Right then. Ever found yourself, perhaps, a tad tongue-tied? Or just thinking it might be useful to have a digital companion for those speech practice sessions? Well, Trippingly is my current endeavour in that very direction. It's an application intended to streamline the process of preparing and, in due course, analysing one's verbal deliveries.
This document serves as a rather straightforward guide to getting Trippingly up and running. Whether you're contemplating a contribution, simply curious to see how it ticks, or even just looking for a reference for future self, you should find what you need here.
Progress Report: What's Been Done So Far
We've managed to lay some of the groundwork, establishing the basics for Trippingly. Here's a brief rundown of the current capabilities:
User Management: Basic register and login functionality is in place, handled by Firebase Authentication. Standard stuff, really.
Speech Ingestion: One can now upload speech texts, currently as .txt files. These are then tucked away securely in a personal Firestore collection.
Content Listing: Once a speech has been successfully uploaded, it'll appear in a list on your dashboard. Quite convenient, one hopes.
Detail View: Clicking on a speech entry now takes you to a dedicated page, allowing for a full perusal of the content. No more awkward truncations.
List Synchronisation: The dashboard's speech list now updates itself automatically after a new upload. No manual refresh required, which is nice.
<b>The Technical Bits: A Brief Overview 🛠️</b>
For those interested in the underlying plumbing, Trippingly is built upon a fairly standard modern web stack:
Frontend:React: For building a dynamic and responsive user interface.
Vite: Our blazing-fast build tool for a snappy development experience.
React Router DOM: For seamless navigation between different pages in the app.
Backend:Firebase Cloud Functions: Our serverless backend, running Node.js. This is where our API endpoints live (e.g., handling uploads, fetching speeches).
Express.js: A minimalist web framework used within our Cloud Functions to organize our API routes.
Database:
Firebase Firestore: A flexible, scalable NoSQL cloud database that stores all our user data and speech content.
Authentication:
Firebase Authentication: Handles all user registration, login, and session management securely.
Getting Trippingly Up and Running (For You!)
Ready to get your hands dirty? Follow these steps to set up Trippingly on your local machine.
Prerequisites: The Essentials
Before we begin, make sure you have these installed:
- Node.js & npm: Download and install from
. We recommend an LTS version.nodejs.org - Firebase CLI: If you don't have it, install it globally:
Then, log in to Firebase:Bashnpm install -g firebase-tools
Bashfirebase login
Step 1: Clone the Repository
First things first, grab the code!
git clone https://github.com/your-username/Trippingly.git # Replace with your actual repo URL!
cd Trippingly
Step 2: Set Up Your Firebase Project
This is crucial! Trippingly needs a Firebase project to connect to.
- Create a New Firebase Project: Go to the
and click "Add project." Follow the steps to create a new project (e.g.,Firebase Console trippingly-dev
). - Initialize Firebase in Your Project:
Navigate to the root of your cloned repository:
Bash
firebase init
- When prompted, select:
Firestore
: To set up your database.Functions
: To set up your backend.
- Choose
Use an existing project
and select the Firebase project you just created. - For Firestore rules: Accept the default file name (
firestore.rules
). - For Functions: Accept the default language (
JavaScript
). Choosenpm
as the dependency manager. Do not install dependencies at this point (we'll do it manually for thebackend
folder).
- When prompted, select:
- Set Up Firebase Functions Directory:
Ensure your functions code is correctly linked. If
firebase init
didn't place them inbackend/functions
, you might need to adjust. For this project, assumebackend/functions
is where the functions code resides. - Create a Service Account Key (for Local Testing with Emulators)
- Go to your Firebase Console.
- Navigate to Project settings ⚙️ > Service accounts.
- Click "Generate new private key". This will download a JSON file (e.g.,
your-project-id-firebase-adminsdk-xxxxx-xxxxx.json
). - Rename this file to
serviceAccountKey.json
and place it in yourbackend/functions
directory. DO NOT commit this file to GitHub! AddserviceAccountKey.json
to your.gitignore
in thebackend/functions
folder.
Step 3: Configure Database & Security Rules (Firestore)
Your Firestore needs rules to allow your Cloud Functions to read/write, and your frontend (if directly accessing Firestore, which we're not for data fetching) would also need them.
-
Open
backend/firestore.rules
(orfirestore.rules
in your project root, depending on yourfirebase init
setup). -
Update your Firestore rules to allow authenticated users to manage their own
speeches
subcollection. Replace the contents with:Code snippetrules_version = '2'; service cloud.firestore { match /databases/{database}/documents { // Allow read/write for user documents, if you had them // match /users/{userId} { // allow read, write: if request.auth != null && request.auth.uid == userId; // } // Rules for speeches subcollection match /users/{userId}/speeches/{speechId} { allow read, write: if request.auth != null && request.auth.uid == userId; } } }
-
Deploy your Firestore rules:
Bashfirebase deploy --only firestore:rules
Step 4: Backend (Cloud Functions) Setup
Now, let's get your serverless backend ready.
- Install Dependencies: Navigate into your
backend/functions
directory and install Node.js dependencies.Bashcd ~/Documents/fun/git_repos/Trippingly/backend/functions npm install
- Deploy to Live: For your Cloud Functions to work live, you need to deploy them. This step is only needed if you want to test against live functions (and is often done once you're ready for production testing).
Bash
firebase deploy --only functions
- Note down the base URL provided in the output for your
api
function (e.g.,https://us-central1-your-project-id.cloudfunctions.net/api
). You'll need this for your frontend if you test live.
- Note down the base URL provided in the output for your
Step 5: Frontend Setup
Next, configure your React app to talk to your backend.
-
Install Dependencies: Navigate into your
frontend
directory and install npm dependencies.Bashcd ~/Documents/fun/git_repos/Trippingly/frontend npm install
-
Create
.env
file: In yourfrontend
directory, create a new file named.env
. This file stores environment variables that Vite (your build tool) will expose to your React app.~/Documents/fun/git_repos/Trippingly/frontend/.env
Code snippet# Example for local Firebase Emulators: VITE_CLOUD_FUNCTION_URL="http://localhost:5001/YOUR_FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID/us-central1/api" # Example for deployed Cloud Functions (uncomment and use when deploying to production): # VITE_CLOUD_FUNCTION_URL="https://us-central1-YOUR_FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID.cloudfunctions.net/api"
Replace
YOUR_FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID
with your actual Firebase project ID! (e.g.,trippingly-dev
). Keep thelocalhost
URL uncommented for local development.
Step 6: Running Trippingly Locally!
You're almost there! It's time to fire up both your frontend and backend.
- Start Firebase Emulators (Backend):
Open a new terminal window. Navigate to your
backend
directory: Wait for "All emulators ready!"Bashcd ~/Documents/fun/git_repos/Trippingly/backend firebase emulators:start
- Start Frontend Development Server:
Open another new terminal window. Navigate to your
frontend
directory: This will give you a local URL (usuallyBashcd ~/Documents/fun/git_repos/Trippingly/frontend npm run dev
http://localhost:5173
).
Now, open your browser and go to http://localhost:5173
! You should see the Trippingly app. You can register, log in, upload speeches, see them in the list, and click on them to view full details!
A Peek Behind the Curtains (High-Level Architecture)
Here's how everything dances together:
- Your React Frontend serves the user interface.
- When you upload a speech or fetch your speech list, the frontend makes API calls (using
fetch
) to your Cloud Functions (the Express.js app). - The Cloud Functions, after authenticating your request using your Firebase ID token, interact with Firestore to store or retrieve speech data.
- All user accounts are managed by Firebase Authentication.
What's Next for Trippingly?
Our journey is just beginning! Future features include:
- Unit & Integration Testing: Building a robust test suite to ensure everything stays bug-free. (You're looking into this next!)
- Speech Playback: Text-to-speech for practicing your delivery.
- Speech Analysis: Providing insights on pace, filler words, and more!
- Editing & Deleting Speeches: Managing your content.
Get Involved!
Feel free to explore the codebase, open issues, suggest new features, or even contribute. Trippingly is a passion project, and we're excited to see where it goes!
How does that look? It covers the main setup points in a step-by-step manner. Let me know if you'd like any additions or tweaks!