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Suffolk LIT Lab's Document Assembly Line Bootcamp

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This page is about the bootcamp that we ran from February 18th, 2021 to March 11th, 2021. Although the camp is already finished, you can follow along yourself using the resources on this page!

Goals​

This bootcamp aims to bring you up to speed on the Document Assembly Line project. It will do this by helping you start to automate a form of your choosing and introducing you to a number of Assembly Line tools and practices. By the end of the bootcamp, you should feel comfortable participating in discussions with other members of the team about your work and how to troubleshoot issues you are facing.

Meeting times​

Thursdays @ 11am-1pm Eastern: February 18th, February 25th, March 4th, and March 11th, 2021.

Each bootcamp meeting will be at this Zoom link. If you signed up at the link above, you should have received the Zoom link and the password in a calendar invite. If you haven't received an invite or you haven't signed up, email "mass access at suffolk dot edu."

If you are finding this page after February 18th, 2021, be sure to watch the videos for past sessions below before joining the next live session.

Outline of course​

Week 0​

Read:

  1. If you are unfamiliar with the Assembly Line project, please give the intro page a look
  2. Read over this short introduction to Docassemble
  3. And if you want more context, consider reading what should you use Docassemble for?

Do:

After signing up, you should have received invites to our docassemble server (https://apps-dev.suffolklitlab.org) and our MS TEAMS group.

  1. Confirm that you can access the docassemble server and your developer account at https://apps-dev.suffolklitlab.org
  2. Confirm that you can access the Suffolk LIT Lab Teams group
  3. Optional: Work through this Hello, World exercise making use of your developer account. NOTE: this may be challenging for those of you without prior programing experience. You will NOT be behind if you can't do it all on your own. Use the #coding-help channel on Teams if you are stuck and want help.

Week 1: Introduction and getting started using the Assembly Line interview Weaver, 2/18/2021​

Resources from the session:

Homework:

  • Label and run your own PDF or Word file through the Weaver

Week 2: Using Trello, Editing your interview file. 2/25/2021​

  • Explaining the Trello boards and checklists
  • Editing your interview file
    • Reordering questions
    • Adding basic logic
    • Using and modifying question types
    • Using radio buttons and checkboxes
  • Practice time and live help in breakout rooms
  • Create your Github account

Homework: create a Github organization. Work on your forms and come with additional questions.

Week 3: Using Github, Customizing Branding. 3/4/2021​

Week 4: Advanced Docassemble, Installing the backend​

A list of the packages we installed:

You can install from either PyPI or from Github. PyPI will handle installing related packages and is slightly simpler. Installing from Github will always get you the latest "bleeding edge" version.

PurposeOn PyPIOn Github
Weaver (for creating interviews)docassemble.ALWeaverhttps://github.com/SuffolkLITLab/docassemble-ALWeaver
Basic runtimedocassemble.AssemblyLinehttps://github.com/SuffolkLITLab/docassemble-AssemblyLine
Massachusetts-specific runtime codedocassemble.MassAccesshttps://github.com/SuffolkLITLab/docassemble-MassAccess, https://github.com/SuffolkLITLab/docassemble-ALMassachusetts (must install separately if you install from Github)
Optional "toolbox"/helper functionsdocassemble.ALToolboxhttps://github.com/SuffolkLITLab/docassemble-ALToolbox
Income gathering functionalitydocassemble.incomehttps://github.com/GBLS/docassemble-income
Customizable starting point for your jurisdiction*https://github.com/SuffolkLITLab/docassemble-ALThemeTemplate