accolli.it

A web app for generating "Carte di Accollo" — humorous certificates that formally commit someone to a task. Built with Flask, MongoDB, and Pillow.

Features

• Create and share cards that certify a commitment to do something
• User accounts with personal dashboards
• Public dashboard links so contacts can create cards for you
• Card status tracking (open / in progress / done)
• QR code on every card linking back to the shareable page
• Color-coded cards and a lightweight text-only mode

Stack

• Backend: Python 3 / Flask
• Database: MongoDB
• Image generation: Pillow + qrcode
• Frontend: Bootstrap 5, jQuery

Running locally

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/lucky-sideburn/cartediaccollo.git
cd cartediaccollo

2. Configure environment variables

Copy the example and edit it:

cp .env.example .env

Variable	Required	Description
BASE_URL	yes	Public base URL, e.g. http://localhost:5000
MONGO_HOST	yes	MongoDB hostname (use mongodb with Docker Compose)
FLASK_SECRET_KEY	yes	Secret key for Flask sessions — use a long random string in production
ACCOLLI_MAIL_USER	no	Gmail address for email notifications
ACCOLLI_MAIL_PASSWORD	no	Gmail app password for email notifications

3. Start with Docker Compose

docker compose up -d

The app is available at http://localhost:5000.

Generated card images are stored in ./cards/ and mounted into the container.

4. Stop

docker compose down

Running in development (without Docker)

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+
• MongoDB running on localhost:27017

Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

Set environment variables and start

export BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000
export MONGO_HOST=localhost
export FLASK_SECRET_KEY=dev_secret_key

# Optional — leave unset to disable email notifications
# export ACCOLLI_MAIL_USER=your_gmail@gmail.com
# export ACCOLLI_MAIL_PASSWORD=your_app_password

python app.py

Alternatively, use the helper script:

./start_dev.sh

Docker image

A pre-built image is available on Docker Hub:

docker pull docker.io/luckysideburn/cartediaccollo:latest

Run it standalone (requires an external MongoDB):

docker run -p 5000:5000 \
  -e MONGO_HOST=<mongodb_host> \
  -e BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000 \
  -e FLASK_SECRET_KEY=change_me \
  -v $PWD/cards:/usr/src/app/static/cards \
  docker.io/luckysideburn/cartediaccollo:latest

MongoDB collections

The app uses the cartediaccollo database with three collections:

Collection	Purpose
users	User accounts (name + bcrypt password hash)
dashboards	Named dashboards linked to a user
carte	Card documents (uuid, token, status, task, sender, …)

Project structure

app.py                  # Flask application
requirements.txt        # Python dependencies
Dockerfile              # Container build
docker-compose.yml      # Multi-service local setup
start_dev.sh            # Dev startup helper
static/                 # Static assets (Bootstrap, JS, fonts, card images)
templates/
  index.html            # Home page / card creation form
  dashboard_accolli.html  # User dashboard
  show.html             # Card detail page
  access_denied.html    # Shown on invalid token
  includes/             # Shared partials (nav, head, modals, …)