TNA Python Flask Application

Quickstart

# Build and start the container
docker compose up -d

Add the static assets

During the first time install, your app/static/assets directory will be empty.

As you mount the project directory to the /app volume, the static assets from TNA Frontend installed inside the container will be "overwritten" by your empty directory.

To add back in the static assets, run:

docker compose exec app cp -r /app/node_modules/@nationalarchives/frontend/nationalarchives/assets /app/app/static

Run tests

docker compose exec app poetry run pytest --ds=config.settings.test

Format and lint code

docker compose exec app format

Environment variables

In addition to the base Docker image variables, this application has support for:

Variable	Purpose	Default
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE	The configuration to use	config.settings.production
ALLOWED_HOSTS	A comma-separated list of allowed hosts	none on production and staging, * on develop and test
USE_X_FORWARDED_HOST	Use the X-Forwarded-Host header in preference to Host	False
DEBUG	If true, allow debugging	False
COOKIE_DOMAIN	The domain to save cookie preferences against	.nationalarchives.gov.uk
COOKIE_PREFERENCES_URL	The URL for changing cookie preferences	/cookies/
COOKIE_PREFERENCES_KEY	The URL for changing cookie preferences	dontShowCookieNotice
DATABASE_NAME	The name of the Postgres database	none
DATABASE_USER	The username needed to access the Postgres database	none
DATABASE_PASSWORD	The password needed to access the Postgres database	none
DATABASE_HOST	The Postgres database host	none
DATABASE_PORT	The Postgres database port	5432
CSP_IMG_SRC	A comma separated list of CSP rules for img-src	'self'
CSP_SCRIPT_SRC	A comma separated list of CSP rules for script-src	'self'
CSP_STYLE_SRC	A comma separated list of CSP rules for style-src	'self'
CSP_FONT_SRC	A comma separated list of CSP rules for font-src	'self'
CSP_CONNECT_SRC	A comma separated list of CSP rules for connect-src	'self'
CSP_MEDIA_SRC	A comma separated list of CSP rules for media-src	'self'
CSP_WORKER_SRC	A comma separated list of CSP rules for worker-src	'self'
CSP_FRAME_SRC	A comma separated list of CSP rules for frame-src	'self'
CSP_REPORT_URL	The URL to report CSP violations to	none
GA4_ID	The Google Analytics 4 ID	none
MSSQL_HOST	The MSSQL server hostname (for data migration)	none
MSSQL_PORT	The MSSQL server port (for data migration)	1433
MSSQL_DATABASE	The MSSQL database name (for data migration)	none
MSSQL_USER	The MSSQL username (for data migration)	none
MSSQL_PASSWORD	The MSSQL password (for data migration)	none

Data Migration

This project includes a management command to migrate hospital records data from a legacy MSSQL database to PostgreSQL.

Prerequisites

1. Ensure you have access to the source MSSQL database
2. Configure the MSSQL connection parameters (see environment variables above)
3. Run Django migrations to set up the database schema:

docker compose exec app poetry run python manage.py migrate

Migration Steps

1. Set up environment variables

Add the MSSQL connection details to your environment or .env file:

MSSQL_HOST=your-mssql-server.example.com
MSSQL_DATABASE=HospitalRecords
MSSQL_USER=migration_user
MSSQL_PASSWORD=your_secure_password

2. Test the migration (dry run)

Before migrating data, test the connection and see what would be migrated:

docker compose exec app poetry run python manage.py migrate_data --dry-run

3. Run the migration

Migrate all data from MSSQL to PostgreSQL:

docker compose exec app poetry run python manage.py migrate_data

4. Clear and re-migrate (if needed)

If you need to start fresh and re-migrate all data:

docker compose exec app poetry run python manage.py migrate_data --clear

Warning: The --clear flag will permanently delete all existing hospital records data.

What Gets Migrated

The migration command handles:

• Lookup tables: Pre/Post 1948 Status and Type, Finding Aids, Counties, Authorities
• Repositories: Archive and repository information
• Hospitals: Hospital records with addresses, dates, and historical information
• Records Info: Folder records linking hospitals to repositories with date ranges

Migration Details

• Original IDs from MSSQL are preserved
• Timestamps (creation and update dates) are maintained
• Boolean flags are converted to many-to-many relationships
• Special values like "BLANK" are converted to NULL
• The migration runs in a specific order to maintain referential integrity

For complete documentation, see docs/data-migration.md.