Freecodecamp: REPL.it Sample Projects Unavailable

[shartrooper]

Describe your problem and how to reproduce it:
Hello.
Currently, the Url for the Personal Library challenge sample project cannot reach its Repl.it

Add a Link to the page with the problem:

Sample Project Repl.it URL: QA Personal Library
Tell us about your browser and operating system:

• Browser Name: Mozilla Firefox
• Browser Version: Latest
• Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate

If possible, add a screenshot here (you can drag and drop, png, jpg, gif, etc. in this box):

[nhcarrigan]

A couple of additional errors:

Issue Tracker - Returns a page that says "project started".
American British Translator - This one just won't connect for me.

[Sky020]

I am able to access the _Issue Tracker_ and _American British Translator_, without any problems.

[RandellDawson]

@nhcarrigan I can reach the Issue Tracker and American British Translator, but definitely can not reach the Personal Library.

@Sky020 Do you know if that is the correct url? We QA'd that PR and all the links seem to work fine the other day.

[nhcarrigan]

Giving it another shot, I was finally able to access those two projects. Not sure what the cause of the error was. 🤔

[RandellDawson]

@scissorsneedfoodtoo Seems like we are getting some sporadic access issues to some of the projects?

[Sky020]

Do you know if that is the correct url? We QA'd that PR and all the links seem to work fine the other day.

I do remember it working. So, it definitely took the browser somewhere.

[nhcarrigan]

This is where it takes me...

[Sky020]

I can get to it by going to https://repl.it/@freeCodeCamp then https://repl.it/@freeCodeCamp/Personal-Library

This leads me to a project link of: https://Personal-Library.freecodecamp.repl.co which needs to be run-up

[RandellDawson]

@Sky020 Even after going through the steps and clicking Run, the page that shows is still what @nhcarrigan shows above.

The page should show something like was on Glitch:

Also, there is a separate issue in that the this link link points to https://repl.it/github/freeCodeCamp/boilerplate-project-metricimpconverter instead of the the personal library boilerplate.

[Sky020]

I got it to run by adding a .env with a PORT and DB string. So, the code works.

How does fCC keep the servers alive for the example projects?

[scissorsneedfoodtoo]

Hi @shartrooper, thanks for reporting this.

Not sure what happened here. I'll reach out the Repl.it team to see why this project was unavailable. To fix it, I just opened the project under the official fCC account and clicked the "Run" button.

@Sky020, it's my understanding that Repl.it projects work similarly to ones on Glitch. The servers spin down after awhile, then restart when someone goes to the link to the application (https://issue-tracker--freecodecamp.repl.co/, https://personal-library--freecodecamp.repl.co/).

[shartrooper]

Hi,
It's currently reaching the app now. Did running the app from the editor fixed the issue?. It couldn't have been that, since these start "waking up" after someone visit the URL link.

[scissorsneedfoodtoo]

Hi @shartrooper, thank you for reporting this issue. Also, thanks everyone else for checking the other projects. Not sure if this is a problem on our end or not, but I've reached out to the Repl.it team in the meantime.

Please feel free to open a new issue if you find that another project is unreachable.

[Obaida-Albaroudi]

Hey Folks, I am Obaida from Repl.it. Appreciate you all reaching out and highlighting these issues. I will go ahead and look into this and keep you all posted with any updates I may have! Also always feel free to raise the issues here as well https://repl.it/bugs or email us at [email protected].

[RandellDawson]

@Obaida-Albaroudi We have another demo project that stopped working.

https://metric-imperial-converter--freecodecamp.repl.co/

[Obaida-Albaroudi]

@RandellDawson Thanks for flagging! I looked at the base code real quick and it seems like you are calling process.env.PORT with no env file. I believe that should fix the problem, please let me know if you are still having issues and I can dive into this a little more.

[scissorsneedfoodtoo]

Hi @Obaida-Albaroudi, thanks for taking a look at this project.

I went in and added the .env file, but I don't think it was necessary for the project, and was only used to set the port and whether or not tests run automatically. There's a fallback if process.env.PORT returned undefined, so the project was working until recently.

Still, that could be why the project stopped working here. Maybe there needs to be a .env file if process.env... is used anywhere? Are there any logs on your end that might give us more info about why the project was unreachable?

[Obaida-Albaroudi]

Hey, apologies you were definitely right and the env file had nothing to do with it. I dug into it a little more and was able to determine the issue with the help of the team. The app is running with no issues, matter of fact you should be able to open it up in a new tab and everything should display (tested it out and it worked).

Unfortunately the issue is the web view won't open up in the repl page itself because you set X-Frame-Options: sameorigin (probably due to the “helmet” package you are all using).

[scissorsneedfoodtoo]

@Obaida-Albaroudi, awesome, thank you for looking into that. Is there anything we can do on our end with this project and the others to prevent this issue in the future?

About the web view being unavailable, that should be okay for some projects that require Helmet with those settings. We can do a deeper audit to make sure only the projects with those specific user stories are affected, and that the web view works for everything else.

[Sky020]

@scissorsneedfoodtoo and @Obaida-Albaroudi ping

This is still (once again) an issue for: https://issue-tracker--freecodecamp.repl.co/

[RandellDawson]

This project is back up and running again.