Detailed instructions for installing OSQA on WebFaction Adapted from http://code.pinaxproject.com/wiki/DetailedPinaxWebfaction/ Please email turian at gmail with any updates or corrections. Installing OSQA on Webfaction ------------------------------------ Details the steps for setting up OSQA on a Webfaction shared-hosting account, including email setup, using Apache2, mod_wsgi, psycopg2. If you want to search-and-replace through this file, you will need to replace: osqa_server [name of Webfaction application, which will be in ~/webapps/] osqa_static [name of Webfaction application for static media serving] DOMAIN.com [domain name for OSQA site] PORT [port number assigned by WebFaction to your mod_wsgi application] SITENAME [name you give the OSQA site, which will contain the apache logs] MYOSQA [name of the OSQA project] MAILBOX_USERNAME [username you give the email address] MAILBOX_PASSWORD [password that webfaction gives to this email username] OSQADATABASE_NAME [username you give the database] OSQADATABASE_PASSWORD [password that webfaction gives to this database] ~/envs/osqa [directory for the OSQA python environment, grep for 'env'] USERNAME [your WebFaction username] Some things I'm not sure about: Here's what I don't know how to do: * Set up a nginx server for static media. * Configure sphinx search * Use PostgreSQL, not MySQL: http://osqa.net/question/13/can-i-use-osqa-with-postgresql Webfaction Control Panel -------------------------- (Note: if you sign up and pick django it will create the application for you, website/subdomain and associate the two for you.) If necessary, add or create any domains or subdomains you may need. https://panel.webfaction.com/domain/list/ Let's call the domain DOMAIN.com. Create a new Webfaction application with a "Type:" of "mod_wsgi 2.5/Python2.5", naming it "osqa_server". (These instructions might also work with mod_wsgi 2.0, if you like.) https://panel.webfaction.com/app_/list Note the port number assigned to the mod_wsgi application. Call it PORT. Create a new Webfaction website which will associate the subdomain with the new osqa_server application. Give it name SITENAME, at least one domain, and set it to use the osqa_server application for the site's root location, "/". https://panel.webfaction.com/site/list You will need to create a database, typically one for each project you create. Change the type to PostgreSql and modify the name (it defaults to your webfaction account name) by adding an underscore and a project-specific identifier such as "_osqa". Before leaving this section of the control panel, you may wish to change the password. https://panel.webfaction.com/database/create Call these OSQADATABASE_NAME and OSQADATABASE_PASSWORD. Save the database password for later. [The following I haven't figured out yet] You will probably want to add a static media server. This is a Webfaction application. I created one of type "Static only (no .htaccess)" and with the name of "osqa_static". https://panel.webfaction.com/app_/create To configure email, you need an email mailbox. Add one here. Note that your mailbox password shouldn't be the same password you use to SSH to webfaction. https://panel.webfaction.com/mailbox/list Save the mail password for later. We will call the username and password MAILBOX_USERNAME and MAILBOX_PASSWORD, respectively. You might also consider adding an email address like admin@DOMAIN.com, here: https://panel.webfaction.com/email/list OSQA Software -------------- Log onto webfaction and get the code. I use my fork because I have a simple pip installation: git://github.com/turian/osqa.git In my situation, I keep source code in ~/utils/src, create virtual environments in ~/envs/osqa, and create Pinax projects in ~/webapps/osqa_server/projects. You will need pip + virtualenv installed: easy_install --prefix=~/utils/ pip easy_install --prefix=~/utils/ virtualenv cd ~/utils/src/ git clone git://github.com/turian/osqa.git cd osqa # We need python2.5 to be compatible with WSGI python2.5 ~/utils/bin/pip install -E ~/envs/osqa -r osqa-requirements.txt source ~/envs/osqa/bin/activate # [Optional] If you want a MySQL database easy_install-2.5 --prefix ~/envs/osqa/ mysql-python Additional Software ------------------- [Note that PostgreSQL installation doesn't work for me.] You will need to install psycopg2 separately for PostgreSQL. Psycopg2 requires a little fiddling. Continuing to work in the ~/utils/src/ directory: cd ~/utils/src/ wget http://initd.org/pub/software/psycopg/psycopg2-2.0.13.tar.gz tar zxf psycopg2-2.0.13.tar.gz cd psycopg2-2.0.13 nano setup.cfg # edit the line reading "#pg_config=" so that it reads: "pg_config=/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_config" python2.5 setup.py build python2.5 setup.py install Create a Project ---------------- In Pinax, you clone a project from OSQA. However, OSQA we just copy it. cd ~/webapps/osqa_server mkdir projects cd projects cp -R ~/utils/src/osqa MYOSQA cd MYOSQA export OSQAPROJECT=`pwd` Make some directories, as described in the OSQA INSTALL file: [okay I haven't actually done this yet] # mkdir -p $OSQASITE/upfiles/ # mkdir -p $OSQALOG # sudo chown -R `whoami`:www-data $OSQASITE # sudo chown -R `whoami`:www-data $OSQALOG # chmod -R g+w $OSQASITE/upfiles # chmod -R g+w $OSQALOG Edit the settings files: cd $OSQAPROJECT cp settings_local.py.dist settings_local.py vi settings_local.py settings.py Pay attention to the following settings: DATABASE_ENGINE = 'mysql' DATABASE_NAME = 'OSQADATABASE_NAME' DATABASE_USER = 'OSQADATABASE_NAME' DATABASE_PASSWORD = 'OSQADATABASE_PASSWORD' EMAIL_HOST='smtp.webfaction.com' EMAIL_HOST_USER='MAILBOX_USERNAME' EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD='MAILBOX_PASSWORD' EMAIL_PORT='25' DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = 'MAILBOX_USERNAME@DOMAIN.com' SERVER_EMAIL = 'MAILBOX_USERNAME@DOMAIN.com' # The following setting might not be necessary, it's used in Pinax tho CONTACT_EMAIL = "MAILBOX_USERNAME@DOMAIN.com" APP_URL = 'http://DOMAIN.com' #used by email notif system and RSS [Later on, the install instructions should talk about] SERVE_MEDIA = False # [Not present, not ready yet] Create a directory for logs: cd $OSQAPROJECT mkdir log Modify mail cron scripts "cron/send_email_alerts" as follows: [Pinax has cron/emit_notices.sh, cron/retry_deferred.sh, cron/send_mail.sh, are these also necessary?] #!/bin/sh WORKON_HOME=~/envs/osqa PROJECT_ROOT=~/webapps/osqa_server/projects/MYOSQA/ # activate virtual environment . $WORKON_HOME/bin/activate cd $PROJECT_ROOT python manage.py send_email_alerts >> $PROJECT_ROOT/log/cron_mail.log 2>&1 Use command "crontab -e" to add this script to your cron file, to run twice a day:: 1 0,12 * * * ~/webapps/osqa_server/projects/MYOSQA/cron/send_email_alerts [Configure sphinx] Create the database tables, indices, and so forth: python manage.py syncdb [Ignore the following static media steps, I haven't tried them] Build media directory links within the project and create symbolic links on the static media server. python manage.py build_media -all mkdir ~/webapps/OSQA_STATIC/MYOSQA ln -sd ~/webapps/osqa_server/projects/MYOSQA/site_media ~/webapps/OSQA_STATIC/MYOSQA/site_media Set up the badges: 1. You should run the SQL commands in: sql_scripts/badges.sql 2. Edit paths in the file `cron/multi_award_badges`. (This file doesn't yet exist in the git repositories, so just copy `cron/send_email_alerts` and make sure the command `multi_award_badges` is executed.) 3. Run `cron/multi_award_badges` to make sure it works okay. 4. Use `crontab -e` to call `cron/multi_award_badges` maybe four times an hour. 4,19,34,49 * * * * ~/webapps/osqa_server/projects/MYOSQA/cron/multi_award_badges 5. Repeat steps 1-4 for `cron/once_award_badges`. Configure Apache2 ---------------- Edit ~/webapps/osqa_server/apache2/conf/httpd.conf as follows:: ServerAdmin "MAILBOX_USERNAME@DOMAIN.com" ServerRoot "/home/USERNAME/webapps/osqa_server/apache2" ServerName DOMAIN.com LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so LoadModule env_module modules/mod_env.so #LoadModule setenvif_module modules/mod_setenvif.so LoadModule log_config_module modules/mod_log_config.so LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so LoadModule wsgi_module modules/mod_wsgi.so KeepAlive Off Listen PORT LogFormat "%{X-Forwarded-For}i %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined CustomLog /home/USERNAME/logs/user/access_osqa_server_log combined ErrorLog /home/USERNAME/logs/user/error_osqa_server_log ServerLimit 2 #SetEnvIf X-Forwarded-SSL on HTTPS=1 WSGIPythonPath /home/USERNAME/envs/osqa/lib/python2.5/site-packages/ WSGIScriptAlias / /home/USERNAME/webapps/osqa_server/projects/MYOSQA/osqa.wsgi LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so WSGIDaemonProcess osqaWSGI user=USERNAME group=USERNAME threads=25 python-path=/home/USERNAME/envs/osqa/lib/python2.5/site-packages WSGIProcessGroup osqaWSGI NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1:PORT #ErrorLog "logs/MYOSQA_2009_05_06.log" SetHandler none #Alias /site_media /home/USERNAME/webapps/static/MYOSQA/site_media #force all content to be served as static files #otherwise django will be crunching images through itself wasting time Alias /content/ /home/USERNAME/webapps/osqa_server/projects/MYOSQA/templates/content/ Alias /forum/admin/media/ /home/turian/envs/osqa/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/media/ #AliasMatch /([^/]*\.css) /home/USERNAME/webapps/osqa_server/projects/MYOSQA/templates/content/style/$1 # Order deny,allow # Allow from all If you want virtual hosts of the admin interface under HTTPS, please look at OSQA's install file. Create osqa.wsgi and edit it: cp osqa.wsgi.dist osqa.wsgi Edit ~/webapps/osqa_server/projects/MYOSQA/deploy/osqa.wsgi as follows:: import os import sys # redirect sys.stdout to sys.stderr for bad libraries like geopy that uses # print statements for optional import exceptions. sys.stdout = sys.stderr from os.path import abspath, dirname, join from site import addsitedir # add the virtual environment site-packages to the path from site import addsitedir addsitedir('/home/USERNAME/envs/osqa/lib/python2.5/site-packages') sys.path.insert(0, abspath(join(dirname(__file__), "../"))) sys.path.append(abspath(dirname(__file__))) from django.conf import settings os.environ["DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE"] = "MYOSQA.settings" #print sys.path from django.core.handlers.wsgi import WSGIHandler application = WSGIHandler() And then you're up and running with: ~/webapps/osqa_server/apache2/bin/stop ~/webapps/osqa_server/apache2/bin/start You should log in to the admin interface (http://DOMAIN.com/admin/), and go to "Sites > Sites", and change the domain name that is used in all emails.