This is the main edX platform which consists of LMS and Studio. See [code.edx.org](http://code.edx.org/) for other parts of the edX code base. Installation ============ There is a `scripts/create-dev-env.sh` that will attempt to set up a development environment. If you want to better understand what the script is doing, keep reading. Directory Hierarchy ------------------- This code assumes that it is checked out in a directory that has three sibling directories: `data` (used for XML course data), `db` (used to hold a [sqlite](https://sqlite.org/) database), and `log` (used to hold logs). If you clone the repository into a directory called `edx` inside of a directory called `dev`, here's an example of how the directory hierarchy should look: * dev \ * data * db * log * edx \ README.md Language Runtimes ----------------- You'll need to be sure that you have Python 2.7, Ruby 1.9.3, and NodeJS (latest stable) installed on your system. Some of these you can install using your system's package manager: [homebrew](http://mxcl.github.io/homebrew/) for Mac, [apt](http://wiki.debian.org/Apt) for Debian-based systems (including Ubuntu), [rpm](http://www.rpm.org/) or [yum](http://yum.baseurl.org/) for Red Hat based systems (including CentOS). If your system's package manager gives you the wrong version of a language runtime, then you'll need to use a versioning tool to install the correct version. Usually, you'll need to do this for Ruby: you can use [`rbenv`](https://github.com/sstephenson/rbenv) or [`rvm`](https://rvm.io/), but typically `rbenv` is simpler. For Python, you can use [`pythonz`](http://saghul.github.io/pythonz/), and for Node, you can use [`nvm`](https://github.com/creationix/nvm). Virtual Environments -------------------- Often, different projects will have conflicting dependencies: for example, two projects depending on two different, incompatible versions of a library. Clearly, you can't have both versions installed and used on your machine simultaneously. Virtual environments were created to solve this problem: by installing libraries into an isolated environment, only projects that live inside the environment will be able to see and use those libraries. Got incompatible dependencies? Use different virtual environments, and your problem is solved. Remember, each language has a different implementation. Python has [`virtualenv`](http://www.virtualenv.org/), Ruby has [`bundler`](http://gembundler.com/), and Node's virtual environment support is built into [`npm`](https://npmjs.org/), its library management tool. For each language, decide if you want to use a virtual environment, or if you want to install all the language dependencies globally (and risk conflicts). I suggest you start with installing things globally until and unless things break; you can always switch over to a virtual environment later on. Language Packages ----------------- The Python libraries we use are listed in `requirements.txt`. The Ruby libraries we use are listed in `Gemfile`. The Node libraries we use are listed in `packages.json`. Python has a library installer called [`pip`](http://www.pip-installer.org/), Ruby has a library installer called [`gem`](https://rubygems.org/) (or `bundle` if you're using a virtual environment), and Node has a library installer called [`npm`](https://npmjs.org/). Once you've got your languages and virtual environments set up, install the libraries like so: $ pip install -r requirements/edx/pre.txt $ pip install -r requirements/edx/base.txt $ pip install -r requirements/edx/post.txt $ bundle install $ npm install You can also use [`rake`](http://rake.rubyforge.org/) to get all of the prerequisites (or to update) them if they've changed $ rake install_prereqs Other Dependencies ------------------ You'll also need to install [MongoDB](http://www.mongodb.org/), since our application uses it in addition to sqlite. You can install it through your system package manager, and I suggest that you configure it to start automatically when you boot up your system, so that you never have to worry about it again. For Mac, use [`launchd`](https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/launchd.8.html) (running `brew info mongodb` will give you some commands you can copy-paste.) For Linux, you can use [`upstart`](http://upstart.ubuntu.com/), `chkconfig`, or any other process management tool. Configuring Your Project ------------------------ We use [`rake`](http://rake.rubyforge.org/) to execute common tasks in our project. The `rake` tasks are defined in the `rakefile`, or you can run `rake -T` to view a summary. Before you run your project, you need to create a sqlite database, create tables in that database, run database migrations, and populate templates for CMS templates. Fortunately, `rake` will do all of this for you! Just run: $ rake django-admin[syncdb] $ rake django-admin[migrate] $ rake cms:update_templates If you are running these commands using the [`zsh`](http://www.zsh.org/) shell, zsh will assume that you are doing [shell globbing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glob_%28programming%29), search for a file in your directory named `django-adminsyncdb` or `django-adminmigrate`, and fail. To fix this, just surround the argument with quotation marks, so that you're running `rake "django-admin[syncdb]"`. Run Your Project ---------------- edX has two components: Studio, the course authoring system; and the LMS (learning management system) used by students. These two systems communicate through the MongoDB database, which stores course information. To run Studio, run: $ rake cms To run the LMS, run: $ rake lms[cms.dev] Studio runs on port 8001, while LMS runs on port 8000, so you can run both of these commands simultaneously, using two different terminal windows. To view Studio, visit `127.0.0.1:8001` in your web browser; to view the LMS, visit `127.0.0.1:8000`. There's also an older version of the LMS that saves its information in XML files in the `data` directory, instead of in Mongo. To run this older version, run: $ rake lms License ------- The code in this repository is licensed under version 3 of the AGPL unless otherwise noted. Please see ``LICENSE.txt`` for details. How to Contribute ----------------- Contributions are very welcome. The easiest way is to fork this repo, and then make a pull request from your fork. The first time you make a pull request, you may be asked to sign a Contributor Agreement. Reporting Security Issues ------------------------- Please do not report security issues in public. Please email security@edx.org Mailing List and IRC Channel ---------------------------- You can discuss this code on the [edx-code Google Group](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/edx-code) or in the `edx-code` IRC channel on Freenode.