Installing the Numbas editor on Ubuntu

Essential package installation

Packages that would be installed as part of a standard Ubuntu install are not listed.

• Install Apache, Git, Apache WSGI module, MySQL and Python 3 using the packaging system: apt-get install apache2 apache2-dev git-core mysql-server mysql-common python3 acl libmysqlclient-dev python-dev libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3 python-tk tcl-dev tk-dev
• Enable mod_wsgi, if it's not already: a2enmod wsgi

Virtualenv

Rather than rely on the packaged version of Django, a more flexible approach is to use virtualenv, which is a tool to create an isolated Python environment.

• Create a user group which will have access to the virtualenv, and add yourself to it. groupadd numbas usermod your username -a -G numbas,www-data You might need to log out and back in for the group change to take effect.
• Install Pip: apt-get install python3-pip
• Install virtualenv: pip3 install virtualenv
• Create the virtualenv in a suitable location: mkdir /opt/python setfacl -dR -m g:numbas:rwx /opt/python virtualenv /opt/python/numbas-editor
• Activate the virtualenv: source /opt/python/numbas-editor/bin/activate (This ensures that subsequent python packages are installed in this isolated environment, and not in the system environment.)

Database

• Create a MySQL database called numbas_editor:
  • create database numbas_editor;
• Create a database user and grant privileges on numbas_editor database, with a password of your choice:
  • grant all privileges on numbas_editor.* to 'numbas_editor'@'localhost' identified by 'password';

Create directories and set permissions

• Create the following directories outside the web root, so they're not accessible to the public: mkdir /srv/numbas mkdir /srv/numbas/compiler mkdir /srv/numbas/media mkdir /srv/numbas/previews mkdir /srv/numbas/static
• Set the correct ownership and permissions: cd /srv/numbas chmod 2770 media previews chmod 2750 compiler static chgrp www-data compiler media previews static setfacl -dR -m g::rwX media previews setfacl -dR -m g::rX compiler static

Clone the editor and compiler repositories

• Clone the Numbas repository: git clone git://github.com/numbas/Numbas /srv/numbas/compiler
• Clone the editor under the webroot directory: git clone git://github.com/numbas/editor /srv/www/numbas_editor
• Install the Python module dependencies of the editor (in the virtualenv): pip install -r /srv/www/numbas_editor/requirements.txt pip install -r /srv/numbas/compiler/requirements.txt pip install mysqlclient mod_wsgi

Configuration

• Run python first_setup.py

  This will configure the editor based on your answers to a few questions, and write numbas/settings.py.

  If you've been following these instructions exactly, you can accept the defaults for most of the questions.

  If you make any mistakes, you can run the script again, or edit numbas/settings.py directly.

• Create apache config file and enable the site.
  • Edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/numbas_editor.conf with contents similar to that in apache2_ubuntu.conf. If following these instructions exactly, then all that needs changing are the lines ServerName and ServerAdmin.
  • a2ensite numbas_editor.conf service apache2 reload
• Point a web browser at the server hosting the editor.

Ongoing maintenance

To keep the editor up to date, run the following script: source /opt/python/numbas-editor/bin/activate cd /srv/numbas/compiler git pull origin master pip install -r requirements.txt cd /srv/www/numbas_editor git pull origin master python manage.py migrate python manage.py collectstatic --noinput pip install -r requirements.txt touch web/django.wsgi

Note that if any changes are made to the editor code, including editing the settings files, then for the web server to recognise these changes you must either touch the web/django.wsgi file, or restart the Apache server.