DHtoolsSelector

DHtoolsSelector for Penn Libraries

Click here to try the beta version

If you are interested in joining the beta testing group, email sashafr@upenn.edu

Description

This application allows users to search for digital humanity tools based on their needs. The major features include:

• allowing users to choose from different tool projects;
• filtering searches through a multi-page search form;
• displaying details for each digital tool including images, links, and guides.

Prerequisites

• Python 2.7 or Python 3

• Pip

• Database

  Install the database you plan to use and the appropriate database bindings. For example, to use MySQL run:

  $ sudo apt-get mysql-server
  $ sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev python-dev
  $ pip install mysqlclient>=1.3.3
  

Getting started

Clone this repo:

 $ git clone https://github.com/upenndigitalscholarship/DHtoolsSelector.git
 $ cd DHtoolsSelector

Install the requirements:

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Create a settings file: /path/to/DHtoolsSelector/dhtool/settings.py and add the credentials.

• Configure the allowed host:

  ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['server_domain_or_IP']

• Add 'mptt' and 'jquery' in INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py:

  INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'mptt',
    'jquery',
  ]

• Set up database engine in settings.py. For example, if you're using MySQL, you can add the configurations like this:

  DATABASES = {
    'default': {
      'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
        'NAME': 'db_name',
        'USER': 'name',
        'PASSWORD': '',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '',
        }
        }

• Add configurations for static files and media files:

  STATIC_URL = '/static/'
  STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static/')
  
  MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')
  MEDIA_URL = '/media/'

  You can refer to the Django tutorial for more information about adding credentials in settings.py:

  https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.11/intro/tutorial01

Run migrations and create a superuser account:

After you've add the configurations in settings file, you'll need to run Django's migrations and create a superuser account. You can use these commands:

$ python manage.py migrate
$ python manage.py createsuperuser

Run the development server:

You can run the development server with the command:

$ python manage.py runserver [server IP][port number]

Visit http://[server IP]:[port number]/admin/ to use the admin interface, and http://[server IP]:[port number]/tools/ to see the views.

Setting up a deployment server

To get the application into production, you can serve the project with Apache and mod_wsgi with the following steps.

• Install Apache2 & mod_wsgi:

  $ sudo apt-get update
  $ sudo apt-get install python-pip apache2 libapache2-mod-wsgi
  

• Collect static files:

  $ python manage.py collectstatic

• Grant write permissions to Apache user group:

  The default Apache user group is www-data, and you'll need to grant write permissions to the www-data group so that your project users can upload image files in admin interface. You can run these commands:

  $ cd /path/to/DHtoolsSelector/dhtool/
  $ chgrp -R www-data /path/to/DHtoolsSelector/dhtool/media/
  $ chmod -R g+w /path/to/DHtoolsSelector/dhtool/media/
  

• Edit Apache server's httpd.conf file to configure the WSGI pass:

  If you're using Ubuntu 16.04, open the default virtual host file:

  $ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

  Edit the file like this:

   <VirtualHost *:80>
   . . .
   WSGIDaemonProcess dhtool.com python-path=/path/to/DHtoolsSelector/dhtool/dhtool/wsgi.py
   WSGIProcessGroup dhtool.com
  
   Alias /robots.txt /path/to/DHtoolsSelectordhtool/static/robots.txt
   Alias /favicon.ico /path/to/DHtoolsSelector/dhtool/static/favicon.ico
   Alias /media/ /path/to/DHtoolsSelector/dhtool/media/
   Alias /static/ /path/to/DHtoolsSelector/dhtool/static/
  
   <Directory /path/to/DHtoolsSelector/dhtool/static>
   Require all granted
   </Directory>
  
   <Directory /path/to/DHtoolsSelector/dhtool/media>
   Require all granted
   </Directory>
  
   <Directory /path/to/DHtoolsSelector/dhtool/dhtool>
   <Files wsgi.py>
   Require all granted
   </Files>
   </Directory>
   ...
   </VirtualHost>
  

• Check your Apache files to make sure you did not make any syntax errors:

  $ sudo apache2ctl configtest

  As long as the last line of output looks like this "Syntax OK", your files are in good shape.

• Restart the Apache service to implement changes:

  $ sudo systemctl restart apache2

You can refer to the following links for more information about how to set up a deployment server:

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.11/howto/deployment/wsgi/modwsgi

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-serve-django-applications-with-apache-and-mod_wsgi-on-ubuntu-16-04

Huge thank you to the Penn Libraries Digital Scholarship Interns who worked on this project: Haoran Shao, Jinyun Mu, and Sophia Heiser