DBCA OIM developer guidance

This is a resource for OIM developers new to DBCA, to get to a basic standard of understanding of our development tools and processes. Individuals should feel free to skip elements for which they already have a good level of competency. This page is not prescriptive, but it represents a suggested order of operations for a new staff member to go through.

Additional resource documentation pages include the following:

Software development environment

DBCA software developers are encouraged to undertake development locally in an environment that is as close as possible to the final deployed application environment in order to reduce the incidence of “works on my machine” problems.

The department’s standard operating environment (SOE) is currently Microsoft Windows 10, so the majority of DBCA developers are assumed to be carrying out development within this operating system and the following advice is written with this in mind. The one “essential” development tool is Git, which is our designated version control software solution. Refer to the Git page for more information about installing and using Git.

The software development IDE is up to the individual developer. Microsoft’s development IDE Visual Studio Code is a good choice. It is free to use, well documented, well-supported and highly configurable. It also plays extremely well with WSL (see below) via an extension.

Developing in Linux - Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Many of the department’s bespoke systems are built and deployed against a Linux environment, therefore it is highly recommended for developers to carry out development locally within a similar environment.

Microsoft has made it surprisingly easy to run a Linux environment under Windows 10 and newer. Windows Subsystem for Linux is a modern alternative to a virtual machine as it runs natively on the local hardware, meaning that performance is rarely an issue. Installed WSL environments also run directly on the local filesystem, so all local files can be read and copied as required. You can happily run Virtual Studio Code in Windows with a project in a WSL environment for development, via the optional WSL extension.

For a good experience, OIM recommends that developers utilise WSL to install and run a recent (LTS) version of Ubuntu Server. This OS is free, has excellent technical support, up-to-date packages, and (importantly) has a vast corpus of documentation available. Some good resources for developers new to working in a Linux command-line environment are as follows:

Aside from WSL, there’s the option of using an emulator like VirtualBox to run a local Linux VM for development purposes. This is no longer a recommended approach.

Docker

The department’s preferred method of serving bespoke web services is as containerised Docker images and deployed using Kubernetes. Therefore, is it useful for developers to install and run Docker locally. A sensible approach is to install and run Docker inside your WSL development environment. A guide for installing Docker inside the Ubuntu WSL is available here (includes instructions for installing the Azure CLI and dotnet core).

We maintain a document that may serve as an introduction for developers to start learning about Docker here: Docker.

Additional external resources for learning about Kubernetes are listed below:

Software development best practices

The following ebook is a well-regarded and very readable collection of advice related to software development: Andrew Hunt, David Thomas - The Pragmatic Programmer - your journey to mastery

Web development stack

To summarise the OIM-recommended technology stack for new web development projects:

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language which is dynamically typed, interpreted, and known for its easy readability. General principles to be aware of when undertaking development of applications using Python:

For installation, most *nix operating systems come with a version of Python installed which will probably be sufficient for learning. For usage instructions, see this page. For installation on Windows, see this page.

A suggested syllabus for learning Python for the purposes of web application development is as follows:

Python environment management

Once you start working on more than one project, managing separate and isolated Python environments for each one becomes a requirement. This is a good primer on Python virtual environments and why you need them.

There are many different Python environment management tools on the market (pip, pip-tools, Poetry, Pipenv, etc.) and the choice always remain with individual developer, but the current recommended tool is uv. It’s fast, easy to use, and is Python-standards-compliant. First steps are as follows:

Django

Django is our recommended framework of choice for non-trivial web applications requiring a significant amount of business logic, direct manipulation of databases, and a large amount of user interaction. It is a “full stack” web framework that includes all of the components required to develop a complex web application for internal or external customers. It also boasts some of the best online documentation to be found.

A learning syllabus for Django is as follows:

Examples of DBCA-built web applications using Django:

To minimise development effort, we typically take the following approach when building a new system:

  1. Define a good data model with constraints: Django models.
  2. Add validation for model fields.
  3. Use the built-in Django admin for testing and validation of the data model.

Information security

Information security is an important topic and relevant to all software developers. The department runs an Information Security Awareness Program (ISAP) training course that is compulsory for all staff. Even if the information seems basic, try to internalise the content and cultivate a security mindset.

Other resources/advice: