The Storehouse

A local micro-economy + snack bar web app for a church youth group. Runs on a Windows PC and is reachable from phones on the same LAN.

Requirements

Development only:

• Node.js (LTS)
• A local network (Wi-Fi or Ethernet)

Setup

1. Install Node.js (LTS).
2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Create a .env file:

cp .env.example .env

4. Edit .env with your admin passcode and (optional) database path.

Windows install (production)

For a Windows 11 install that does not require Git/Node/npm/Python, use the ZIP artifact produced by CI. The easiest option is the Latest GitHub Release (tag latest). See the step-by-step guide in deploy/windows/README-WINDOWS.md.

Build & release (Windows ZIP)

The only supported Windows packaging flow is the GitHub Actions workflow in .github/workflows/windows-zip.yml.

• On push to main, it builds Storehouse-win-x64.zip as a workflow artifact.
• On push to main, it also updates the Latest GitHub Release (tag latest) with the ZIP.
• On tags like v1.2.3, it also publishes a GitHub Release with the ZIP.

Run

npm start

For development with auto-reload:

npm run dev

Interactive terminal experience

When you start the server in a real terminal (PowerShell, Windows Terminal, macOS/Linux shells), The Storehouse now shows a small dashboard and accepts a few quick keys:

• o or Enter — open the web app in your default browser (uses the LAN URL when available).
• l — print the LAN URL for sharing with phones/tablets on Wi-Fi.
• r — refresh the info panel.
• h or ? — show in-terminal help.
• q or Ctrl+C — quit gracefully.

Notes:

• Falls back to plain text when colors/TTY features are unavailable (e.g., background service).
• Disable the dashboard with STOREHOUSE_NO_TUI=1. Disable colors with NO_COLOR=1 or STOREHOUSE_NO_COLOR=1.

Access from phones/tablets on the same LAN

1. Find the PC’s local IP address:
   • Windows: open Command Prompt and run ipconfig.
   • Look for the IPv4 address (example: 192.168.1.25).
2. On the phone/tablet, open:

http://<PC-IP>:3040

If you changed PORT in .env or config.json, use that port instead. The server binds to HOST=0.0.0.0 by default so phones can reach it on the LAN.

Database location (outside repo)

The SQLite database path is configurable with DATABASE_PATH.

• Default: ./data/storehouse.sqlite
• Recommended: set DATABASE_PATH to a folder outside the repo so you can safely publish the code.

Example:

DATABASE_PATH=C:\storehouse-data\storehouse.sqlite

Backups

Copy the SQLite file defined by DATABASE_PATH to a safe location. That file contains all data.

Security note

This app is for internal LAN use only. Do not expose it to the public internet.

Seed demo data

To add 10 demo students and sample items:

npm run seed