Appalachian Assists Website

The website for Appalachian Assists (hauling, landscaping and transport, 681-220-0257). It runs entirely on Firebase's free Spark plan, with no credit card:

• Firebase Hosting serves the site as plain static files.
• Cloud Firestore stores requests, invoices, photos, reviews, events and subscribers.
• Firebase Authentication handles the owner login.
• EmailJS (free: 200 emails/month) sends email alerts, invoices and newsletters.

The previous server-based version (Twilio texts, Stripe, SQLite) is saved in ../Jerry-truck-server-backup.

What's included

Public site

• Home: overview, services, delivery rates, recent job photos, reviews, upcoming events, contact info, plus Book Now and Get an Estimate buttons.
• Get an Estimate: contact info and job details → alert sent to the owner (email, and optionally as a text; see "Getting alerts as texts").
• Book Now: pick materials and loads (live total), contact info, address, preferred date, extra details → alert sent to the owner.
• Our Work: job photo gallery with full-screen viewer.
• Reviews: approved reviews and a "leave a review" form (you approve before it shows), plus a link to review on Facebook.
• Events: monthly calendar and an upcoming list.
• Newsletter: email signup with one-click unsubscribe; customers can also opt in while booking.

Owner portal (/admin)

• Requests: every estimate and booking. Call/text the customer, keep private notes, change status, and create an invoice pre-filled with what they ordered. Add distance, fuel, labor or other fees, or a discount.
• Invoices: invoices from requests or custom invoices from scratch.
  • Text to customer opens the Messages app on your phone with the invoice link already written. Just hit send (free, from your own number).
  • Email to customer sends through EmailJS. Copy link lets you paste it into Messenger, etc.
  • Customers see a printable invoice page. Add your own Square/PayPal/Stripe payment link to show a "Pay Online" button.
  • Mark invoices paid (cash, check, …) or void them. Shows outstanding and paid-this-month totals.
• Photos: upload many at once from your phone; they're shrunk automatically.
• Reviews: approve or hide reviews, and copy reviews from your Facebook page (shown with a Facebook badge).
• Events: click a day on the calendar to add an event; click an event to edit it.
• Newsletter: write, send yourself a test, then send to all subscribers.
• Materials & Prices: edit the price list used on the home page and Book Now form.

One-time setup (about 20 minutes)

1. Create the Firebase project (free, no card)

1. Go to https://console.firebase.google.com → Add project. You can turn Google Analytics off.
2. Build → Firestore Database → Create database, Production mode, pick a US location.
3. Build → Authentication → Get started → Email/Password → Enable. Then Users → Add user with the owner's email and a strong password.
4. Project settings (gear) → General → Your apps → Web (</>). Register an app (skip Hosting setup there) and copy the config values.

2. Configure the site

npm install
cp .env.example .env.local     # fill in the Firebase values (and EmailJS, step 4)
cp .firebaserc.example .firebaserc

In .firebaserc, replace YOUR-PROJECT-ID with your Firebase project ID (it appears in 3 places).

3. Deploy

npx firebase login
npx firebase hosting:sites:create YOUR-PROJECT-ID-admin   # the separate owner-portal site
npm run deploy                                            # builds, then uploads site + security rules

• Public site: https://YOUR-PROJECT-ID.web.app
• Owner portal: https://YOUR-PROJECT-ID-admin.web.app (goes straight to the login)

The public site doesn't include the /admin pages at all; they only exist on the admin site. Your data is protected by firestore.rules: only the owner account can read requests, invoices and subscribers.

Put those two addresses into .env.local as NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL and NEXT_PUBLIC_ADMIN_URL, then npm run deploy again. A custom domain (e.g. appalachianassists.com) can be connected for free under Hosting → Add custom domain; you only pay for the domain itself.

4. Make yourself the owner

Open the owner portal and log in. It will show your user ID with instructions. In Firestore Database, create a collection named admins, add a document whose Document ID is that user ID (add any field, e.g. name = owner), and reload. On first login, click Load starter content to load the price list and starter photos.

5. Email alerts (EmailJS)

1. Sign up free at https://www.emailjs.com.
2. Email Services → Add New Service (e.g. Gmail) → note the Service ID.
3. Email Templates → Create New Template twice:
   • Owner alert: To Email = your email; Subject = {{subject}}; Content = {{message}}. Note its Template ID.
   • Customer: To Email = {{to_email}}; Subject = {{subject}}; Content = {{message}}; Reply To = your email. Note its Template ID.
4. Account → General → copy the Public Key.
5. Account → Security: add your site's domains (YOUR-PROJECT-ID.web.app, YOUR-PROJECT-ID-admin.web.app, your custom domain) under allowed origins so other websites can't use your account.
6. Put the four values in .env.local and npm run deploy.

Getting alerts as texts (free)

In the Owner alert template, add your phone's email-to-text address as a second recipient (BCC). For example 6812200257@vtext.com (Verizon) or 6812200257@tmomail.net (T-Mobile). Carriers are phasing these out, and some no longer offer them, so test it. Alternatively, turn on notifications for that email account in your phone's mail app.

Free-plan limits (plenty for a small business)

Service	Free limit
Firestore	1 GB stored, 50,000 reads and 20,000 writes per day
Hosting	10 GB storage, 360 MB/day transfer
EmailJS	200 emails/month (alerts + invoices + newsletters combined)

If the newsletter list grows past what EmailJS's free plan covers, export subscribers from the portal and use a free newsletter service such as MailerLite or Brevo.

Local development

npm run dev    # http://localhost:3000 (owner portal at /admin)

This uses your real Firebase project. To test without touching real data, use the emulators: npx firebase emulators:start --only firestore,auth (requires Java), and start the site with NEXT_PUBLIC_USE_EMULATORS=1 set.

Business info

Phone, Facebook link, service area, hours and the "What we do" text are in src/lib/site.ts. Add a public email there to show it on the site. Brand images are in public/brand/; print/marketing graphics (flyers, QR code) are in marketing/.

Tech

Next.js 15 (static export) · React 19 · Tailwind CSS 4 · Firebase (Hosting, Firestore, Auth) · EmailJS.