Local Setup

If you're setting up a local copy of the website for the first time, you're possibly new to QuarkNet. Check out the New Members Guide if you haven't already.

The preferred ELabs development environment is OS X. If you'd like to develop under Linux, we recommend Ubuntu or Fedora. If you'd like to try developing with a different OS, use this documentation as a starting point, and be sure to update it to record your experience.

Software

You will need to have the following programs, some of which might already be included with your OS (or you've installed them for a different reason):

• Java
• Apache
• Tomcat
• Ant
• PostgreSQL
• Subversion

Each link will take you to installation and local configuration instructions for OS X (and usually Fedora/Ubuntu).

Optionally, you may wish to have

• pgadmin3 - a GUI for Postgres administration
• TortoiseSVN - a GUI for SVN
• git-svn - if you prefer this to regular Subversion
• Eclipse or a similar IDE

Local Filestructure

To keep things standardized on the VMs, deployment there is performed by an ad hoc user named "quarkcat," and all of the site files are placed within a directory quarkcat/. The link below will guide you through creating quarkcat/ and its subdirectories and filling them with the requisite files.

Local Filestructure

Configuration and Permissions

The fileset of local-settings/, vds/, and configuration files within quarkcat/ will need to be adapted to your local computer in order to deploy the website to it. These settings depend on your choices when installing software (particularly Postgres), so be sure to finish that first. Detailed instructions are provided in the following links.

Configuration file settings

Users and permissions

Kerberos

Everything you need to do (in principle) to create a working local copy of the e-Labs site is now done. In order to commit files to the repository, however, you'll need SSH access to the machines at Fermilab where it's stored, and that means you need to get past Kerberos, Fermilab's authentication system.

Kerberos

-- Main.jgriffith - 2016-02-25