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

• Editing and data model: browsing, sorting, figures, seats, sources, and history.
• Seed data and imports: seed behavior and preserving edits.
• Deployment and backups: Kamal setup, launch precautions, and backup verification.
• Carousel map plan: proposed mapping work; maps and coordinates are not implemented.