Councilmatic Starter Template

This repo provides starter code and documentation for new Councilmatic instances, incorporating modern Django development patterns and tooling.

About Councilmatic

The councilmatic family is a set of web apps for keeping tabs on city representatives and their legislative activity.

Councilmatic started as a Code for America project by Mjumbe Poe, who designed the earliest version of a Councilmatic site – Councilmatic Philadelphia. DataMade then implemented Councilmatic in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

This template uses django-councilmatic – a Django app with base functionality common across all cities.

Features

• Modern Django 4.2+ with updated patterns and security
• Docker-based development environment
• Node.js + Webpack for frontend asset building
• Bootstrap 5 with customizable SCSS
• PostgreSQL + PostGIS for geospatial data
• Elasticserch for full-text search
• Accessibility features built-in

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose

1. Create Your Instance

# Build cookiecutter container 
docker build github.com/datamade/councilmatic-starter-template#master -t cookiecutter:latest

# Generate a new project
docker run -it \
	--mount type=bind,source=$(pwd),target=/cookiecutter \
	cookiecutter gh:datamade/councilmatic-starter-template

2. Get Customizing!

Consult the README in your new project directory for next steps.