CMCEN / RCMCE

CMCEN is the Canadian Military Communications and Electronics Network web application. It provides public bilingual content, events, retirement and Last Post notices, account management, submissions, moderation, media management, analytics, audit logging, and an administrator work zone.

The application is a single Express service. Browser assets are served directly from server/public/, application records are stored in MongoDB, and uploaded media is stored in MinIO or another S3-compatible object store.

Requirements

• Node.js 24.x (run nvm install once, then nvm use, from the repository root)
• npm 10 or newer
• MongoDB 7 or newer, or a compatible managed MongoDB service
• MinIO, or another S3-compatible object store with an existing writable bucket
• Docker, only when building or running the container image
• An SMTP relay, only when email verification and password-reset delivery are required

Repository Layout

Path	Purpose
server/server.js	Express entrypoint
server/public/	Static HTML, CSS, and browser JavaScript
server/routes/	API route modules
server/models/	Mongoose models
server/services/	Shared application services
server/scripts/migration/	Current-site WordPress migration tools
api/schema/openapi.yaml	OpenAPI schema
docs/	Developer and operational documentation

The authoritative Node manifest and lockfile are in server/. Run npm commands from that directory.

Local Setup

1. Install dependencies:

   nvm install
   nvm use
   cd server
   npm ci
   

2. Create the local environment file from the repository root:

   cp .env.example server/.env
   

3. Start MongoDB and create or choose a database. The example configuration uses mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/cmcen.

4. Start MinIO and create the bucket named by MINIO_BUCKET_NAME. The configured access key must be able to read, write, list, and delete objects in that bucket. Configure the bucket or CDN for public reads when browser-facing media URLs should be public.

5. Set a strong JWT_SECRET, MinIO credentials, and any environment-specific passkey settings in server/.env.

6. Start the application:

   npm run start:dev
   

   The default URL is http://localhost:3000.

Environment

The complete development template is .env.example. Important settings include:

Variable	Required	Purpose
MONGO_URI	Yes	MongoDB connection string
JWT_SECRET	Yes	Signs access, refresh, and temporary authentication tokens
PORT	No	HTTP port; defaults to 3000
APP_BASE_URL	Recommended	Absolute application URL used in generated links
MINIO_ENDPOINT	Yes	Internal S3-compatible endpoint
MINIO_ACCESS_KEY	Yes	Object-storage access key
MINIO_SECRET_KEY	Yes	Object-storage secret key
MINIO_BUCKET_NAME	Yes	Existing media bucket
MINIO_PUBLIC_ENDPOINT	Recommended	Browser-accessible object-storage origin; the bucket is appended automatically
CDN_PUBLIC_BASE_URL	No	Preferred full public media/CDN base URL, including any bucket path
RP_ID	Production MFA	WebAuthn relying-party domain
RP_ORIGIN	Production MFA	Exact WebAuthn application origin
CONFIG_TOKEN	Site config	Additional token for protected site-config operations
SMTP_HOST	Email	SMTP relay host
SMTP_PORT	Email	SMTP relay port
MAIL_FROM	Email	Sender address
ENABLE_API_DOCS	No	Set to true only in trusted development environments

Do not commit server/.env or real credentials.

Commands

Run these from server/:

npm start          # production-style local start
npm run start:dev  # restart automatically when source files change
npm run check      # runtime, syntax, and lint checks across all JavaScript
npm run lint       # lint all JavaScript
npm run format:check # report formatting differences without changing files
npm run format     # apply formatting deliberately
npm test           # syntax checks plus Mongo-backed API integration tests
npm run test:integration       # integration tests only
npm run test:integration:watch # rerun integration tests while editing

The integration suite starts a temporary MongoDB instance, uses Supertest to exercise the Express application without opening an HTTP port, and deletes the temporary database after the run. See docs/TESTING.md for coverage, conventions, and remaining test layers.

Docker

Build from the repository root. The image installs the locked server dependencies and does not copy an environment file into the image.

docker build -t cmcen:local .
docker run --rm --name cmcen \
  --env-file server/.env \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  cmcen:local

MongoDB and MinIO must be reachable from inside the container. When they run on the host, use host-accessible endpoints rather than 127.0.0.1 in the container environment. The image health check calls GET /api/data every 30 seconds.

Migration Tools

The retained migration tool imports retirement messages, Last Post notices, media, metadata, and available WordPress comments from the current public site. It is dry-run by default:

node server/scripts/migration/migrate-current-site-content.js --limit=3
node server/scripts/migration/migrate-current-site-content.js --apply

Read docs/MIGRATION INFO.md before using --apply.

Documentation

• API routes
• OpenAPI schema
• Migration guide
• Notifications
• Page builder
• Role editor
• Testing
• Recent changelog

When an endpoint changes, update both docs/API ROUTES.md and api/schema/openapi.yaml in the same change.