OPAL Frontend

This is an Angular SSR application. There are two main reasons for this:

the web server for when the app is deployed in Kubernetes.
to proxy API requests to internally-facing backend API services, such as the opal-fines-service.

Getting Started
Local Development Strategy
Production Server
Running Unit Tests
Running End-to-End Tests
Accessibility Tests
Switching Between Local and Published Common Libraries
OpenAPI reference models
OpenAPI docs

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Running the application requires the following tools to be installed in your environment:

Node.js ^20.19.0 or ^22.12.0 or >=24.0.0 (use .nvmrc, currently 24.13.0).
yarn v4
Docker

Install Dependencies

Install dependencies by executing the following command:

yarn

Local Development Strategy

1. Clone Backend Repositories

IMPORTANT: All repositories must be cloned into the same parent directory. For example, if you have a GitHub folder in your Documents directory, all of the following repositories should be cloned directly inside that GitHub folder:

Documents/
└── GitHub/
  ├── opal-shared-infrastructure/
  ├── opal-fines-service/
  ├── opal-user-service/
  ├── opal-logging-service/
  └── opal-frontend/

Clone the opal-shared-infrastructure repository and follow the instructions in there to get it up and running. This is required for the below repositories: Clone the opal-fines-service repository and follow the instructions in there to get it up and running. This is required by the front end to make local Fines API requests. Clone the opal-user-service repository and follow the instructions in there to get it up and running. This is required by the front end to make local User API requests. Clone the opal-logging-service repository and follow the instructions in there to get it up and running. This is required by the opal-fines-service to make local Logging API requests.

2. Clone opal-frontend-common-ui-lib

Clone the opal-frontend-common-ui-lib repository and run:

yarn
yarn pack:local

This is required if you want to develop the frontend against the local version of the UI library using yarn dev:local-lib:ssr. It generates a local .tgz package in the repository root.

3. Clone opal-frontend-common-node-lib

Clone the opal-frontend-common-node-lib repository and run:

yarn
yarn pack:local

This is required if you want to develop the frontend against the local version of the Node library using yarn dev:local-lib:ssr. It generates a local .tgz package in the repository root.

4. Development server

There are two ways to run the Angular SSR application depending on whether you are developing against local or published versions of the common libraries:

To use the published versions of the libraries:
```
yarn dev:ssr
```
This starts the SSR dev server using the versions pinned in your package.json/yarn.lock. No packages are reinstalled.
To use local versions of the libraries:

First, ensure you've run yarn pack:local in both libraries and set the environment variables:
```
export COMMON_UI_LIB_PATH="[INSERT PATH TO COMMON UI LIB REPOSITORY ROOT]"
export COMMON_NODE_LIB_PATH="[INSERT PATH TO COMMON NODE LIB REPOSITORY ROOT]"
```
Ensure you've run yarn pack:local in both libraries and exported the environment variables before running this command.

Then run:
```
yarn dev:local-lib:ssr
```
This will install local .tgz packages and start the SSR dev server with those versions.

The application's home page will be available at http://localhost:4200.

Note this is running the Angular SSR application and expects the opal-fines-service to also be running locally to function correctly.

5. Production server

There are two options depending on whether you're working with local or published versions of the common libraries. This command builds the Angular SSR application for production and serves it. You will not have hot reloading in this mode.

To build and serve the application using the published libraries:
```
yarn build:serve:ssr
```
This will:
- Build the application for production using the versions pinned in your package.json/yarn.lock
- Serve it on http://localhost:4000
To build and serve the application using local libraries:

First, ensure you've run yarn pack:local in both common libraries and set the environment variables:
```
export COMMON_UI_LIB_PATH="[INSERT PATH TO COMMON UI LIB REPOSITORY ROOT]"
export COMMON_NODE_LIB_PATH="[INSERT PATH TO COMMON NODE LIB REPOSITORY ROOT]"
```
Ensure you've run yarn pack:local in both libraries and exported the environment variables before running this command.

Then run:
```
yarn build:serve:local-lib:ssr
```
This will:
- Install local .tgz packages for the common libraries
- Build the application for production
- Serve it on http://localhost:4000

The application's home page will be available at http://localhost:4000.

Note this is running the Angular SSR application and expects the opal-fines-service to also be running locally to function correctly.

6. Redis (Optional)

By default Redis is disabled for local development. If desired, start up a Redis instance locally:

docker run -p 6379:6379 -it redis/redis-stack-server:latest

And enable Redis integration within the application by setting the environment variable FEATURES_REDIS_ENABLED to true. The application will connect to Redis on the next startup.

7. Launch Darkly (Optional)

By default Launch Darkly is disabled by default for local development. To enable set the following environment variables. Replace XXXXXXXXXXXX with the project client id.

export FEATURES_LAUNCH_DARKLY_ENABLED=true
export LAUNCH_DARKLY_CLIENT_ID=XXXXXXXXXXXX

The streaming of flags is disabled by default, if you would like to enable set the following environment variable.

export FEATURES_LAUNCH_DARKLY_STREAM=true

Build

Run yarn build:ssr to build the project. The build artifacts will be stored in the dist/opal-frontend directory. This compiles both the node.js server-side code and angular code.

Code style

We use ESLint and Prettier

Running the linting:

yarn lint

You can fix prettier formatting issues using:

yarn  prettier:fix

There is a custom lint rule for member ordering to ensure members in the code are ordered in the following format:

[
  "private-static-field",
  "protected-static-field",
  "public-static-field",
  "private-instance-field",
  "protected-instance-field",
  "public-instance-field",
  "constructor",
  "private-static-method",
  "protected-static-method",
  "public-static-method",
  "private-instance-method",
  "protected-instance-method",
  "public-instance-method"
]

Running unit tests

Run yarn test to execute the unit tests via Vitest.

Run yarn test:watch to execute unit tests in watch mode.

To check code coverage, run yarn test:coverage. Code coverage can then be found in the coverage folder of the repository locally.

Running end-to-end tests

We are using cypress for our end-to-end tests (Cucumber .feature files).

Prerequisites

Start the SSR app locally. The default base URL is http://localhost:4000/.
Override the base URL with TEST_URL if needed, for example when running against a deployed environment.
Generic test runs default to edge. In CI, the pipeline falls back to chrome if Edge is unavailable. Explicit browser runs still fail if the requested browser is not installed.

Opal mode (default)

Run yarn test:smoke to execute the end-to-end smoke tests in Opal mode.

yarn test:smoke

Run yarn test:functional to execute the end-to-end functional tests in Opal mode.

yarn test:functional

To filter scenarios by tag locally, set TAGS and use the tagged runner:

TAGS=@UAT-Technical yarn test:functional:tags

Run yarn test:component to execute the Cypress component suite.

All three top-level runners accept:

--browser=<chrome|edge|firefox> for an explicit browser
--mode=<opal|legacy> for suite mode selection
--parallel or --serial to override the default execution style

Examples:

yarn test:component --browser=chrome --parallel
yarn test:smoke --mode=legacy --serial
yarn test:functional --browser=firefox --mode=opal --parallel

Legacy app mode

To run the UAT-Technical-tagged functional tests against legacy app mode locally: This keeps the functional suite on the normal OPAL spec tree and only switches the app/helpers into legacy mode.

yarn test:functional:uat_legacy

Dev-JCDE (CI / PR builds)

For PR builds, the enable_legacy_mode label switches the dev environment to legacy mode and points the legacy gateway at JCDE. When legacy mode is enabled in CI, you must also provide a run_tag:<expression> label, for example run_tag:@UAT-Technical, to scope the suite. The pipeline always appends not @skip.

Debugging

Run yarn cypress to open the Cypress console.

yarn cypress

Reports

After a clean run, artifacts and reports are written to functional-output/ and smoke-output/. Replace <browser> with chrome, edge, or firefox.

functional-output/
  component/
    <browser>/
      html/
        component-report.html
        assets/...
      json/
        .jsons/
          mochawesome*.json
      junit/
        component-test-output-*.xml
      screenshots/...
  prod/
    <browser>/
      opal-mode-test-output-*.xml
      <browser>-test-result.xml
      cucumber/
        OPAL-report-*.ndjson
        <browser>-report.ndjson
        <browser>-report.html
      legacy/
        legacy-mode-test-output-*.xml
        legacy-test-result.xml
        cucumber/
          LEGACY-report-*.ndjson
          legacy-report.ndjson
          legacy-report.html
  screenshots/
    <browser>/...
    <browser>/legacy/...
  videos/...
  zephyr/
    cypress-report-1.json
    cucumber-report.json
    temp/...
  account_evidence/...

smoke-output/
  prod/
    <browser>/
      opal-mode-test-output-*.xml
      <browser>-test-result.xml
      cucumber/
        OPAL-report-*.ndjson
        smoke-report.ndjson
        smoke-report.html
      legacy/
        legacy-mode-test-output-*.xml
        legacy-test-result.xml
        cucumber/
          LEGACY-report-*.ndjson
          legacy-report.ndjson
          legacy-report.html
  screenshots/
    <browser>/...
    <browser>/legacy/...
  zephyr/
    cucumber-report.json

Notes:

functional-output/component/<browser>/json/.jsons/ is the raw Mochawesome JSON used to build html/component-report.html.
functional-output/prod/<browser>/legacy/ and smoke-output/prod/<browser>/legacy/ are only created for legacy-mode runs.
videos/ is only expected when using yarn test:functionalOpalVideo.
account_evidence/ is only expected when legacy evidence capture is enabled.
These older component paths should not be recreated on a clean run: functional-output/component-report/, functional-output/component-html/, and functional-output/prod/<browser>/component/.

Running accessibility tests

We are using axe-core and cypress-axe to check the accessibility. Run the production server and once running you can run the smoke or functional test commands.

See opal-frontend-common-ui-lib and opal-frontend-common-node-lib for usage and build instructions.

Switching Between Local and Published Common Libraries

This project supports switching between local and published versions of the opal-frontend-common and opal-frontend-common-node libraries using the following scripts:

Switching to Local Versions

First, ensure you've run yarn pack:local in both library repos and exported the repository root paths (where the .tgz files are created):

# In your shell config file (.zshrc, .bash_profile, etc.)
export COMMON_UI_LIB_PATH="[INSERT PATH TO COMMON UI LIB FOLDER]"
export COMMON_NODE_LIB_PATH="[INSERT PATH TO COMMON NODE LIB FOLDER]"

Then, run the following scripts:

yarn import:local:common-ui-lib
yarn import:local:common-node-lib

These commands will remove the published versions and install local .tgz packages from each configured path.

Switching to Published Versions

If you have installed local .tgz packages and want to return to npm-published packages, first ensure your package.json dependencies are semver values (not file: tarball paths), then reinstall.

yarn add @hmcts/opal-frontend-common@<VERSION> @hmcts/opal-frontend-common-node@<VERSION>
yarn install

You can also use:

yarn import:published:common-ui-lib
yarn import:published:common-node-lib

These scripts read the target version from package.json. If package.json still contains file:...tgz values, they will reinstall local tarballs rather than npm-published versions.

This is useful when you're no longer working on the libraries directly or want to verify against the published versions that your project is pinned to.

Note: Version upgrades should come via Renovate PRs. These commands do not upgrade to the latest; they reinstall the exact versions specified in package.json. For extra safety in CI, consider using yarn install --immutable to prevent lockfile drift.

OpenAPI reference models

Run yarn generate:openapi to download and merge the fines-service specs, then emit reference-only models to src/app/generated/api-client and src/app/flows/fines/services/opal-fines-service/{interfaces/generated,types/generated}.
The generated files are gitignored and excluded from TypeScript/Jasmine; they are not used by application code or tests.
When schema changes are needed, copy shapes from the generated output into the hand-written interfaces under src/app/flows/fines/services/opal-fines-service/interfaces and adjust as required.

OpenAPI docs

Backend fines OpenAPI specs live in the fines service repo under src/main/resources/openapi/ (DefendantAccount, MajorCreditor, MinorCreditor, common, types) and are merged via openapi/openapi-merge-config.json.
The merged spec is written locally to openapi/opal-merged.yaml when you run yarn generate:openapi; open that file for endpoint/schema details or to copy shapes into the hand-cranked interfaces.

Platform note: import:* scripts use Unix shell commands (rm, ls, grep) and are intended for macOS/Linux environments.

Angular code scaffolding

Note the requirement for prefixing the ng commands with yarn

Angular code LLM prompts

https://angular.dev/ai/develop-with-ai

Paste the following prompt into your AI assistant of choice.

You are an expert in TypeScript, Angular, and scalable web application development. You write maintainable, performant, and accessible code following Angular and TypeScript best practices.

## TypeScript Best Practices

- Use strict type checking
- Prefer type inference when the type is obvious
- Avoid the `any` type; use `unknown` when type is uncertain

## Angular Best Practices

- Always use standalone components over NgModules
- Do NOT set `standalone: true` inside the `@Component`, `@Directive` and `@Pipe` decorators
- Use signals for state management
- Implement lazy loading for feature routes
- Use `NgOptimizedImage` for all static images.
- Do NOT use the `@HostBinding` and `@HostListener` decorators. Put host bindings inside the `host` object of the `@Component` or `@Directive` decorator instead

## Components

- Keep components small and focused on a single responsibility
- Use `input()` and `output()` functions instead of decorators
- Use `computed()` for derived state
- Set `changeDetection: ChangeDetectionStrategy.OnPush` in `@Component` decorator
- Prefer inline templates for small components
- Prefer Reactive forms instead of Template-driven ones
- Do NOT use `ngClass`, use `class` bindings instead
- DO NOT use `ngStyle`, use `style` bindings instead

## State Management

- Use signals for local component state
- Use `computed()` for derived state
- Keep state transformations pure and predictable
- Do NOT use `mutate` on signals, use `update` or `set` instead

## Templates

- Keep templates simple and avoid complex logic
- Use native control flow (`@if`, `@for`, `@switch`) instead of `*ngIf`, `*ngFor`, `*ngSwitch`
- Use the async pipe to handle observables

## Services

- Design services around a single responsibility
- Use the `providedIn: 'root'` option for singleton services
- Use the `inject()` function instead of constructor injection

💡 Copilot Prompt Examples for Angular MCP

📘 1. Ask for Documentation Help

Prompt:

“How do Angular signals work?”

What Copilot does:
Calls search_documentation("signals") and returns official Angular documentation context.

🧱 2. Generate Code

Prompt:

“Generate a service for user authentication”

What Copilot does:
Runs ng generate service user-auth through the MCP server — adds the file in the correct directory.

📚 3. Get Project File Structure

Prompt:

“List all Angular modules in this project”

What Copilot does:
Uses list_projects and get_file_tree to find and display modules across the workspace.

🧭 4. Navigate Routing Setup

Prompt:

“What routes are defined in this app?”

What Copilot does:
Parses routing modules and shows route paths, guards, and lazy-loaded modules.

🧹 5. Refactor with AI Help

Prompt:

“Convert this component to use the standalone API”

What Copilot does:
Updates component metadata with standalone: true, refactors imports, and removes old NgModule references.

🛠️ 6. Add Angular Libraries

Prompt:

“Add Angular Material”

What Copilot does:
Triggers ng add @angular/material to install the package and configure animations + theming.

Zephyr Automation

Zephyr Automation is a tool for integrating test results and ticket management between Zephyr, Jira, and test frameworks (Cucumber, Cypress). It automates the creation and updating of Jira tickets and Zephyr executions based on test reports.

Features

Create or update Jira tickets from test results
Create Zephyr executions
Supports Cucumber and Cypress JSON reports

Project Scripts (zephyr:*)

Zephyr scripts still use the JSON report paths listed below as their inputs. Their console output is also mirrored to tmp/zephyr/*.log, with each script overwriting its own log file on the next run. /tmp is gitignored.
zephyr:cypress:jira-create: Create Jira tickets from the Cypress JSON report at functional-output/zephyr/cypress-report-1.json.
zephyr:cypress:jira-update: Update Jira tickets using the Cypress JSON report at functional-output/zephyr/cypress-report-1.json.
zephyr:cypress:jira-execute: Create a Zephyr execution from the Cypress JSON report at functional-output/zephyr/cypress-report-1.json.
zephyr:cucumber:functional:jira-create: Create Jira tickets from the functional Cucumber JSON report at functional-output/zephyr/cucumber-report.json.
zephyr:cucumber:functional:jira-update: Update Jira tickets using the functional Cucumber JSON report at functional-output/zephyr/cucumber-report.json.
zephyr:cucumber:functional:jira-execute: Create a Zephyr execution from the functional Cucumber JSON report at functional-output/zephyr/cucumber-report.json.
zephyr:cucumber:smoke:jira-create: Create Jira tickets from the smoke Cucumber JSON report at smoke-output/zephyr/cucumber-report.json.
zephyr:cucumber:smoke:jira-update: Update Jira tickets using the smoke Cucumber JSON report at smoke-output/zephyr/cucumber-report.json.
zephyr:cucumber:smoke:jira-execute: Create a Zephyr execution from the smoke Cucumber JSON report at smoke-output/zephyr/cucumber-report.json.
zephyr:test:component: Reset outputs, run component tests, then create a Zephyr execution from the Cypress JSON report.
zephyr:test:functional: Reset outputs, run functional tests, then create a Zephyr execution from the functional Cucumber JSON report.
zephyr:test:smoke: Reset outputs, run smoke tests, then create a Zephyr execution from the smoke Cucumber JSON report.

Supported Tags

The following tags can be used in your test scenarios to control ticket creation, linking, and metadata:

Tag Prefix	Example Value	Description
`@JIRA-KEY:`	`@JIRA-KEY:PROJ-123`	Associates the test with an existing Jira issue key.
`@JIRA-COMPONENT:`	`@JIRA-COMPONENT:API`	Adds the specified Jira component to the ticket.
`@JIRA-LABEL:`	`@JIRA-LABEL:smoke`	Adds the specified label to the Jira ticket.
`@JIRA-EPIC:`	`@JIRA-EPIC:PROJ-456`	Links the ticket to the specified Jira Epic.
`@JIRA-NFR:`	`@JIRA-NFR:PROJ-789`	Links the ticket to a Non-Functional Requirement (NFR) Jira issue.
`@JIRA-LINK:`	`@JIRA-LINK:PROJ-321`	Creates a generic link to another Jira issue.
`@JIRA-STORY:`	`@JIRA-STORY:PROJ-654`	Links the ticket to a Jira Story.
`@JIRA-DEFECT:`	`@JIRA-DEFECT:PROJ-987`	Links the ticket to a Jira Defect.
`@JIRA-IGNORE:`	`@JIRA-IGNORE`	Prevents ticket creation or update for this test.

Tags are case-sensitive and must be used exactly as shown.

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OPAL Frontend

Contents

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Install Dependencies

Local Development Strategy

1. Clone Backend Repositories

2. Clone opal-frontend-common-ui-lib

3. Clone opal-frontend-common-node-lib

4. Development server

5. Production server

6. Redis (Optional)

7. Launch Darkly (Optional)

Build

Code style

Running unit tests

Running end-to-end tests

Prerequisites

Opal mode (default)

Legacy app mode

Dev-JCDE (CI / PR builds)

Debugging

Reports

Running accessibility tests

Switching Between Local and Published Common Libraries

Switching to Local Versions

Switching to Published Versions

OpenAPI reference models

OpenAPI docs

Angular code scaffolding

Angular code LLM prompts

💡 Copilot Prompt Examples for Angular MCP

📘 1. Ask for Documentation Help

🧱 2. Generate Code

📚 3. Get Project File Structure

🧭 4. Navigate Routing Setup

🧹 5. Refactor with AI Help

🛠️ 6. Add Angular Libraries

Zephyr Automation

Features

Project Scripts (zephyr:*)

Supported Tags