Metaval Foundry — Local/LAN Test

server.js now serves both the API and Frontend.html. One process, one port, one terminal: run npm start and open the app in your browser — you never need to open Frontend.html directly or run a second server.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+ (20+ recommended)
• PostgreSQL 14+

Install

Open PowerShell in this folder:

npm install

Configure

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in the DB_* values (see Database below).

Demo admin:

• Name: Pappu ke papa
• Employee code: ADMIN-001
• Email: admin@example.com
• Password: ChangeMe123!

Create a .env file with all required admin settings, including ADMIN_EMPLOYEE_CODE and JWT_SECRET before starting the server.

Important: if you set ADMIN_PASSWORD yourself in .env, and it contains a #, wrap the whole value in quotes, e.g. ADMIN_PASSWORD="Salary badha do". Without quotes, the .env loader treats everything after # as a comment and silently truncates the password.

Change the JWT secret and password before any real deployment.

Start (single terminal — this is the only command you run)

npm start

Then open the app in your browser:

http://localhost:4000/

Health check:

http://localhost:4000/api/health

LAN (another PC on the same network):

http://YOUR-PC-IP:4000/

How the frontend finds the backend

Frontend.html is served by this same Express server, so by default it talks to the API on the same host and port it was loaded from (window.METAVAL_API_BASE || 'http://localhost:4000/api'). You don't need to configure anything for local or same-machine use.

If someone opens the app from another computer on the LAN using the host PC's IP (e.g. http://192.168.1.25:4000/), it will automatically call the API at http://192.168.1.25:4000/api too — no edits needed, because both are served from the same address. You'd only ever need to set window.METAVAL_API_BASE manually if you were hosting the HTML file somewhere separate from this backend (not the setup here).

Employee account creation

Admin calls:

POST /api/employees

Example:

{
  "name": "Priya Sharma",
  "email": "priya@metaval.com",
  "password": "StrongPassword123!",
  "department": "Melting Shop",
  "role": "operator"
}

Supported roles: employee operator melting_incharge metallurgist qa

Chat

Public: GET /api/chat/messages?mode=public POST /api/chat/messages

Private: GET /api/chat/messages?mode=private&peer=EMP-ID POST /api/chat/messages

Heat endpoints

POST /api/heats PUT /api/heats/:id/targets PUT /api/heats/:id/charge-rows POST /api/heats/:id/oes PATCH /api/heats/:id/yield-loss PUT /api/heats/:id/residuals GET /api/heats/:id/status GET /api/heats/:id/cost GET /api/heats/:id/correction-plan GET /api/heats/:id/release-check POST /api/heats/:id/approvals POST /api/heats/:id/release

Database (PostgreSQL)

All data now lives in PostgreSQL, in one database (metaval_foundry) with three schemas:

core      users, roles, departments, permissions, role_permissions,
          user_roles, messages (chat), audit_log
casting   heats, chemistry, charge, oes, corrections, approvals, costing, history
ingot     (same tables as casting, completely separate data)

A heat created with calculator: "casting" is stored in the casting schema and gets a number like CST-000001; calculator: "ingot" goes to the ingot schema and gets ING-000001. The prefix tells the server which schema to read.

One-time setup

1. Install PostgreSQL 14+ and make sure the service is running.

2. Create the login + database (edit the password inside the file first!):

   psql -U postgres -f db/00_create_database.sql
   

3. Put the same values in .env (DB_HOST, DB_PORT, DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD).

4. Create all tables (safe to re-run any time):

   npm run db:setup
   

5. npm start — the first start creates the admin account in core.users.

Where things are:

What	File
Connection settings	.env -> read by db/postgres.js
Table definitions (edit here to add columns/tables)	db/schema.sql
Every query the API runs	server.js

The old data/metaval.json file is no longer used.

Important

This is a local/LAN test backend. It is not a production security architecture. For production, use your approved database, HTTPS, proper secret management, backups, rate limiting, enterprise identity and secure password policies.