Lightweight child-support “what-if” calculator (currently Alabama). Runs anywhere with Docker. Built with ASP.NET Core, SQLite, and Bootstrap.
FairShare gives a quick, transparent estimate of who pays child support and how much under Alabama’s guidelines (CS-42 / CS-42-S). It’s meant for fast scenario modeling — not official filings or legal advice.
⚠️ Disclaimer: Informational/educational only. Not legal advice. Not a substitute for an attorney or court-approved worksheets.
Live demo: https://fairshare.theguywiththedogs.dev
Demo credentials are displayed on the login page: demo / Demo@123456! (limited access). A Guest entry link is also present.
Figure 1. Login View
Figure 2. Admin Landing View - Choose State
Figure 3. Select Form for State
Figure 4. Example Form in Wide View
Figure 5. Example Form in Reduced View (iPhone 14 Pro Max)
Figure 6. Parent Profiles View:
Figure 7. Settings (account, manage users)
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Accounts, roles & authorization. Admins can manage users (create/edit admins and users, delete accounts) and view the users screen; demo/guest are intentionally limited. (See Roles & Permissions below.)
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README and setup clarified; quick links to health checks and container usage.
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For full release notes see 4.0.0 on GitHub Releases.
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For Alabama, Two-column, responsive form (Plaintiff vs Defendant) with concise results:
- CS-42 (Standard) calculations
- CS-42-S (SPCA) calculations
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Light/Dark/Auto theme toggle.
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Clean error experience: pretty HTML for browsers; RFC-7807 ProblemDetails for API/fetch callers.
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Health endpoint:
GET /healthzfor container/ingress checks. -
Container-first: multi-stage Dockerfile; dead-simple
docker compose up -d. -
Inputs per parent:
- monthly gross
- pre-existing child support
- pre-existing alimony
- work-related childcare
- children’s health coverage.
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Follows the guidelines from Alabama's Rule 32: https://judicial.alabama.gov/docs/library/rules/ja32.pdf
| Role | Typical Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Guest | Limited preview | Navigate basic UI; no privileged actions. (Entry link on login page.) ([fairshare.theguywiththedogs.dev][1]) |
| Demo | Limited, read-only/guard-railed | Login shown on the site; intended for safe exploration. ([fairshare.theguywiththedogs.dev][1]) |
| User | Normal app usage | Create and run scenarios within allowed scope (no user admin). (Scope may evolve with future features.) |
| Admin | Full user administration | Create/edit Admin and User accounts, delete accounts, and access the users screen for management. (New in v4.) ([GitHub][2]) |
The live demo enforces stricter limits on Guest/Demo by design.
.NET (ASP.NET Core MVC with standard controller/views + Razor pages for account management) Bootstrap 5 SQLite for persistence (simple, portable) Docker & Docker Compose for deployment
Create directory for FairShare
Create a one-file compose and go:
# docker-compose.yml
services:
fairshare:
image: ghcr.io/jjwren/fairshare:latest
environment:
ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT: "Production"
ASPNETCORE_HTTP_PORTS: "9090" # container listens on 9090
UI__DefaultTheme: "dark" # light|dark|auto
ConnectionStrings__Default: "Data Source=/data/fairshare.db" # you need a data folder in your fairshare container
AdminSeed__Enabled: "true" # this pulls the initial admin config from the docker-compose/env that you will create for this
AdminSeed__User: "${AdminSeed__User}" # this should be set in an .env file
AdminSeed__Password: "${AdminSeed__Password}"
AdminSeed__LogGeneratedPassword: "true"
ports:
- "9090:9090"
volumes:
- "path/to/your/fairshare/container/data:/data" # you need a data folder in your fairshare container
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD", "curl", "-fsS", "http://localhost:9090/healthz"]
interval: 10s
timeout: 2s
retries: 6
restart: unless-stoppedThen:
cd fairshare
docker pull
docker compose up -d
# open http://localhost:9090TLS tip: terminate HTTPS at your reverse proxy (Nginx/Traefik) and proxy upstream to fairshare:9090.
Prereqs: Docker Desktop (or Engine). .NET SDK optional if you want to run outside containers.
git clone https://github.com/JJWren/FairShare.git
cd FairShare
docker compose build
docker compose up -d
# http://localhost:9090Running without Docker:
dotnet run --project src/FairShare/FairShare.csproj
ASPNETCORE_URLS=http://localhost:9090 dotnet run --project src/FairShare/FairShare.csproj
(Port alignment helps match container defaults.)
Environment variables you’ll actually care about:
| Variable | Default | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT |
Production |
Use Development to show detailed errors locally |
ASPNETCORE_HTTP_PORTS |
9090 |
Internal HTTP port inside the container |
AdminSeed__Enabled |
true |
Enables seeding the admin account from docker. Do not change on initial setup. |
AdminSeed__User |
set this yourself |
Use an .env file or set this here |
AdminSeed__Password |
set this yourself |
Use an .env file or set this here |
AdminSeed__LogGeneratedPassword |
true |
If you do not set the password, the app generates one for one and logs it on first run |
Reverse proxy: point upstream to fairshare:9090. Terminate TLS at the proxy.
GET /healthz → returns 200 OK and "OK" body; use in Docker/ingress health checks.
Example:
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD", "curl", "-fsS", "http://localhost:9090/healthz"]
interval: 10s
timeout: 2s
retries: 6
- Additional states/forms beyond Alabama that also do not have official calculators:
- Florida
- Mississippi
- West Virginia
- Persisted scenarios (save/share links)
- xlsx/pdf export
- Automated tests for table lookups & rounding rules
PRs welcome. Please keep business logic in services/managers, add tests for calculation changes, and keep runtime HTTP (terminate TLS at proxy). Mentorship/feedback on code, architecture, etc. is appreciated.
Apache 2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE.
Issues → GitHub Issues (avoid posting sensitive information).
v4.0.0 introduces user management & authorization (breaking change for deployments that had no auth). Review roles and ensure an admin path to manage accounts.
GitHub
v2.0.0 I believe is broken and instead of fixing it in version with a minor release, I added additional features and redesigned part of the architecture and moved to v3.0.0
Repo home (README, Dockerfile, compose): see repository root.
Releases (v4.0.0): see GitHub Releases on the sidebar.
Live demo / login: see demo site (with demo credentials on the page). https://fairshare.theguywiththedogs.dev
