Manual Setup

Manual environment setup for all the repositories.

All the repositories are Python and Django based, so you need to get Python set up. The following section provides a step-by-step guide to setting up your working environment. If you bump into any issue, please check our Common Issues section first for help.

Python installation

First, check whether you've got Python installed:

python --version

or

python3 --version

We are currently on Python 3.8.x.

If you have a Windows machine, you can follow the commands for the Ubuntu setup using Git BASH.

Install dependencies

Add apt repository for older versions of python:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa

Then, run the following command:

sudo apt install \
    build-essential \
    curl \
    libbz2-dev \
    libffi-dev \
    liblzma-dev \
    libncursesw5-dev \
    libreadline-dev \
    libsqlite3-dev \
    libssl-dev \
    libxml2-dev \
    libxmlsec1-dev \
    llvm \
    make \
    python3.8-distutils \
    tk-dev \
    wget \
    xz-utils \
    zlib1g-dev

Install git

Install git by running sudo apt install git on Ubuntu or brew install git on Mac.

sqlite3 (Mac only)

If you're on Mac, you may have an old or incompatible sqlite3 version, and it's recommended to first upgrade your sqlite3 and follow the next steps. Otherwise, you can skip ahead. This should be done before running pyenv install (below) or Python will not use the correct version of sqlite3

Upgrade sqlite3 with brew install sqlite3. Then follow the instructions in brew info sqlite3 e.g.

If you need to have sqlite first in your PATH, run:
  echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/sqlite/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

For compilers to find sqlite you may need to set:
  export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/sqlite/lib"
  export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/sqlite/include"

Python versions with pyenv

If you don't have Python 3.8, we'd highly recommend using pyenv to manage multiple versions of Python.

Please follow the installation instruction for Mac or the one for Linux.

Check your pyenv installation:

pyenv versions

Install the required python version: (this process may take a while)

pyenv install 3.8.16

At the point of writing, we are using either 3.8.16. Feel free to try the latest patch version of 3.8 if a new one has come up.

Switch pyenv to using the 3.8.x:

pyenv global 3.8.16

This tells your system and the next steps in this page to use the selected Python version. You can double check by running pyenv versions again. The star * sign shows the selected version.

You can switch back to other Python version if you need to later. We use this Python version to build our virtual environment with pipenv in the next steps. Once the virtual environment is built, we don't need pyenv anymore.

pip - Python package management

Next up, you need to have pip. pip is Python standard package management system, used to install and manage software packages.

On Mac, pip should come with your Python installation.

On Ubuntu, run sudo apt-get install python3-pip.

Check that you've got pip installed:

pip --version

pipenv - Python virtual environment

Next, install pipenv. pipenv creates and manages virtual environment for the project. It installs and removes packages from the Pipfile in an isolated working environment, so it doesn't mess with your system.

If you're on a Windows machine, installing pipenv through Git BASH using the command below will not work. Please follow the steps for installing pipenv on Windows specifically instead.

On Mac, run brew install pipenv.

On Ubuntu, run sudo pip install pipenv.

pipenv - Windows installation

Follow the instructions here in the windows cmd terminal.

At the step about adding paths, also add the following (make sure to replace <username>):

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Packages\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.8_qbz5n2kfra8p0\LocalCache\local-packages\Python38\Scripts

Check that pipenv is installed by simply running pipenv which should output the list of commands. After that, you can return to using Git BASH.

Clone the repo

Please follow our Development Guidelines for the detail on how to clone or fork a repository.

Build and activate the virtual environment

Once you have the repo locally, cd into the folder, and run:

pipenv install --dev

This builds the virtual environment for the project. The process may take a few minutes.

Activate the virtual environment

If you've done everything right, all the steps above only have to be done once. And this is the point where you need to start from when you leave and come back, or start a new shell.

In the directory of the repo, run:

pipenv shell

This activates the virtual environment for this repo. Depending on your shell, you should see the difference in the shell prompt when you're inside a virtual environment.

Run the web server

Finally, inside the folder, run:

./run

This command will:

• sync the database

• collect the static files

• run a development web server

You should see output like the following:

Django version 3.2.23, using settings 'settings'
Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.

At this point the portal will be accessible with your browser at http://localhost:8000/.

The steps above are the same for all three repositories and the minimum to get the portal running. aimmo has some extras as it uses kubernetes and minikube so please check the aimmo setup for more detail.

Please do not hesitate to ask questions if you found any difficulties to get things up and running. Github Discussion is the perfect place for this. It is monitored by the core developers and your questions may help other contributors who bump into the same issues.