installation.rst

Installation

Install ASReview

ASReview software requires having Python 3.6 or higher installed. Detailed step-by-step instructions to install Python (and ASReview) are available for Windows and MacOS users.

Install the ASReview software with Pip by running the following command in the CMD.exe (Windows) or Terminal (MacOS/Linux):

pip install asreview

Start the application with the following command (in CMD.exe or Terminal):

asreview lab

You are now ready to start your first Automated Systematic Review!

See Troubleshooting for common problems.

Upgrade ASReview

Upgrade ASReview software with

pip install --upgrade asreview

Uninstall ASReview

Remove ASReview with

pip uninstall asreview

Enter y to confirm.

Warning

Note that your project files will not delete with this action. You find them in the .asreview folder in your home folder.

Server Installation

It is possible to run the ASReview software on a server or custom domain. Use the flags ip and port for configuration. ASReview should only be used in closed networks.

asreview lab --port 5555 --ip xxx.x.x.xx

Warning

Don't use the development server in production. Read the Flask documentation about deploying a Flask app to production.

Install with Docker

For a quickstart of ASReview LAB using Docker and without the need to install anything else, the latest version of the ASReview LAB can be started as well via Docker like this:

docker run -p 5000:5000 asreview/asreview

This will start the ASReview LAB server on port 5000 with default command line options and make it accessible to the host at http://localhost:5000 More advanced command line options can be given afterwards, like this:

docker run -p 9000:9000 asreview/asreview  --port 9000

For more information, see the GitHub page.

Troubleshooting

ASReview LAB is advanced machine learning software. In some situations, you might run into unexpected behavior. See below for solutions to problems.

Unknown Command "pip"

The command line returns one of the following messages:

-bash: pip: No such file or directory

'pip' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

First, check if Python is installed with the following command:

python --version

If this doesn't return 3.6 or higher, then Python isn't or not correctly installed.

Most likely, the enviroment variables aren't configured correctly. Follow our detailed step-by-step instructions to install Python correctly on Windows and MacOS.

However, there is a simple way to deal with correct environment variables by ading python -m in front of the command. For example:

python -m pip install asreview

Unknown command "asreview"

In some situations, the entry point "asreview" can not be found after installation. First check whether the package is correctly installed. Do this with the command python -m asreview -h. If this shows a decription of the program, use python -m in front of all your commands. For example:

python -m asreview lab

Build dependencies error

The command line returns the following message:

"Installing build dependencies ... error"

This error typically happens when the version of your Python installation has been released very recently. Because of this, the dependencies of ASReview are not compatible with your Python installation yet. It is advised to install the second most recent version of Python instead. Detailed step-by-step instructions to install Python (and ASReview) are available for Windows and MacOS users.

Remove temporary files

In case ASReview runs into unexpected errors or doesn't work as expected, it is advised to try to remove temporary files from the project first. These files can be found in the .asreview/ folder in your home directory. However, the easiest way to remove these files is with:

asreview lab --clean_all_projects

This will safely remove temporay files, nothing will harm your review. To clean a specific project, use

asreview lab --clean_project my-project

in which my_project is your project name.