carousel-o-pedia
A wiki for carousels, their carved figures, and their history.
Browse the carousel directory by name, country, or state, explore interactive seating
charts, and follow individual figures and their placement history. Anyone can
read; invited editors can contribute sourced research, inventory, and layouts.
Edits are tracked with PaperTrail.
Built with Rails 8.1, SQLite, Hotwire, and server-rendered SVG seating charts.
Getting started
Use Ruby 3.3.6 (see .ruby-version) and Bundler.
git clone https://github.com/etlund/carousel-o-pedia.git
cd carousel-o-pedia
bin/setup --skip-server # installs gems and prepares the database
bin/dev # http://localhost:3000
In development, sign in as [email protected] with password carousel.
Never use these credentials in production.
A fresh database loads the offline seeds: 54 U.S. carousels, including four
detailed inventories, a historical Glen Echo layout, and partial Elitch Gardens
research. Preparing an existing database does not refresh its seeded inventory.
Back up before reseeding an edited database. The four detailed inventory
seeds overwrite seeded attributes and placements. See the
seed data guide for safe, targeted imports.
Environment and database updates
Rails and bin/kamal load local variables from .env; Rails also supports
environment-specific files such as .env.development and .env.test.
Existing process variables take precedence. Environment files are ignored by
Git: never commit secrets. Restart the server or console after changing them.
After updating an existing checkout, apply schema changes separately from seeds:
bin/rails db:migrate
Editing
Admins invite editors from the Invitations page. Leave the email blank to create
a single-use link to share privately, such as in chat; the recipient enters their
email when creating an account. Or enter an email to send an email-bound invite.
Links expire after 14 days. Anyone with an unbound link can claim its access, so
share each link with only one person and withdraw unused links when needed.
Choose site-wide editing or one-carousel access. For one-carousel access, select
an existing carousel or leave it blank so the invitee can create exactly one new
carousel, then edit its details, figures, and seats. Shared makers and figure
types remain read-only for these editors. Existing editors keep site-wide access.
Invitations also provides reversible editor suspension with session revocation.
New and existing editors must explicitly agree to the contribution terms before
editing. New original text submitted after agreement is licensed under
CC BY-SA 4.0; earlier and third-party material is not automatically relicensed.
Public About / Contribute, Editor guide, and Contribution terms & privacy pages
are linked in the footer. The public contact route is still pending.
To create the first administrator:
bin/rails users:create_admin [email protected] NAME="Your Name"
The command prompts for a password. For editing workflows, seat conventions,
and password resets, see the editing and data guide.
Administrators can export carousel metadata to CSV, edit it, and preview an
upload or pasted CSV before applying a transactional import. Figures, seats,
and placement history are not included. See the
editing guide for safeguards.
Testing
bin/rails test
bin/rails test:system test/system/seat_chart_test.rb
bin/rubocop
Documentation
