whatsapp-reminder

README

WhatsApp Reminder

A Go application that sends WhatsApp reminders based on data from Google Sheets. Supports multiple deployment methods: CLI, Container, and Kubernetes.

Features

• Read reminder data from Google Sheets
• Send email notifications with WhatsApp links
• Configurable retention time for processed reminders
• Multiple deployment options (CLI, Docker, Kubernetes)
• YAML-based configuration

Configuration

All deployment methods use the same YAML configuration format. Copy config.yaml.example to config.yaml and update the values:

# Google Sheets configuration
googleSheets:
  spreadsheetId: "your_google_spreadsheet_id_here"
  sheetName: "your_sheet_name_here"
  serviceAccountFile: "/path/to/service-account.json"

# Email configuration (go-mail-service)
email:
  serviceUrl: "http://localhost:80"  # URL of the go-mail-service
  originAddress: "your_email@example.com"
  originName: "Your Name"

# Scheduling configuration (container only)
schedule:
  interval: "1h"        # How often to run
  runOnStartup: true    # Run immediately on startup

# Application configuration
app:
  timeLocation: "UTC"   # Timezone
  retentionTime: "24h"  # How long to keep processed reminders
  logLevel: "info"      # Log level

Deployment Methods

1. Kubernetes (Scheduled CronJob)

Deploy to Kubernetes using Helm for scheduled execution:

# Install the Helm chart

# Option 1: Using a service account JSON file
helm install whatsapp-reminder ./charts/whatsapp-reminder \
  --set config.googleSheets.spreadsheetId=YOUR_SPREADSHEET_ID \
  --set config.googleSheets.sheetName=YOUR_SHEET_NAME \
  --set secrets.emailOriginAddress=your-email@example.com \
  --set secrets.emailOriginName="Your Name" \
  --set-file secrets.serviceAccountJson=./service-account.json

# Option 2: Using service account JSON as a string (useful for CI/CD)
helm install whatsapp-reminder ./charts/whatsapp-reminder \
  --set config.googleSheets.spreadsheetId=YOUR_SPREADSHEET_ID \
  --set config.googleSheets.sheetName=YOUR_SHEET_NAME \
  --set secrets.emailOriginAddress=your-email@example.com \
  --set secrets.emailOriginName="Your Name" \
  --set secrets.serviceAccountJson='{"type":"service_account","project_id":"your-project",...}'

# Upgrade an existing deployment
helm upgrade whatsapp-reminder ./charts/whatsapp-reminder \
  -f your-values.yaml

# Uninstall
helm uninstall whatsapp-reminder

The Helm chart configures a Kubernetes CronJob that runs on a schedule (default: every hour). You can customize the schedule and other settings in values.yaml.

Job Retry Configuration:

You can configure how the job behaves when it fails:

# Configure retry behavior
helm install whatsapp-reminder ./charts/whatsapp-reminder \
  --set job.backoffLimit=5 \              # Retry up to 5 times on failure (default: 3)
  --set job.activeDeadlineSeconds=1200 \  # Timeout after 20 minutes (default: 600)
  ...other options...

Or set in values.yaml:

job:
  backoffLimit: 5           # Number of retries before considering job as failed
  activeDeadlineSeconds: 1200  # Maximum time for job execution (in seconds)

• backoffLimit: Number of times the job will retry if it fails (default: 3)
• activeDeadlineSeconds: Maximum time limit for the entire job including all retries (default: 600 seconds / 10 minutes)

Local K3D Testing

For local development and testing with K3D:

# Prerequisites: Install K3D
# https://k3d.io/#install-script

# Setup: Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your values
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your configuration

# Start K3D cluster and deploy
make start-k3d

# Stop K3D cluster
make stop-k3d

# Restart (useful after code changes)
make restart-k3d

The Makefile reads configuration from a .env file. Required variables:

• SPREADSHEET_ID - Your Google Sheets spreadsheet ID
• SHEET_NAME - Name of the sheet to read from
• EMAIL_ORIGIN_ADDRESS - Email address to send from
• EMAIL_ORIGIN_NAME - Display name for emails

Optional variables (see .env.example for defaults):

• SCHEDULE - Cron expression for job scheduling
• TIME_LOCATION - Timezone for processing
• RETENTION_TIME - How long to keep processed reminders
• EMAIL_SERVICE_URL - URL of the mail service

Service Account Authentication:

Set SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_BASE64 environment variable in your .env file with the base64-encoded JSON content. This approach completely avoids all shell escaping issues with special characters and literal \n in the private_key field.

To create the base64-encoded value:

# On Linux/Mac:
base64 -w 0 service-account.json

# On Windows (PowerShell):
[Convert]::ToBase64String([System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("service-account.json"))

# On Windows (Git Bash):
base64 -w 0 service-account.json

Then in your .env file (no quotes needed):

SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_BASE64=eyJ0eXBlIjoic2VydmljZV9hY2NvdW50IiwicHJvamVjdF9pZCI6InlvdXItcHJvamVjdCIsLi4ufQ==

Note about the private_key field: When you view the original JSON, the private_key field contains literal \n characters (backslash-n) instead of actual newlines. This is normal for service account JSON files. The base64 encoding handles this correctly, and the Google API client will process it properly.

2. CLI (One-time execution)

Build and run the CLI version for one-time execution:

# Build
go build ./cmd/cli

# Run with default config (./config.yaml)
./cli

# Run with custom config path
./cli -config /path/to/config.yaml

3. Container (Scheduled execution)

Build and run as a container for scheduled execution:

# Build container
docker build -t whatsapp-reminder .

# Run container
docker run --rm \
  -v $(pwd)/config.yaml:/app/config.yaml \
  -v $(pwd)/service-account.json:/app/service-account.json \
  whatsapp-reminder

# Or use docker-compose
docker-compose up

Email Service

This application requires the go-mail-service to send emails. You can run it locally or deploy it as needed. The mail service supports multiple providers including SendGrid and Mailjet.

For local development, you can run the mail service using Docker:

docker run -p 80:80 --env-file .env ghcr.io/jo-hoe/go-mail-service:latest

See the go-mail-service documentation for more details on configuration and deployment.

Linting

Project uses golangci-lint for linting.

Installation

https://golangci-lint.run/usage/install/

Execution

# Run linting
make lint

Or directly

golangci-lint run ./...