued via Let's Encrypt

Sometimes, using self-signed certificates might not be enough, due to some platforms still not executing the app in a secure context. You can issue a proper signed certificate via Let's Encrypt service for free. As a pre-requisite, you will need an access to a DNS table of a custom domain and a local instance of Docker.

First, decide on a subdomain for your app, i.e. if you own example.com you may want to use localhost.example.com.

Next, run the following Docker container to start the DNS01 challenge process to verify you own the domain in question:

$ docker run --rm -it -v /path/to/certs:/etc/letsencrypt certbot/dns-cloudflare certonly --manual --preferred-challenges dns --email you@example.com --agree-tos --no-eff-email --key-type rsa -d localhost.example.com

Where:

• /path/to/certs is a local directory where your certificate files will be stored
• you@example.com is your email address
• localhost.example.com is the FQDN of your subdomain

When asked to deploy a DNS TXT record by certbot, open the DNS table of your domain. Add a TXT record with suggested name in form of _acme-challenge.localhost.example.com. and suggested random value. Save the record and wait some seconds for changes to propagate (this may depend on your DNS host).

Then, press Enter to continue the challenge process. If the certbot identifies your DNS record, it will automatically issue an appropriate certificate. Do not proceed if there was an error logged, resolve it first.

Next, backup your current self-signed certificate files (if they exist) and create symbolic links to the new ones:

$ cd ~/.localhost
$ mv localhost.crt localhost.crt.self-signed
$ mv localhost.key localhost.key.self-signed
$ ln -s /path/to/certs/live/localhost.example.com/cert.pem ~/.localhost/localhost.crt
$ ln -s /path/to/certs/live/localhost.example.com/privkey.pem ~/.localhost/localhost.key

You may need to adjust the paths depending on your subdomain name.

Next, add an A DNS record for your subdomain that points to your local IP. You can find out your local IP via ifconfig or a similar command.

For example, if your local IP is 192.168.0.39 and your subdomain is localhost.example.com, add an A DNS record with the name of localhost and point it to 192.168.0.39. This will allow you to access the app from within your local network only by using the proper FQDN: perfect for testing the app on mobile devices.

Finally, start the development server with yarn dev:https command. You can now access the app via https://localhost.example.com:3000 and it should show up as a trusted site.