Bus Manager

A Django-based bus coordination and management system. Handles transport scheduling, traveller management, location tracking, coordinator workflows, and optional SMS (Telstra) and SSO (Azure AD) integrations.

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Stack

Component	Technology
Web framework	Django 6 + Gunicorn
Database	PostgreSQL 16
Auth (optional)	Azure AD SSO via MSAL
SMS (optional)	Telstra Messaging API
Scheduling	django-crontab (nightly coordinator check)
Container runtime	Docker + Docker Compose

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Deployment

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose installed on the host
• A reverse proxy (e.g. Nginx Proxy Manager) to front the app

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://gitea.hideawaygaming.com.au/jessikitty/bus-manager.git
cd bus-manager

2. Configure environment

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env and set at minimum:

Variable	Description
SECRET_KEY	Long random string — generate with python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(50))"
SQL_PASSWORD	Postgres password (picked up by both the db and web containers)
ALLOWED_HOSTS	Space-separated list of hostnames the app will be served from (e.g. busmanager.yourdomain.com)
APP_PORT	Host port Gunicorn will be exposed on (default: 8000)

Optional variables for email, Azure SSO, and Telstra SMS are documented in .env.example.

3. Build and start

docker compose up -d --build

On first start the web container will:

1. Wait for Postgres to pass its healthcheck
2. Run manage.py migrate to initialise the database schema
3. Run manage.py collectstatic to gather static assets
4. Register the nightly cron job via manage.py crontab add
5. Start Gunicorn on port 8000

4. Create a superuser

docker compose exec web python manage.py createsuperuser

5. Reverse proxy (Nginx Proxy Manager)

Create a new proxy host in NPM pointing to:

http://<docker-host-ip>:<APP_PORT>

Enable SSL via Let's Encrypt as usual. No special headers required — Gunicorn handles WSGI directly.

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Updating

git pull
docker compose up -d --build

Migrations run automatically on startup, so schema changes are applied without manual intervention.

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Useful commands

Task	Command
View logs	docker compose logs -f web
Open Django shell	docker compose exec web python manage.py shell
Run migrations manually	docker compose exec web python manage.py migrate
Check crontab	docker compose exec web python manage.py crontab show
Restart app only	docker compose restart web
Stop everything	docker compose down
Stop and wipe database	docker compose down -v ⚠️ destructive

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Environment variables reference

Variable	Required	Default	Description
SECRET_KEY	✅	—	Django secret key
DEBUG		False	Enable Django debug mode
ALLOWED_HOSTS	✅	localhost	Space-separated allowed hostnames
SQL_DATABASE		busmanager	Postgres database name
SQL_USER		busmanager	Postgres username
SQL_PASSWORD	✅	—	Postgres password
APP_PORT		8000	Host port for Gunicorn
GUNICORN_WORKERS		3	Number of Gunicorn worker processes
GUNICORN_TIMEOUT		120	Gunicorn worker timeout (seconds)
EMAIL_HOST		—	SMTP relay hostname
EMAIL_PORT		25	SMTP relay port
AZURE_CLIENT_ID		—	Azure app client ID (enables SSO)
AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET		—	Azure app client secret
AZURE_REDIRECT_URI		—	Azure OAuth redirect URI
AZURE_AUTHORITY		—	Azure authority URL
TELSTRA_CLIENT_ID		—	Telstra API client ID (enables SMS)
TELSTRA_CLIENT_SECRET		—	Telstra API client secret

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Data persistence

Two named Docker volumes are created automatically:

• postgres_data — PostgreSQL data directory
• static_files — collected Django static assets

These survive docker compose down and are only removed with docker compose down -v.