Installation

Installation#

This section covers the installation steps of the sofware.

System packages#

$ sudo apt install gettext curl npm libpango-1.0-0 libpangoft2-1.0-0

Poetry#

$ curl -sSL https://install.python-poetry.org | python3 -

at the end of the ~/.bashrc file add the line:

$ export PATH="/root/.local/bin:$PATH"

PostgreSQL#

Install PostgreSQL, the version provided by default for your GNU/Linux distribution.

$ sudo apt-get install postgresql

Create a database, database user:

$ sudo -u postgres createuser <username>
$ sudo -u postgres createdb <database>
$ sudo -u postgres psql
psql (15.6 (Debian 15.6-0+deb12u1))
Type "help" for help.
postgres=# alter user <username> with encrypted password '<password>';
ALTER ROLE
postgres=# grant all privileges on database <database> to <username>;
GRANT
postgres=# alter database <database> owner to <username>;
ALTER DATABASE

E-Learning Platform#

git clone https://github.com/NC3-LU/eLearning.git
cd eLearning
npm install

Copy the config and adjust the DB connection and the other settings:

cp elearning/config_dev.py elearning/config.py
poetry install
poetry shell
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py collectstatic
poetry manage.py compilemessagess

Theme#

In this case, the theme (static and templates) of the sofware will be cloned into the theme folder. You can replace it by your own. Currently one theme is available:

Exemple:

cd eLearning
git clone https://github.com/NC3-LU/eLearning_daaz_theme theme

Configuration#

In the configuration file elearning/config.py , ensures that you have configured:

  • PUBLIC_URL

  • ALLOWED_HOSTS

  • SITE_NAME

  • DATABASES

  • HASH_KEY and SECRET_KEY

  • DEBUG: must be set to False in a production environment

  • etc.

You must really set your secret keys.

Here is an example for the Fernet hash key (HASH_KEY):

$ python -c 'from cryptography.fernet import Fernet; print(Fernet.generate_key())'
b'Xaj5lFGAPiy2Ovzi4YmlWh-s4HHikFV4AswilOPPYN8='

For the Django secret key (SECRET_KEY), you can for example do:

$ python -c 'import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex())'
9cf5c7b13e469e6f6a9403b33410589031cfe927df6471a1cbdef1d4deb57c37

Populating the DB#

If you want to populate the database with an existing data, see the Populating or updating the DB from json file documentation

Launch the Django application#

poetry run python manage.py runserver 127.0.0.1:8000

Of course, do not do that for a production environment.

Apache#

The mod_wsgi package provides an Apache module that implements a WSGI compliant interface for hosting Python based web applications on top of the Apache web server. Install Apache and this module.

$ sudo apt install apache2 libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3

Note

Only in the case you can not use the version of mod_wsgi from your GNU/Linux distribution:

$ sudo apt install apache2 apache2-dev # apxs2
$ wget https://github.com/GrahamDumpleton/mod_wsgi/archive/refs/tags/5.0.0.tar.gz
$ tar -xzvf 5.0.0.tar.gz
$ cd mod_wsgi-5.0.0/
$ ./configure --with-apxs=/usr/bin/apxs2 --with-python=/home/<user>/.pyenv/shims/python
$ make
$ sudo make install

Then in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf add the lines:

LoadFile /home/<user>/.pyenv/versions/3.11.0/lib/libpython3.11.so
LoadModule wsgi_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_wsgi.so

Restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

For the next steps you must have a valid domain name.

Example of VirtualHost configuration file#

Modify the <install_path>, <user>, <virtualenv_path> tags as appropriate

For <virtualenv_path> check using :

$ cd <install_path>
$ poetry env info

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin info@nc3.lu
    ServerName elearning.nc3.lu
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin info@nc3.lu
    ServerName elearning.nc3.lu
    DocumentRoot <install_path>
    WSGIDaemonProcess elearning python-path=<install_path> python-home=<virtualenv_path>/lib/python3.10/site-packages/
    WSGIProcessGroup elearning
    WSGIScriptAlias / <install_path>/elearning/wsgi.py

    <Directory "<install_path>/elearning/">
        <Files "wsgi.py">
            Require all granted
        </Files>
        WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL}
        WSGIPassAuthorization On

        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    Alias /static <install_path>/elearning/static
    <Directory <install_path>/static>
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
    # error, crit, alert, emerg.
    # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
    # modules, e.g.
    LogLevel warn
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/elearning.nc3.lu_access.log combined
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/elearning.nc3.lu_error.log

    # Let's Encrypt configuration
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/elearning.nc3.lu/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/elearning.nc3.lu/privkey.pem
    Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf
</VirtualHost>

Then configure HTTPS properly. If you want to use Let’s Encrypt:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache
sudo certbot certonly --standalone -d elearning.nc3.lu
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Verify that the certificate will be automatically updated:

$ cat /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/elearning.nc3.lu.conf
# Options used in the renewal process
[renewalparams]
account = <-account-id->
authenticator = apache
server = https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
Contents