Roundware is a client-server system. The server runs using Apache HTTP Server and mod_wsgi on Ubuntu Linux 24.04 LTS Noble Numbat and clients are available for iOS and HTML5 browsers (mobile and desktop). There is an old Android client as well, but it is not supported currently. This document outlines the steps required to setup a basic Roundware server that can be accessed through any of these clients.
For more information about Roundware functionalities and projects that use the platform, please check out: roundware.org
Roundware includes an install.sh to handle installation of the software and its dependencies. The majority of the process is automated. Further configuration is required for a production system, application specific details are below.
user@server:~ $ git clone https://github.com/roundware/roundware-server.git
user@server:~ $ cd roundware-server
user@server:~/roundware-server $ sudo ./install.sh
The installation process creates a roundware user as project owner. su to
that user to load the required virtual environment:
sudo su - roundware
The production Roundware/Django settings file used by WSGI Apache2 is stored
outside of the source code directory in the file
/var/www/roundware/settings/roundware_production.py. All
settings in /var/www/roundware/source/roundware/settings/common.py can be
overridden there. Do not modify any file within the /var/www/roundware/source
directory unless you intend to maintain your own fork of Roundware Server.
Roundware is now containerized for local development using devcontainers. We have not yet containerized for production, though that is on the roadmap. We have optimized for VSCode, but any IDE that integrates devcontainers should work.
deploy.sh exists to update the Apache WSGI production code. Note: It fully
replaces any code in /var/www/roundware/static/. So, for example,
customizations to roundware/rw/settings/common.py must be done to the code
base the deploy.sh script is run from. To perform a code upgrade:
user@server:~/roundware-server $ git pull
user@server:~/roundware-server $ sudo ./deploy.sh
Roundware uses Postgresql and requires a dedicated database with a dedicated user.
You may change the database name and account info to fit your needs, but if you
do, be sure to change the Roundware config (/etc/roundware/rw) and the Django
settings (roundware-server/roundware/settings.py) to reflect your changes.
Apache must be configured to use mod_wsgi to host
Roundware. A default config is included at
roundware-server/files/etc-apache2-sites-available-roundware. If manually
installing on a clean 14.04 machine, this file can simply be copied to the
Apache configuration directory, though there are several changes that should
be made to reflect your environment.
(roundware)user@machine:~/roundware-server/roundware$ ./manage.py syncdb
Note - this script may prompt for the username and password for your database. If you changed these values from the defaults when creating the Roundware DB, the changes must be reflected here. You'll be asked if you want to create a superuser like so:
You just installed Django's auth system, which means you don't have any superusers defined.
Would you like to create one now? (yes/no):
Answer yes, and provide the default values for username ('round') and password
('round'). Note that any subsequent changes must be reflected in settings.py.
The email address can be anything, and is not currently used.
If you have a fixture data file, you can populate your database with this data by running the Django command:
(roundware)user@machine:~/roundware-server/roundware$ ./manage.py loaddata <path_to_fixture>
The base Roundware install package includes a standard DB fixture file to populate a default database with the basic data you will need to test your installation. That can be installed similarly, if you so choose:
(roundware)user@machine:~/roundware-server/roundware$ ./manage.py loaddata rw/fixtures/base_rw.json
Make some edits to the Django settings file, roundware/settings.py:
ANONYMOUS_USER_ID = 0 // change this to the proper id for AnonymousUser in database for Guardian
# settings for notifications module - email account from which notifications will be sent
EMAIL_HOST = 'smtp.example.com'
EMAIL_HOST_USER = 'email@example.com'
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = 'password'
EMAIL_PORT = 587
EMAIL_USE_TLS = True
Open a browser and browse to http://example.com/admin, and verify you see the Django admin page.
You can check the Apache log files for debugging information:
- /var/log/apache2/access.log
- /var/log/apache2/error.log
as well as the Roundware log:
- /var/log/roundware
Roundware uses separate pip requirements files and Django settings files for development. If you are running Roundware as a development server, you should run:
user@machine:~/roundware-server $ pip install -r requirements/dev.txt
to get the additional requirements for development and testing. You should also edit your ~/.bashrc file (or other method of setting persistent environment variables) to add:
export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=roundware.settings.dev
Note: You can use a local_settings.py (not in version control) inside
of the roundware/settings/ directory.
To run unit and functional tests and see test coverage, you will need the development requirements (see above). To run tests and get a report of test coverage:
(roundware)user@machine:~/roundware-server$ ./test.sh
During significant server upgrades the Python VirtualEnv may need to be rebuilt. Enter the
following as root to recreate/rebuild the VirtualEnv. $USER is roundware or
vagrant depending on your installation type (production or vagrant.)
rm -rf /var/www/roundware/include/ /var/www/roundware/lib/ \
/var/www/roundware/local/ /var/www/roundware/bin/
su - $USER -c "virtualenv --system-site-packages /var/www/roundware"
./deploy.sh