Electronic building permit application for Swiss cantons.

Table of Contents

• Overview
  • Folder structure
  • Available modules
• Requirements
• Development
  • Basic setup
  • Predefined credentials
  • Debugging
  • Working locally with ember
    • Help, ember-cli is not rebuilding after changes!
    • pnpm workspaces
  • Django profiling
  • Switching tenant
    • Working locally with ember
    • Working with docker only
  • Visual Studio Code
  • GraphQL
  • GWR API
  • Customize API
  • Sending email
• Module and canton specifics
  • Modules
    • Construction monitoring
      • General
      • Technical aspects
  • Custom authorization (Kt. SO)
• License

Overview

This repository contains the source code for the web applications used to handle electronic building permits and comparable processes in the Swiss cantons of Berne, Grisons, Schwyz, Solothurn and Uri.

The following image shows a high-level overview of the architecture:

• The application is composed of various Docker containers, which are shown in light blue in the architecture overview.
• The frontend consists of two Ember.js apps, one for applicants submitting building permit applications ("portal"), and another used by members of the public authorities ("internal area"). The two apps can share code through the Ember Addon ember-ebau-core.
• The backend is based on Python/Django and exposes a GraphQL API for forms and workflows based on Caluma and set of domain-specific REST endpoints (Django REST Framework).
• PostgreSQL is used as database.

Folder structure

├── compose                # docker-compose files
├── db                     # database Dockerfile and utils
├── django                 # backend code, containing both API and Caluma
├── document-merge-service # document generation templates and config
├── ember-caluma-portal    # Caluma-based portal
├── ember-camac-ng         # Ember.js app optimized for embedding in other applications
├── ember-ebau             # Ember.js based application for internal area
├── ember-ebau-core        # Ember.js addon for code sharing between multiple Ember.js apps
├── keycloak               # Keycloak configuration for local development
├── proxy                  # Nginx configuration for local development
└── tools                  # miscellaneous utilities

Available modules

Due to ongoing modernization work, some Frontend modules are not yet integrated in ember-ebau, but instead are still part of ember-camac-ng. Few Frontend modules are not part of this repository yet at all. The following table lists the most important modules in the "internal" part of the application and their respective completeness / integration state (in the demo configuration).

Module	Description	Backend	Frontend	Part of ember-ebau
Main Nav (resource)
Dossier list	Show a list of dossiers	✔️	✔️	✔️
Task list	Show a list of tasks	✔️	✔️	✔️
Templates	Manage document templates (docx)	✔️	✔️	✔️
Organization / Permissions	Manage own organization and permissions	✔️	✔️	✔️
Static content	Static content, markdown editor	✔️	✔️	✔️
Text components	Manage snippets for usage in text fields	✔️	⏳	⏳
Subnav (instance resource)
Tasks	View and manage tasks	✔️	✔️	✔️
Form	View and edit main form	✔️	✔️	✔️
Distribution	Get feedback from other organizations	✔️	✔️	✔️
Alexandria	Document management	✔️	✔️	✔️
Template	Generate document from template	✔️	✔️	✔️
Journal	Collaborative notebook	✔️	✔️	✔️
History	Shows milestones and historical data	✔️	✔️	✔️
Publication	Manage publication in newspaper	✔️	✔️	✔️
Objections	Manage objections	✔️	✔️	✔️
Responsible	Assign responsible users	✔️	✔️	✔️
Claims	Ask applicant for additional info	✔️	✔️	✔️
Rejection	Reject instance	✔️	✔️	✔️
Billing	Manage billing entries	✔️	✔️	✔️
Audit	Perform structured audit	✔️	✔️	⏳
Audit-Log	Shows form changes	✔️	⏳	⏳

Requirements

The preferred development environment is based on Docker.

• Docker >= 20.04
• Docker-Compose

For local development:

Python:

• python 3.8
• pyenv/virtualenv

Ember:

• current LTS of Node.js
• pnpm

Development

Basic setup

Docker can be used to get eBau up and running quickly. The following script guides you through the setup process. We recommend using the kt_gr or kt_so config for now, since other cantons still rely on legacy components for the internal area that are not part of this repository.

make start-dev-env

In case you want to manually modify /etc/hosts following domains need to point to 127.0.0.1 (localhost):

ebau-portal.local ebau.local ebau-keycloak.local ember-ebau.local ebau-rest-portal.local

For automatic checks during commit (formatting, linting) you can setup a git hook with the following commands:

pip install pre-commit
pre-commit install

After, you should be able to use to the following services:

• ember-ebau.local - new main application used for "internal" users
• ebau-portal.local - public-facing portal (Caluma-based, default choice for new projects, used in Kt. BE, UR)
• ebau.local/django/admin/ - Django admin interface
• ebau-keycloak.local/auth - IAM solution
• ember-ebau.local/mailhog/ - Mailhog UI
• ember-ebau.local/minio/ui/ - MinIO Admin UI

Predefined credentials

The following administrator accounts are present in Keycloak or the DB, respectively:

Application	Role	Username	Password	Notes
demo	Admin	user	user
kt_schwyz	Admin	admin	admin
	Publikation	adsy	adsy
kt_uri	Admin	admin	admin
	PortalUser	portal	portal
kt_bern	Admin	user	user
kt_gr	Admin	admin@example.com	admin
kt_so	Admin	admin	admin

Debugging

For debugging inside container shell, use this:

make debug-django

Working locally with ember

docker-compose up -d --build db django
cd {ember|ember-camac-ng|ember-caluma-portal|ember-ebau} # Enter ember from the top level of the repo
pnpm install # Install dependencies
pnpm test # Run tests
pnpm start-proxy # Run dev server with proxy to django api

Help, ember-cli is not rebuilding after changes!

Since this is a large project with lots of files, the default setup of ember will possibly fail to rebuild properly as it can't watch all of those files.

In order to fix that, install watchman as file watcher and adjust the inotify settings:

echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=1000000 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf # adjust settings
sudo sysctl -p # re-read config

Make sure that the latter command only returns one value, otherwise the settings is duplicated and needs to be cleaned up.

pnpm workspaces

Note however that the apps ember-caluma-portal, ember-camac-ng, ember-ebau and the addon ember-ebau-core share the same node modules tree through a pnpm workspace.

The common pnpm workspace allows us to share code (e.g. addons) between the apps which are part of this repo (instead of following the typical approach of publishing releases on npm). This also means that

• (+) we save some disk space because of the avoided duplication in the node_modules directory
• (-) the docker build processes of the two frontend containers have to run in the context of the root of the repo, in order to access the shared dependencies during build time
• (-) the ember versions ember-caluma-portal and ember-camac-ng need to be kept in sync

Django profiling

To enable django-silk for profiling, simply add DJANGO_ENABLE_SILK=True to your django/.env file. Then restart the django container and browse to http://ebau.local/api/silk/.

Switching tenant

To switch from the demo config to kt_bern, one has to make sure that the frontend apps take up the right environment variables.

Working locally with ember

1. Stop the frontend servers started with pnpm start-proxy
2. Run make kt_bern
3. Run docker-compose up -d && make loadconfig
4. Start using command from step 1

Working with docker only

1. Run docker-compose down
2. Run make kt_bern
3. Run docker-compose build
4. Run docker-compose up -d

Visual Studio Code

The remote debugger settings for VS Code are committed to the repository.

• The configuration file is located at .vscode/launch.json.
• The keyboard shortcut to launch the debugger is F5.
• Information on VS Code debugging

To enable debugging in the django container the ptvsd server must be started. Since this debug server collides with other setups (PyCharm, PyDev) it will only be started if the env var ENABLE_PTVSD_DEBUGGER is set to True in django/.env.

GraphQL

In order to talk to the /graphql endpoint with authentication, you can install a GraphQL Tool (much like Postman). Tools you might consider here:

• Insomnia
• Altair GraphQL client

GWR API

The GWR module is developed in two separate repositories:

• Frontend: inosca/ember-ebau-gwr
• Backend: inosca/ebau-gwr

If you use the GWR module, you need to generate a Fernet key according to the documentation of the gwr backend.

You need to set this key in each environment/server in your env file. Generate a separate key for each environment, since this is used to store / read the gwr user passwords.

Customize API

The API should be designed in a way, that allows it to be used by any eBau project. For needed customization, the following rules apply:

• each permission may be mapped to a specific role in the specific project. In case a role may have different set of permissions than already available, introduce a new one and adjust the different views accordingly.
• for features which may not be covered by permissions, introduce feature flags.

For different feature flags and permissions, see APPLICATIONS in settings.py.

Sending email

In development mode, the application is configured to send all email to a Mailhog instance, so unless you specify something else, no email will be sent out from the development environment.

You can access the Mailhog via http://ebau.local/mailhog/ . Any email sent out will be instantly visible there.

Module and canton specifics

Section to collect information on modules and cantons. This section is intended to facilitate know-how transfer, vacation handovers and debugging support cases.

Modules

Construction monitoring

General

Module used in Kt. SZ and Kt. UR (soon-ish), which accompanies the construction process after the decision. The municipality (up to now only cases are covered where the lead authority is the municipality) and the applicant interact through a series of work-items with documents.

There are construction stages ("Bauetappen"), which consist of dynamically selectable construction steps. Construction steps are a series of work-items, which usually follow the pattern of starting with a work-item addressed to the applicant, followed by one or more work-items addressed to the municipality. The applicant confirms, that they have adhered to the defined regulations, and the muncipality verifies it. The final work-item allows the muncipality to decide whether to continue the process or re-iterate to the beginning of the construction step.

Technical aspects

The module is heavily defined by the configured workflow. Which construction steps and therefore which work-items are performed is handled through dynamic tasks. Construction step configuration (such as which task belongs to which construction step) is configured in the meta of tasks belonging to a construction step. Construction steps are essentially a grouping of tasks, there is no model representing them.

Construction stages are a multiple instance work-item with a child-case. The child-case contains the construction step work-items. The first construction stage is created when initializing the construction monitoring process. After that, a new construction stage can be initialized by a create work-item mutation on the existing work-item (in the status ready). BEWARE: To ensure that a new construction stage can always be created as long as the construction monitoring process isn't completed, the construction stage work items remain ready, while the construction stage child case has already been completed.

The core logic is contained mainly in the construction monitoring workflow and form configuration of the canton, the caluma events for the construction monitoring, module settings, some custom visibility and permission logic.

Custom authorization (Kt. SO)

In the canton of Solothurn we use a custom authorization mechanism for the eBau Portal. The eBau portal can only be used with a login from my.so.ch, their eGov portal software. Since they do not offer OIDC authorization, we had to implement a custom solution using Keycloak's token exchange and direct naked impersonation features.

The authorization is designed to retreive an encrypted and signed JWT token which is then converted to a regular OIDC JWT token by Keycloak:

sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    participant F as eBau Portal
    participant M as eGov Portal
    participant B as eBau API
    participant K as Keycloak
    F->>+M: Redirect to prestation
    Note right of M: Encrypted and signed JWT token with user data
    M->>-F: Redirect to login with eGov token
    F->>+B: Send token (POST to /api/v1/auth/token-exchange)
    B-->>B: Decrypt and verify eGov token, extract user data from token
    B-->>+K: Create or update user
    K-->>B: Return user
    B-->>K: Token exchange with direct naked impersonation
    K-->>-B: Return token for user
    B->>-F: Return token

Loading

To enable the feature, the following configuration must be done:

By default Keycloak is already properly configured to support this authorization mechanism. In order to configure another environment, please refer to the documentation

# .env
ENABLE_TOKEN_EXCHANGE=true

This will enable the feature with a dummy eGov portal hosted on our NGINX proxy. In order to test with the eGov portal test environment we need to set some more environment variables (the censored values can be found in Vault):

# .env
EGOV_PORTAL_URL=****
EGOV_PRESTATION_PATH=****

# django/.env
TOKEN_EXCHANGE_JWT_ISSUER=****
TOKEN_EXCHANGE_JWT_SECRET=****
TOKEN_EXCHANGE_JWE_SECRET=****

License

This project is licensed under the EUPL-1.2-or-later. See LICENSE for details.