Ubuntu from sources

This guide describes how to install the GovReady-Q server for Ubuntu 20.04 or greater from source code.

Note

Instructions applicable for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) Tested on an Ubuntu focal-20200423 Docker image.

Installing required OS packages

GovReady-Q requires Python 3.6 or higher and several Linux packages to provide full functionality. Execute the following commands:

# update package list
sudo apt-get update

# install dependencies
DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
    sudo -E apt-get install \
    unzip git curl \
    python3 python3-pip \
    python3-yaml \
    graphviz pandoc \
    language-pack-en-base language-pack-en

# to generate thumbnails and PDFs for export, you must install wkhtmltopdf
# WARNING: wkhtmltopdf can expose you to security risks. For more information,
# search the web for "wkhtmltopdf Server-Side Request Forgery"
read -p "Are you sure (yes/no)? " ; if [ "$REPLY" = "yes" ]; then sudo apt-get install wkhtmltopdf ; fi

Installing GovReady-Q

Clone the GovReady source code and install packages.

# clone GovReady-Q
git clone https://github.com/govready/govready-q
cd govready-q

# install Python 3 packages
pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt

# install Bootstrap and other vendor resources locally
./fetch-vendor-resources.sh

Setting up GovReady-Q

Run the final setup commands to initialize a local SQLite database in local/db.sqlite to make sure everything is OK so far.

The following warning message is expected and okay:

WARNING: Specified PDF generator is not supported. Setting generator to ‘off’.

# run database migrations (sqlite3 database used by default)
python3 manage.py migrate

# load a few critical modules
python3 manage.py load_modules

# create superuser with initial account
python3 manage.py first_run

Starting GovReady-Q

# run the server
python3 manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

Visit your GovReady-Q site in your web browser at:

http://localhost:8000/

It is not necessary to specify a port. GovReady-Q will read the local/environment.json file to determine host name and port.

# run the server
python3 manage.py runserver

Note

Depending on host configuration both python3 and python commands will work.

GovReady-Q can run on ports other than 8000. Port 8000 is selected for convenience.

GovReady-Q defaults to localhost:8000 when launched with python manage.py runserver.

Tested on an Ubuntu focal-20200423 Docker image.

(Optional) Installing Postgres, MySQL

GovReady-Q can optionally be configured to work with Postgress or MySQL database engines instead of the default SQLITE3.

# optional install of postgres and/or mysql
sudo apt-get install postgresql mysql-server mysql-client

# if you intend to use optional configurations, such as the MySQL adapter, you
# may need to run additional `pip3 install` commands, such as:
pip3 install --user -r requirements_mysql.txt

Creating “environment.json” configuration file

GovReady uses a configuration file stored at local/environment.json.

See Environment Settings for a complete list of variables you can configure.

Create a file there and include values like these:

{
  "debug": false,
  "host": "localhost:8000",
  "https": false,
  "secret-key": "...something here..."
}

(Optional) Enabling PDF export

To activate PDF and thumbnail generation, add gr-pdf-generator and gr-img-generator environment variables to your local/environment.json configuration file:

{
   ...
   "gr-pdf-generator": "wkhtmltopdf",
   "gr-img-generator": "wkhtmltopdf",
   ...
}

(Optional) Deployment utilities

Sample nginx.conf, supervisor.confg, and update.sh files can be found in the source code directory deployment/ubuntu.

(Optional) Creating a dedicated GovReady UNIX user

You may find it useful to create a user specifically for GovReady-Q. Do this before installing GovReady-Q.

# Create user.
useradd govready-q -m -c "govready-q"

# Change permissions so that the webserver can read static files.
chmod a+rx /home/govready-q