edx-platform/README.md

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 - The first time
=============================

The following instructions will help you to download and setup a virtual machine
with a minimal amount of steps, using Vagrant. It is recommended for a first
installation, as it will save you from many of the common pitfalls of the
installation process.

1. Make sure you have plenty of available disk space, >5GB
2. Install Git: http://git-scm.com/downloads
3. Install VirtualBox: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
   See http://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/providers/index.html for a list of supported
   Providers.  You should use VirtualBox >= 4.2.12.
   (Windows: later/earlier VirtualBox versions than 4.2.12 have been reported to not work well with
   Vagrant.  If this is still a problem, you can
   install 4.2.12 from http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.2.12/).
4. Install Vagrant: http://www.vagrantup.com/ (Vagrant 1.2.2 or later)
5. Open a terminal
6. Download the project: `git clone https://github.com/edx/edx-platform.git`
7. Enter the project directory: `cd edx-platform/`
8. (Windows only) Run the commands to
   [deal with line endings and symlinks under Windows](https://github.com/edx/edx-platform/wiki/Simplified-install-with-vagrant#dealing-with-line-endings-and-symlinks-under-windows)
9. Create the development environment and start it: `vagrant up`

The initial `vagrant up` will download a Linux image, then boot and ask for your
host machine's administrator password to setup file sharing between your computer and the VM.
Once file sharing is established, `edx-platform/scripts/create-dev-env.sh` will
install dependencies and configure the VM.
This will take a while; go grab a coffee.

When complete, you should see a _"Success!"_ message.
If not, refer to the
[troubleshooting section](https://github.com/edx/edx-platform/wiki/Simplified-install-with-vagrant#troubleshooting).

Your development environment is initialized only on the first bring-up.
Subsequently `vagrant up` commands will boot your virtual machine normally.

Note: by default, the VM will get the IP `192.168.20.40`.
You can change this in your `Vagrantfile` (the startup message will reflect your VM's actual IP).

Accessing the VM
----------------

Once the installation is finished, to log into the virtual machine:

```
$ vagrant ssh
```

Note: This won't work from Windows. Instead, install PuTTY from
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/%7Esgtatham/putty/download.html. Then
connect to 192.168.20.40, port 2222, using vagrant/vagrant as a user/password.


Using edX
---------

When you login to your VM, you are in
`/opt/edx/edx-platform` by default, which is shared from your host workspace.
Your host computer contains the edx-project development code and repository.
Your VM runs edx-platform code mounted from your host, so
you can develop by editing on your host.

After logging into your VM with `vagrant ssh`,
start the _Studio_ and
_Learning management system (LMS)_
servers (run these from `/opt/edx/edx-platform`):

Learning management system (LMS):

```
$ rake lms[cms.dev,0.0.0.0:8000]
```

Studio (CMS):

```
$ rake cms[dev,0.0.0.0:8001]
```

The servers will come up to these URLs:

- LMS: http://192.168.20.40:8000/
- CMS: http://192.168.20.40:8001/

Your VM's port 8000 is forwarded to host port 9000
so you can also access the LMS with [http://localhost:9000/]().
Similarly, VM port 8001 is forwarded to host port 9001.
These are set in your `Vagrantfile`.

Note that when you register a new user through the web interface,
by default the activiation email will be appear on your VM's terminal.
Search for lines similar to:

```
Subject: Your account for edX Studio
From: registration@edx.org
```

and find the activation URL.

See the [Frequently Asked Questions](https://github.com/edx/edx-platform/wiki/Frequently-Asked-Questions)
for more usage tips.

Django admin & debug toolbar
-----------------------------

You can enable admin logins and the debug_toolbar by editing
`lms/envs/common.py`:

- enable ADMIN login page by setting:
  - ```
     'ENABLE_DJANGO_ADMIN_SITE': True
```


- enable debug toolbar by uncommenting:
  - ```
    # 'debug_toolbar.middleware.DebugToolbarMiddleware',
```

These are also defined in `lms/envs/dev.py`,
and usually active on localhost.

To get at your VM's 127.0.0.1, explicitly forward one of VM's available localhost ports to your computer.
Instead of `vagrant ssh`, login with:

```
$ ssh -L 6080:127.0.0.1:8080 vagrant@192.168.20.40
```

The password is _vagrant_.

From your VM, start the LMS as a localhost instance:

```
$ rake lms[cms.dev,127.0.0.1:8080]
```

You should see the debug toolbar now on [http:/localhost:6080/]().
You should now also see a login on [http://localhost:6080/admin/]()
You will need a privileged user for the admin login.
You can create a CMS/LMS super-user with:
```
$ ./manage.py lms createsuperuser
```


Stopping & starting
-------------------


To stop the VM (from your `edx-platform/` directory):
```
$ vagrant halt
```

To restart:

```
$ vagrant up
```

To suspend and resume tasks in progress on your VM:
```
$ vagrant suspend
$ # and later...
$ vagrant resume
```

Your development environment is normally created once, on first `vagrant up`.
You can continue to fetch changes in edx-platform
as you work with your VM.
To re-create your VM and create a fresh development environment:
```
$ vagrant destroy
$ vagrant up  # will make a new VM
```


Troubleshooting
---------------

If anything doesn't work as expected, see the
[troubleshooting section](https://github.com/edx/edx-platform/wiki/Simplified-install-with-vagrant#troubleshooting).

Installation - Advanced
=======================

Note: The following installation instructions are for advanced users & developers
who are familiar with setting up Python, Ruby & node.js virtual environments.
Even if you know what you are doing, edX has a large code base with multiple
dependencies, so you might still want to use the method described above the
first time, as Vagrant helps avoiding issues due to the different environments.

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
------------------------
Before you run your project, you need to create a sqlite database, create
tables in that database, and run database migrations. Fortunately, `django`
will do all of this for you

    $ ./manage.py lms syncdb --migrate
    $ ./manage.py cms syncdb --migrate

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.

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.

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.

Documentation
------------

High-level documentation of the code is located in the `doc` subdirectory. Start
with `overview.md` to get an introduction to the architecture of the system.

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.