Installing the Numbas editor on Ubuntu#

These are outline instructions on setting up the Numbas editor with a backend MySQL database.

The Numbas editor uses Django, a web framework written in the Python programming language. Django has many configuration options, which we won’t detail here. For more information, consult the Django documentation.

Note

The following instructions are for a server running Ubuntu Xenial (16.04) or newer.

Essential package installation#

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

  1. Install Apache, Git, Apache WSGI module, MySQL and Python 3 using the apt 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

  2. Enable mod_wsgi, if it’s not already:

    a2enmod wsgi

Virtualenv#

Rather than rely on the system-wide Python executable and libraries, a more flexible approach is to use virtualenv, which is a tool to create an isolated Python environment.

  1. 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 start a new terminal, or log out and back in, for the group change to take effect.

  2. Install Pip:

    apt-get install python3-pip

  3. Install virtualenv:

    pip3 install virtualenv

  4. Create the virtualenv in a suitable location:

    mkdir /opt/python
setfacl -dR -m g:numbas:rwx /opt/python
virtualenv /opt/python/numbas-editor

  5. 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#

  1. Open the MySQL client:

    mysql

  2. Create a MySQL database called numbas_editor:

    create database numbas_editor;

  3. 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#

  1. 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

  2. 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#

  1. Clone the Numbas repository:

    git clone git://github.com/numbas/Numbas /srv/numbas/compiler

  2. Clone the editor under the webroot directory:

    git clone git://github.com/numbas/editor /srv/www/numbas_editor

  3. 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#

  1. Run the “first setup” script:

    python first_setup.py

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

    If you’ve been following these instructions exactly, you can accept the defaults for each question.

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

  2. Create the apache config file and enable the site.

    • Edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/numbas_editor.conf with contents similar to that in this prepared config file. If following these instructions exactly, then you only need to change the lines containing ServerName and ServerAdmin.

    • Enable the configuration:

      a2ensite numbas_editor.conf
service apache2 reload

  3. 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 run the command touch web/django.wsgi, or restart the Apache server.