Advent Translation

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About

This is a project, modeled after Advent of Code, providing 25 days of translation practice from Hebrew and Greek verses in the Bible for the Christmas/Advent season.

Technologies

Kept it simple to get it off the ground asap:

• React
• MongoDB
• Node.js
• Express

Hosted on Vercel. Security overview: SECURITY.md.

Getting Started

Production

In order to work on Vercel without refactoring on deployment, node server.js or npm run start launch both the Express server and the react client. To do this, package.json includes these:

"main": "server.js",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "react-scripts build",
    "start": "node server.js",
    "start-client": "react-scripts start",
    "start-server": "nodemon server.js"
  },

The build/ folder is not committed (gitignored). Run npm run build once before npm start when testing production mode locally. On Vercel, vercel-build runs react-scripts build so static assets exist beside server.js.

Development

Run both processes: the API and the React dev server.

1. node server.js (or npm run start-server) on port 3001 — serves /api/* and loads .env.
2. npm run start-client on port 3000 — CRA dev UI.

package.json includes "proxy": "http://localhost:3001" so browser calls to /api/translations/... from http://localhost:3000 are forwarded to Express. Without that proxy (or without the API running), you will see errors like Cannot POST /api/translations/feedback and saved verses will not load.

The proxy is a dev-only CRA feature; production (npm start → node server.js) serves the API and build/ from one server, so you do not need to remove the proxy field before deploying to Vercel.

Environment variables

Copy .env.example to .env for local development and fill in values.

Vercel: CRA reads REACT_APP_* only when vercel-build runs (react-scripts build). Add the same keys in Settings → Environment Variables for Production and Preview (and Development if you use it); after changing them, trigger a new deployment so the bundle is rebuilt.

1. Firebase Console → your project → Project settings (gear) → General → scroll to Your apps → pick the Web app → copy the firebaseConfig object fields.
2. Vercel → your project → Settings → Environment Variables.
3. Create one variable per name below; paste the matching value; enable Production, Preview, and (optional) Development for each.
4. Deployments → open the latest deployment → ⋯ → Redeploy (or push a new commit) after changing variables so the client bundle picks them up.

Required names (same as .env.example):

• DATABASE_URL — MongoDB connection string
• FIREBASE_ADMIN_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY — JSON string for the Firebase Admin SDK (server). Required on Vercel for authenticated API routes.
• REACT_APP_FIREBASE_API_KEY, REACT_APP_FIREBASE_AUTH_DOMAIN, REACT_APP_FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID, REACT_APP_FIREBASE_STORAGE_BUCKET, REACT_APP_FIREBASE_MESSAGING_SENDER_ID, REACT_APP_FIREBASE_APP_ID — from the Firebase web SDK config (see step 1).
• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY — required for Show Feedback on Your Translation (Claude). Optional ANTHROPIC_MODEL overrides the default (claude-sonnet-4-5).

Show NET Translation loads the NET Bible text from labs.bible.org (no API key). The legacy Parabible JSON endpoint used previously no longer returns verse data reliably.