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Climate Connect Glossary

Domain-specific terminology for Climate Connect platform

Core Concepts

Hub

Geographic or sector-based community with custom branding, featured content, and moderation capabilities. Examples: "Berlin Hub", "Renewable Energy Hub"

  • Related Models: Hub, HubStat, HubTranslation
  • Key Features: Custom themes, featured projects, location filtering

Project

Climate action initiative with members, status tracking, and collaboration features.

  • States: Draft, In Progress, Completed, On Hold
  • Related Models: Project, ProjectMember, ProjectFollower, ProjectComment
  • Key Features: Member management, status updates, timeline

Organization

Registered climate organization with membership management, verification status, and project portfolio.

  • Types: Non-profit, Company, Other
  • Related Models: Organization, OrganizationMember, ProjectParents (org-project link)
  • Key Features: Member roles, verification badges, project creation

UserProfile

Extended user profile with climate-relevant information beyond basic authentication.

  • Related Models: UserProfile, UserProfileTranslation, Availability, Skill
  • Key Features: Skills, availability, location, bio, background image

Idea

Early-stage climate action proposal before becoming a full project.

  • Related Models: Idea, IdeaSupporter, IdeaComment
  • Lifecycle: Idea → Project (promotion path)

Features

Chat/Messaging

Real-time communication system using WebSocket (Django Channels).

  • Related Models: MessageParticipants, Message
  • Types: User-to-user, group chats
  • Tech: Django Channels with Redis channel layer

Notification

Multi-channel system supporting in-app and email notifications.

  • Related Models: Notification, UserNotification, EmailNotification
  • Types: 18+ notification types including messages, comments, follows, likes, membership requests
  • Delivery: In-app (immediate), Email (with user preferences and digest options)

Badge

Gamification system for recognizing user contributions and achievements.

  • Related Models: Badge, UserBadge, DonorBadge
  • Examples: "Early Adopter", "Project Creator", "Active Contributor"

Donation

Fundraising system with campaigns and contribution tracking.

  • Related Models: Donation, DonationGoal
  • Features: One-time and recurring donations, campaign goals, donor badges

User Roles & Permissions

Organization Member Roles

  • Admin: Full control, can manage members and settings
  • Member: Can create projects under organization
  • Creator: Original founder of the organization

Project Member Roles

  • Admin: Full project control
  • Member: Can edit project and participate
  • Creator: Original project initiator

Hub Roles

  • Hub Ambassador: Community moderator with feature/pin capabilities

Technical Terms

Knox

Django REST Knox - Token-based authentication library providing secure token management with automatic expiry and per-device tokens.

Celery

Distributed task queue for background job processing (emails, notifications, scheduled tasks).

  • Celery Worker: Processes async tasks
  • Celery Beat: Scheduler for periodic tasks

PostGIS

PostgreSQL extension for geospatial data storage and querying.

  • Use Cases: Location search, distance calculations, map boundaries
  • Models: Location (city, country, lat/long)

SSR (Server-Side Rendering)

Next.js feature for rendering pages on the server before sending to client.

  • Benefits: SEO optimization, faster initial page load
  • Implementation: getServerSideProps, getInitialProps

MUI (Material-UI)

React component library (v5) following Material Design principles.

  • Styling: Emotion-based (@emotion/react, @emotion/styled)
  • Theming: Custom Climate Connect theme in /frontend/src/themes/

Channels

Django Channels - Extension that adds WebSocket support to Django via ASGI.

  • Consumers: WebSocket handlers (similar to views)
  • Channel Layer: Redis-backed message passing for real-time features

DRF (Django REST Framework)

Powerful toolkit for building Web APIs in Django.

  • Serializers: Data validation and transformation
  • ViewSets: CRUD operations with routing
  • Permissions: Fine-grained access control

Data Concepts

Translation Models

Suffix pattern: *Translation (e.g., ProjectTranslation, UserProfileTranslation)

  • Languages: English (default), German
  • Framework: Django i18n with custom translation models

Availability

User time commitment level for climate action participation.

  • Examples: "Full-time", "Part-time", "Volunteer on weekends"
  • Related to: Job opportunities, project expectations

Skill

Hierarchical taxonomy of abilities relevant to climate action.

  • Structure: Parent-child relationships (e.g., "Programming" → "Python")
  • Usage: User profiles, project requirements, matching

Location

Geographic information with PostGIS support.

  • Fields: City, country, lat/long, multi-location support
  • Sources: OpenStreetMap, Nominatim API
  • Privacy: Users can choose location visibility

Status & State Values

Notification Types (Examples)

  • PRIVATE_MESSAGE - Direct message received
  • PROJECT_COMMENT - Comment on project
  • PROJECT_FOLLOWER - New project follower
  • PROJECT_LIKE - Project was liked
  • MEMBERSHIP_REQUEST - Join request received
  • IDEA_COMMENT - Comment on idea
  • (Total: 18+ types)

Common Abbreviations

  • CC: Climate Connect
  • API: Application Programming Interface
  • CRUD: Create, Read, Update, Delete
  • SSR: Server-Side Rendering
  • CSR: Client-Side Rendering
  • WS: WebSocket
  • OSM: OpenStreetMap
  • GCP: Google Cloud Platform
  • PDM: Python Development Master (package manager)

External Services

Azure Blob Storage

Cloud storage service for media files (profile images, project images, organization logos).

Google Maps API

Service for geocoding, map display, and location autocomplete.

Nominatim API

OpenStreetMap geocoding service for location search and reverse geocoding.

Sentry

Error tracking and monitoring service for both backend and frontend.

Relationships Overview

User (Django Auth)
  ↓ 1:1
UserProfile ←→ Skills (M2M)
  ↓         ↘ Location (FK)
  ↓          ↘ Availability (FK)
  ↓
  ├─→ ProjectMember → Project
  ├─→ OrganizationMember → Organization → Project (via ProjectParents)
  ├─→ HubMember → Hub
  ├─→ Idea
  ├─→ Message
  └─→ Notification (via UserNotification)

Note: This glossary is maintained to help developers, Copilot, and new contributors quickly understand Climate Connect's domain language.