[FEATURE] Make easier for new contributors to run the project

[clarissalimab]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. A few past contributors had problems running the project. The project would benefit from having a better initial setup for newcomers.

Describe the solution you'd like The smoother setup possible would be awesome! The easier the setup, the better for newcomers sticking to us or having more sporadic contributions.

Here are a few ideas I have for that:

• [ ] Improve our README;
• [ ] Create a seeds task to have initial data on the db for development;
• [ ] Dockerize the project for development.

Some thoughts about those items:

• Improve our README:

We did that a while ago. However, I think there's still room for improvement in terms of the placement of the information, how much information is provided, and, finally, how the information is being provided. Ideally, people should read the entire README, but in reality, most of us just skim pieces of information and check the README whenever additional help is needed. Having a better organization would help for a better experience.

• Create a seeds task to have initial data on the db for development:

It's already hard to create data on the development environment for people who are experienced with Houdini, and it's even harder for people who are unfamiliar. New contributors want to have a look at how the application looks like, how it works, and poke around to have a good understanding, but it's very hard to do that without some example data.

I know about the counterpoint of having to maintain that script, but in my opinion, the benefit overcomes that downside. Also, maintaining that script gives the benefit of making it easier and/ or faster to run smoke tests.

• Dockerize the project for development:

It's faster to run the entire project using docker. We had this kind of setup in the past that we removed because it was not being used (or maintained, I think). Having that added back to the project also would be helpful in case someone wants to deploy an instance of Houdini using Docker.

The two latter scenarios would require that we added stages to the CI workflows to make sure they are working well.

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Do you have any thoughts on those, @wwahammy?

[wwahammy]

I think they all seem reasonable @clarissalimab.

My only hesitation is with Docker. I found it buggy but at the same time I don't know it very well. If you feel comfortable maintaining it, I'm fine with it. I just don't think I'd be able to maintain it.

[clarissalimab]

I'm fine with it. If it comes to a point where it becomes too draining or hard to maintain and the gain is not big enough, we can just drop it!