how to run lamp in env - django

TL;DR
How do I encapsulate my Apache/PHP/MySQL/Wordpress installation in an environment or sandbox?
In my absence the designers-that-be have decreed that we use Wordpress for our newest project, as opposed to the Django-type applications I am familiar with. Another developer has already started making a custom theme, but now he's gone and I'm supposed to take over his work but I have no experience whatsoever with LAMP or Wordpress.
I thought it would be a good start to encapsulate the project into a proper standalone repository that I can copy and share between machines and people, put on github, etc, and most importantly: it needs to run in a virtual-env instance (or equivalent), so it doesn't mess up anybody's other projects, we can run multiple versions, etc.
Can anybody help me with that? At the moment it looks like the required files are spread out over my whole computer, I keep having to touch stuff in my root-directory, I need sudo simply to start and stop the *##+ing server, it's complete lunacy.
Thank you!

Take a look at virtPHP, phpenv and php-build for creating isolated environments. As for typing sudo every time you need to start or stop the server, this is the right way of doing things.

Related

Erlang, connecting nodes across the internet in Erlang

I've started playing alittle with erlang, and find it most interesting.
My problem is this, I would like to set up a server to run a webservice. The service should be writen in erlang, and should be easily mutated, that Is I would like to be able to do hot codeswap alot, the code is writen and tested on another machine, it there a way to deploy code easily from one erlang noce to another, without having to wrap it up in files and transfer the files?
I think I remmember hearing something about being able to pass closures around inside the erlang VM, is this doable? or perhaps even updating threads on the server machine with the compiled code on the development machine?
I know this sounds like a risky way of doing things, and it is, but its what my mind has settled on.
if I understand correctly, you want to load a module from one node to another. In this case you can use the bif nl(Module) which loads the module "Module" on all nodes. Or you can either use nc(Module) Of course the nodes must share the same cookie and must be connected (see net_adm:ping(Node))
You can't really get away from transferring files to your target deployment machine. At the very least your going to need to send down the new versions of the modules.
Once you have updated the modules your options for updating code of the fly range from simply reloading a module (something like code:load_file/1). A full blown OTP upgrade (rebar may help here) or something in-between (like updo or the mochiweb reloader module). It really depends on what you are trying to do, the dependencies between the changed modules, etc.

What's the best way to install a standalone djangopypi?

I would like to install a djangopypi server for our local development and deployment. However, I'm slightly confused about its installation docs. Apparently, it's assumed that djangopypi is installed inside a bigger project as an app, which is at least debatable from my point of view. I would like my local PyPI instance to run independently of anything else, as a "normal" web service.
And this is where I'm lost. It seems I need some kind of a minimal Django project to wrap djangopypi, which seems a bit overkill for me. Is there a more elegant way to install it in standalone mode?
That's exactly what you need. djangopypi is just an app. Like any Django app, it needs to know stuff like how to connect to your database, etc. That information comes from the project. It doesn't provide this for you because there's no way it could possible know what the best settings are for your particular environment; that's your responsibility.
So, no, it's not "overkill". It's the bare minimum required for functionality, and it's just the way things are. Create a simple project, change all the relevant items in settings.py, nclude djangopypi's urls.py in yours, and you're done. Is is really that hard?

How to work in locale/remote and have the work always synchronized

this is a newbie question.
I've a server where I've uploaded all my work directory. It's a small project in Django.
I want to work either in locale and in remote server, but I want the both directories ever synchronized. When I'm going to work on my computer, I would the work directory to be synchronized. And vice versa.
Someone says me to use sshfs, rsync, git.
What are your recommendations? Which one should I use?
You should be using git (or another version control system) anyway, to ensure that you always have a record of the changes you make to your work. Synchronising across systems is an added benefit that you will get if you set up the git remotes properly, and always ensure that you pull from the remote when you start and push back when you finish.
Easiest answer for complete synchronization between them... Drop Box :)
But git might serve you well. Especially if you want to expand on this someday to have a QA vs. Production server that you stage changes across. That topic is a big one that's been answered a few times here. Do a search for "git production deploy" to get a list of questions around that topic.

What is the most straightforward path to move a project from Pinax 0.5.1 to 0.7beta3?

I'm updating a 0.5.1 complete_project to 0.7beta3 + virtualenv + pip + fabric.
I have converted my project into multiple stand-alone applications and I have everything being pulled down by pip from a requirements.txt file.
I am now moving the code over and so far can get the Welcome page and perform a log-in, but then it breaks, due, it appears, to the introduction of Group support and the refactoring of Tribes into Tribes and Topics.
Has anyone successfully made this move? If you did, how did you handle migrating your data? What should I be looking out for? Anyone have a checklist or list of steps? What other exciting challenges do I have to look forward to?
The short answer as far as I'm aware (and I've been following Pinax development for some time now) is that there is no straightforward path to upgrade the project from 0.5.1 to 0.7beta3. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the code, but this is the process I would use based on my limited experience:
Start by using the social_project/ that ships with the latest version of Pinax. Copy into it any changes you made to the settings.py file as well as any custom apps you have.
The templates and media have moved to folders outside of the projects, but if you customized any of them (I'm sure you did) take the custom ones and drop them into the template folders in your project to override those in the default theme folders. You should compare them to those in the theme folders to see what changes may need to be made to keep up with changes in the apps.
The next step would be to do the same thing with urls.py copying any customizations over the one provided by the project.
Try getting it running at this point with a fresh DB. Hopefully any errors will point you in the right direction to stuff that you might have missed or not known about.
Once you gotten it running most of the DB tables should be the same (I believe) except as you mentioned the Tribes stuff. Migrating the data, though, is still beyond what I've had to deal with.
Disclaimer: I've been following development but never had to perform an upgrade quite this big. Good luck and (obviously) back up your work and data before trying to port it all over.
See the documentation and code ( http://github.com/pinax/pinax/tree/master ) for more details. The code is a convenient (though tedious) way to watch the evolution between 0.5.1 and 0.7beta3, for what that's worth.

how-to: programmatic install on windows?

Can anyone list the steps needed to programatically install an application on Windows. Aside from copying the files where they need to be, what are the additional steps needed so that your app will be a first-class citizen in Windows (i.e. show up in the programs list, uninstall list...etc.)
I tried to google this, but had no luck.
BTW: This is for an unmanaged c++ application (developed in Qt), so I'd rather not involve the .net framework if I don't have to.
I highly recommend NSIS. Open Source, very active development, and it's hard to match/beat its extensibility.
To add your program to the Add/Remove Programs (or Programs and Features) list, add the following reg keys:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\PROGRAM_NAME]
"DisplayName"="PROGRAM_NAME"
"Publisher"="COMPANY_NAME"
"UninstallString"="PATH_TO_UNINSTALL_PROGRAM"
"DisplayIcon"="PATH_TO_ICON_FILE"
"DisplayVersion"="VERSION"
"InstallLocation"="PATH_TO_INSTALLATION_LOCATION"
I think the theme to the answers you'll see here is that you should use an installation program and that you should not write the installer yourself. Use one of the many installer-makers, such as Inno Setup, InstallSheild, or anything else someone recommends.
If you try to write the installer yourself, you'll probably do it wrong. This isn't a slight against you personally. It's just that there are a lot of little details that an installer should consider, and a lot of things that can go wrong, and if you want to write the installer yourself, you're just going to have to get all those things right. That means lots of research and lots of testing on your part. Save yourself the trouble.
Besides copying files, installation tasks vary quite a bit depending on what your program needs. Maybe you need to put an icon on the Start menu; an installer tool should have a way to make that happen very easily, automatically filling in the install location that the customer chose earlier in the installation, and maybe even choosing the right local language for the shortcut's label.
You might need to create registry entries, such as for file associations or licensing. Your installer tool should already have an easy way to specify what keys and values to create or modify.
You might need to register a COM server. That's a common enough action that your installer tool probably has a way of specifying that as part of the post-file-copy operation.
If there are some actions that your chosen installer tool doesn't already provide for, the tool will probably offer a way to add custom actions, perhaps through a scripting language, or perhaps through linking external code from a DLL you would write that gets included with your installer. Custom actions might include downloading an update from a specific Web site, sending e-mail, or taking an inventory of what other products from your company are already installed.
A couple of final things that an installer tool should provide are ways to apply upgrades to an existing installation, and a way to uninstall the program, undoing all those installation tasks (deleting files, restoring backups, unregistering COM servers, etc.).
I've used Inno Setup to package my software for C++. It's very simple compared to heavy duty solutions such at InstallShield. Everything can be contained in a single setup.exe without creating all these crazy batch scripts and so on.
Check it out here: http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php
It sounds like you need to check out the Windows Installer system. If you need the nitty-gritty, see the official documentation. For news, read the installer team's blog. Finally, since you're a programmer, you probably want to build the installer as a programmer would. WiX 3.0 is my tool of choice - open source code, from Microsoft to boot. Start with this tutorial on WiX. It's good.
The GUI for innosetup (highly recommended) is Istool
You can also use the MSI installer built into Visual Studio, it's a steeper learning curve (ie is a pain) but is useful if you are installing software in a corporate environment.
To have your program show up in the Start program menu,
You would need to create folder
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs
and added a short cut to the program you want to launch.
(If you want your application be listed
directly in the Start menu, or in the programs submenu,
you would put your short cut in the respective directory)
To programically create a short cut you can use IShellLink
(See MSDN article).
Since you want to uninstall, that gets a lot more involved because you don't want to simply go deleting DLLs or other common files without checking dependencies.
I would recommend using a setup/installation generator, especially nowadays with Vista being so persnickety, it is getting rather complicated to roll your own installation
if you need anything more than a single executable and a start menu shortcut.
I have been using Paquet Builder setup generator for several years now.
(The registered version includes uninstall).
You've already got the main steps. One you left out is to install on the Start Menu and provide an option to create a desktop and/or quick launch icon.
I would encourage you to look into using a setup program, as suggested by Jeremy.