Recurring Checklist

Deployment & maintenance guide — self-hosted web app on Synology DSM.

1. Overview

The Recurring Checklist is a small Node.js web application that lives in a Docker container on the Synology NAS. Multi-location operators (Woonsocket, North Attleboro, etc.) open it in a web browser, identify themselves once per device, and tick items off through the week. Every Sunday at 3:00 PM the server emails a digest of who completed what (and what was missed) to a single recipient, then resets all checkboxes for the following week.

Architecture

Users (LAN or internet)
    │
    ▼
https://check.watersmedia.org   (Boba-Fett DSM, port 443)
    │
    │ reverse proxy
    ▼
http://10.1.1.1:3000                      (Chronicles-NA DSM, Docker container)
    │
    ▼
node:20-alpine + Express + node-cron + nodemailer
    │
    ├── data volume → /volume1/docker/recurring-checklist/data/checklists.json
    │                  (backed up nightly to Google Drive via Hyper Backup)
    │
    └── Sunday 3:00 PM cron → Gmail SMTP → media@waterschurch.org

2. Environment summary

3. Initial deployment

The container was created using the following procedure. Use this section as the disaster-recovery / rebuild reference.

3.1 Prerequisites

• Synology DSM 7.2 or newer on the host NAS (Chronicles-NA)
• Container Manager package installed
• SSH or File Station access to /volume1/docker/
• Google Workspace account with an App Password (for the digest sender)
• The deployment tarball: checklist-deploy.tgz (produced from the project's server/ directory)

3.2 Upload the bundle

1. Open File Station on the NAS.
2. Inside /volume1/docker/, create a folder named recurring-checklist.
3. Upload checklist-deploy.tgz into it.
4. Right-click → Extract → Extract here. Repeat once on the resulting .tar (Synology's File Station unwraps in two passes).
5. Delete the .tgz, .tar, and the PaxHeader folder that gets produced. The folder should be left with:

   server.js          public/         Dockerfile
   package.json       data/           docker-compose.yml
   package-lock.json  README.md       .env  .env.example  .dockerignore  .gitignore

3.3 Configure environment

The deployment ships with a working .env file. Verify the following keys are populated:

3.4 Create the Container Manager project

1. Open Container Manager → Project → Create.
2. Project name: recurring-checklist
3. Path: browse to /volume1/docker/recurring-checklist → Select.
4. Source: "Use existing docker-compose.yml" (auto-selected). Click OK.
5. On the Web portal settings screen, leave the checkbox unchecked. Click Next.
6. Confirm the summary and click Done.

Container Manager will build the image (~60–90 seconds on first run) and start the container. The project should report Exit Code: 0 at the end of the build log and the project status indicator should turn green.

3.5 Verify

1. From a browser on the LAN, open http://10.1.1.1:3000. The "Who are you?" prompt should appear.
2. Click Admin (top right) and authenticate with the value of ADMIN_PASSWORD.
3. Use Send Digest Now in the admin drawer to verify SMTP connectivity. A test email should arrive within a few seconds.

4. Pushing app updates

Updates are delivered as a refreshed deployment tarball. Application data is mounted from the host's data/ directory, so rebuilding the image preserves all checklists, locations, and check states.

4.1 Receive the update

The developer produces a fresh checklist-deploy.tgz from the latest project tree. It will arrive as a single file (currently ~35 KB).

4.2 Apply on the NAS

1. Open File Station → navigate to /volume1/docker/recurring-checklist/.
2. Upload the new checklist-deploy.tgz into this folder.
3. Right-click → Extract → Extract here. Choose Overwrite when prompted (this replaces server.js, the public/ folder, etc.; it does not touch data/).
4. Repeat the extract on the resulting .tar.
5. Delete the .tgz, .tar, and PaxHeader when done.

4.3 Rebuild the container

1. Open Container Manager → Project → click the recurring-checklist row.
2. Click Action → Build (rebuilds the image from the updated source).
3. Wait for the build log to finish with Exit Code: 0.
4. Click Action → Stop, then Action → Start if the build did not auto-restart.

4.4 Rollback

If an update misbehaves:

1. Recover the previous checklist-deploy.tgz (kept by the developer) or restore from Hyper Backup.
2. Replace the files in /volume1/docker/recurring-checklist/ as in §4.2.
3. Rebuild the project as in §4.3.

5. Backups

5.1 What's backed up

A Hyper Backup task named Recurring Checklist backs up the entire docker shared folder nightly at 23:30 to Google Drive. Destination:

Google Drive: recurring-checklist_server-backup / Chronicles-NA_1

This captures both the application source (in recurring-checklist/) and its data folder.

5.2 Restoring

To restore the data file only:

1. Open Hyper Backup → Recurring Checklist task → Restore → Data.
2. Pick a version. Browse into recurring-checklist/data/ and restore checklists.json.
3. Container Manager → Project → Stop, then Start the recurring-checklist project to pick up the restored file.

5.3 Backup verification

An integrity check runs weekly on Saturday at 01:30. Failed integrity checks generate a DSM notification.

6. DDNS, reverse proxy & HTTPS

6.1 DDNS record

• Hostname: check.watersmedia.org
• Provider: Synology (free)
• Account: Registered to the Synology account on Chronicles-NA.

6.2 Reverse proxy rule (on Boba-Fett, 10.1.1.4)

Located at Control Panel → Login Portal → Advanced → Reverse Proxy → "Recurring Checklist".

6.3 TLS certificate

• Type: Let's Encrypt
• Bound to: the check.watersmedia.org service in Control Panel → Security → Certificate → Settings
• Auto-renewal: handled by DSM. The cert renews ~30 days before expiry as long as ports 80/443 inbound continue to reach Boba-Fett.

6.4 Router (UniFi)

Existing port-forward of TCP 443 to Boba-Fett (10.1.1.4) is the only inbound rule required. No new forwarding is needed for the Recurring Checklist app.

7. Troubleshooting

8. Reference

8.1 Files in /volume1/docker/recurring-checklist/

8.2 Useful container actions

8.3 Server endpoints (for diagnostics)

Document version 1 · Generated for the Recurring Checklist deployment on Chronicles-NA / Boba-Fett. Maintained alongside the project source.