Project Overview

This project involves building a web application that periodically generates random temperatures within a specified range and provides a graphical visualization through a web interface. The application is split into two main components: a FastAPI backend service to generate and serve temperature data, and a Django frontend application to display the data. The deployment process utilizes Docker containers, managed via GitHub Actions for CI/CD, and a Nginx reverse proxy to route traffic efficiently on a remote virtual server.

System Architecture

1. Backend Service (FastAPI)
   • Purpose: Handles the generation and serving of random temperature data via RESTful APIs.
   • Endpoints:
     • /temperature: Generates and returns a random temperature.
2. Frontend Application (Django)
   • Purpose: Provides a user-friendly web interface to display temperatures in a visual format (graphs or charts).

Infrastructure

• Containerization: Docker
• Web Server: Nginx used as a reverse proxy to enhance security and load balancing.
• Server: Remote virtual server

Development Environment

• Languages: Python
• Frameworks: FastAPI, Django
• Database: Optional (SQLite for simplicity or a scalable choice like PostgreSQL if needed)

Deployment Strategy

• CI/CD Tool: GitHub Actions
• Deployment Process:
  1. Code Commit: Developers push changes to the repository.
  2. CI Pipeline:
     • Run automated tests to verify functionality.
     • Build Docker images for both FastAPI and Django applications.
  3. CD Pipeline:
     • SSH into the remote server.
     • Pull the latest Docker images.
     • Use Docker Compose to orchestrate the deployment of both services along with Nginx.

CI/CD Pipeline Configuration

• GitHub Actions Workflows:
  • Build Docker images.
  • Push images to a Docker registry.
  • Deploy images to the production server via SSH commands.
  • Restart the Docker containers to update the application with zero downtime.

Security and Best Practices

• SSH keys stored securely in GitHub Secrets.
• Traffic between the client and server encrypted via HTTPS, facilitated by Nginx.

Monitoring and Maintenance

• Monitoring Tools: Prometheus, Grafana
• Logging: Centralized using tools like ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana)

Documentation

• Technical Documentation: Detailed on setting up environments, building, and deploying applications.
• User Documentation: Guidelines on how to use the interface.

Future Enhancements

• Scalability enhancements using Kubernetes for orchestration.
• Enhanced security features like OAuth for API authentication.
• Advanced data analytics features within the Django app.