HopHub

<img src="app/assets/images/hophub.png" />

HopHub is a ride sharing platform that aims to simplify common commutes to and from events and thereby make the world a little bit better. No matter if you fill up your car, share a train ticket, arrive by bus, plan a bike tour or walk.

This project is implemented using Ruby on Rails.

The reference implementation is available at hophub.xyz but you can also host your own instance as long as you comply with the AGPL-3.0 License.

How it works

Create an event

You create a new event and share the link with potential attendees. Only people with the link can see the event.

Add an offer

People that want to propose a ride can now add an offer. This works for free seats in a car as well for a common train ride, a bus trip, a bike tour or a walk. No login is required, only an email address. As soon as the email address is confirmed, the offer is shown on the website so others can see it.

Get in touch

When two parties match, they can get in touch with each other using a form on the website. The email address of the person reaching out is used as the Reply-To address, so the recipient can reply directly for further coordination.

Leave no traces

Offers and events that are no longer valid are automatically and permanently removed from the database.

Features

This project takes care to be as data protection friendly as possible. It only stores the data that is necessary to provide the service and does not use 3rd party cookies. It also does not use any tracking or analytics tools.

• Users can create events
• Users can see events if they are provided with the link
• Users can add offers to events
• Users can see the offers of an event
• Users can contact other users through the platform via email
• "Clean driver" feature: Offers by car can be set to "driver needed"
• Events and offers are automatically deleted after they have passed
• Geonames is used to resolve locations to latitude and longitude
• Admins can see all users, events and offers
• Admins can delete users, events and offers
• Altcha is integrated as captcha for all forms
• Localization

Installation

Requirements

• Ruby 3.3
• Rails 7

Setup

1. Clone the repository

2. Install the dependencies

bundle config set --local path 'vendor/gems'
bundle install

3. Create the database

bundle exec rails db:create
bundle exec rails db:migrate

4. Start the server

bundle exec rails server

Configuration

The following table lists all environment variables that are used by the application. You can set them in some env file magic, export them in your shell or use the Cuberfile to deploy on k8s.

| Environment variable | Description | |-----------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | SECRET_KEY_BASE | A secret string for the Rails application. Generate it with rails secret | | ALTCHA_HMAC_KEY | A secret string for the Altcha HMAC algorithm. Generate it with rails secret | | GEONAMES_USERNAME | A Geonames username. Obtain one from https://www.geonames.org/login | | HOPHUB_BASE_URL | The base URL for the Rails installation | | HOPHUB_DATABASE_USERNAME | The username for the SQL database | | HOPHUB_DATABASE_PASSWORD | The passwort for the SQL database | | HOPHUB_DATABASE_HOST | The SQL database host name | | HOPHUB_DATABASE_PORT | The SQL database host port | | HOPHUB_DATABASE_NAME | The name of the SQL database | | HOPHUB_MAIL_SERVER | The host name of the SMTP server | | HOPHUB_MAIL_PORT | The port of the SMTP service | | HOPHUB_MAIL_FROM | The email address to be used as From address in outgoing emails | | HOPHUB_MAIL_DOMAIN | The domain to be used in outgoing emails | | HOPHUB_MAIL_USERNAME | If your mail server requires authentication, set the username in this setting | | HOPHUB_MAIL_PASSWORD | If your mail server requires authentication, set the password in this setting | | HOPHUB_SINGLE_EVENT_ID | Optional ID of a single event that is always shown on the landing page | | HOPHUB_REDIS_CACHE | Optional Redis instance for caching | | EXCEPTION_NOTIFIER_SENDER | Optional sender for notification emails | | EXCEPTION_NOTIFIER_RECIPIENT | Optional addresses of recipients for exception notification emails | | PLAUSIBLE_DOMAIN | The domain of the Plausible instance for the privacy policy | | PLAUSIBLE_SRC | The source of the JavaScript script for Plausible |

HTTP routes

Please make sure to protect the /admin path with through something like HTTP basic auth or other methods in your deployed HTTP server. The application itself does not manage user accounts and roles, and without external protection all data is public.

Similarily, the the /metrics and /up paths are probably also something you want to protect.

Run tests

bundle exec rails test

Geonames

The project uses the Geonames API to resolve locations to latitude and longitude. You need to create a Geonames account and set the GEONAMES_USERNAME environment variable to your username. The Geonames API is called with the location name and the Geonames username. The communication with the Geonames API is done through the Rails backend, hence the IP address of the client is not sent to the Geonames API. This means that the Geonames API does not track the IP address of the client, which is a privacy-friendly approach.

Caching

The project uses the Rails cache to store the results of expensive operations, such as geocoding locations. The cache can be configured with the HOPHUB_REDIS_CACHE environment variable, which should point to a Redis instance. If this variable is not set, the cache is not used.

Micro CMS

The project features a very minimalistic content management system for static text rendering with Markdown. These texts are stored in a model called 'Content' and are rendered by the ContentsController. The content is stored in the database and can most easily be edited through the admin interface. Each entry has a unique key that is used to identify the content in the view and a locale attribute that is used to determine the language of the content. A fallback flag can be set to determine if the content should be used as a fallback for other languages.

The following keys are used in the project:

• tos: Terms of Service
• privacy: Data privacy policy
• imprint: Imprint
• instance-info: Information about the instance, displayed on the landing page

Single event deployment

If you want to deploy the project with a single event that is always shown on the landing page, you can set the HOPHUB_SINGLE_EVENT_ID environment variable to the ID of the event. Request to the landing page will then be redirected to the event page of the event with the given ID.

Note that the creation of events is not possible in this mode. The event with the given ID must be created manually through the admin interface or the Rails console.

Plausible analytics

The project features an integration with Plausible for privacy-friendly analytics. Plausible is a lightweight and open-source web analytics tool that doesn’t use cookies and is fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA and PECR. The application scaffold includes the Plausible JavaScript script with the domain and source that are set in the PLAUSIBLE_DOMAIN and PLAUSIBLE_SRC environment variables. If these variables are not set, the Plausible script is not included in the application layout.

Cleanup task

The project features a cleanup task that has to be run periodically to remove old events and offers from the database. The task is defined in the lib/tasks/cleanup.rake file and can be executed with the following command:

bundle exec rails hophub:cleanup

The Kubernetes deployment will add a cronjob that runs this task every hour.

Data privacy

If you host the project yourself you should be aware of the data privacy implications and legal requirements in your jurisdiction.

Consider the following aspects when crafting the privacy policy for your instance:

• The project does not use any cookies except for the session cookie that is required for the functionality of the website.
• The project does not use any tracking or analytics tools.
• For events, the following data is stored in the database:
  • The title of the event
  • The ID of the event, derived from the title
  • The description of the event
  • The end date and time of the event
  • The email address of the creator of the event
• Events are automatically deleted from the database after they have passed
• Events can be deleted manually by their creators
• For offers, the following data is stored in the database:
  • The ID of the offer
  • The