Colab, a Software for Communities

Installation

Installation instructions for Ubuntu 10.04

• Install Apache2 with WSGI support:
  • apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-wsgi
• Install dependencies to compile psycopg2:
  • apt-get build-dep python-psycopg2
• Install Python PIP and update it:
  • apt-get install python-pip
  • pip install -U pip
• Install python virtualenv:
  • pip install virtualenv
• Create a virtualenv for the deploy
  • mkdir /usr/local/django/
  • virtualenv /usr/local/django/colab/
• Download the colab src code:
  • hg clone https://bitbucket.org/seocam/atu-colab /usr/local/src/colab/
• Install the django site:
  • pip install /usr/local/src/colab -E /usr/local/django/colab/
• Configure your database settings in /usr/local/django/colab/lib/python2.6/site-packages/settings_local.py
• Enable the colab site on apache and reload it:
  • ln -s /usr/local/django/colab/apache-site/colab /etc/apache2/sites-available
  • a2ensite colab
  • service apache2 restart

Configuring server to send emails

• Install postfix and mailutils:
  • apt-get install mailutils postfix
• Update the file /etc/aliases adding users that should receive root's messages and run the update command:
  • newaliases

Cron job to import emails

• Install sshfs:
  • apt-get install sshfs autofs
• Create SSH keys. You should use a password but this tutorial won't cover it (if you use you will need to install and configure keychain process to be able to proceed):
  • ssh-keygen
• Copy the content of your key (/root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) to the file /root/.ssh/authorized_keys on the mailinglist server.
• Append the following content to /etc/auto.master file:
  • /usr/local/django/colab/mnt /usr/local/django/colab/autofs/listas --timeout=600,--ghost
• Restart autofs:
  • service autofs restart
• Link cron script into /etc/cron.d/ folder:
  • ln -s /usr/local/django/colab/cron.d/colab_import_emails /etc/cron.d/
• From now on the emails should be imported every minute

Cron job to reindex Solr

• Install wget:
  • apt-get install wget
• Link cron script into /etc/cron.d/ folder:
  • ln -s /usr/local/django/colab/cron.d/colab_solr_reindex /etc/cron.d/
• From now on delta reindex should run every 10 minutes and full reindex once a day.

Updating an installed version

• Update the source code:
  • cd /usr/local/src/colab/
  • hg pull
  • hg up
  • pip install /usr/local/src/colab/ -E /usr/local/django/colab/ -U
  • service apache2 restart