Askbot

Askbot is a stackoverflow-like Q&A-Forum and used for http://ask.libreoffice.org.

Installation

Note

Documentation for our instance can be found at http://ask.libreoffice.org/en/doc/index.html

• Install:

  • Nginx
  • supervisord
  • Postgresql

• Allow to build psycopg2 in a virtualenv:

  sudo apt-get build-dep python-psycopg2
  

• Create a user for askbot with group www-data and home directory /srv/askbot:

  sudo useradd -md /srv/askbot -g www-data askbot
  

• Create database user:

  createuser -S -D -R -P askbot
  

• Clone the LibreOffice-Askbot Repository:

  sudo -i -u askbot
  git clone git@github.com:awerner/askbot-devel.git /srv/askbot/libo-askbot/
  

• Create a virtual python exclusively for askbot and install needed packages:

  sudo -i -u askbot
  virtualenv virt
  . virt/bin/activate
  pip install -r libo-askbot/askbot_requirements.txt
  pip install psycopg2
  pip install django-rosetta
  pip install uWSGI
  

• Adapt settings.py:

  INTERNAL_IPS = ('127.0.0.1',)
  
  ADMINS = (
      ('Alexander Werner', 'alex@documentfoundation.org'),
  )
  
  MANAGERS = ADMINS
  
  DATABASE_ENGINE = 'postgresql_psycopg2'
  DATABASE_NAME = 'askbot'
  DATABASE_USER = 'askbot'
  DATABASE_PASSWORD = '******'
  DATABASE_HOST = 'localhost'
  DATABASE_PORT = ''
  
  SERVER_EMAIL = ''
  DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = 'webmaster@documentfoundation.org'
  EMAIL_HOST_USER = ''
  EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = ''
  EMAIL_SUBJECT_PREFIX = '[askLibO]'
  EMAIL_HOST='localhost'
  EMAIL_PORT='25'
  EMAIL_USE_TLS=False
  EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend'
  
  TIME_ZONE = 'Europe/Berlin'
  
  LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en'
  
  LANGUAGES = (
    ('de', 'German'),
    ('en', 'English'),
    ('hr', 'Croatian'),
    ('it', 'Italian'),
    ('pt-br', 'Portugese'),
    ('sp', 'Spanish'),
    ('ro', 'Romanian'),
  )
  
  ASKBOT_ALLOWED_UPLOAD_FILE_TYPES = ('.jpg', '.jpeg', '.gif', '.bmp', '.png', '.tiff', '.odt', '.ods', '.odp', '.odg', '.odc', '.odf', '.odi', '.odm',
                                      '.ott', '.ots', '.otp', '.otg', '.odb')
  ASKBOT_MAX_UPLOAD_FILE_SIZE = 10 * 1024 * 1024 #result in bytes
  
  INSTALLED_APPS = (
      # .... +
      'avatar',#experimental use git clone git://github.com/ericflo/django-avatar.git$
      #requires setting of MEDIA_ROOT and MEDIA_URL
      'rosetta',
  )
  
  ASKBOT_URL = '' #no leading slash, default = '' empty string
  ASKBOT_TRANSLATE_URL = False #translate specific URLs
  
  CSRF_COOKIE_NAME = 'ask.libreoffice.org_csrf'
  CSRF_COOKIE_DOMAIN = DOMAIN_NAME
  
  RECAPTCHA_USE_SSL = True
  

• Collect static files:

  ./manage.py collectstatic
  

• Let supervisor manage the uWSGI-Processes, add to /etc/supervisord.conf:

  [program:uwsgi-askbot-emperor]
  command=/srv/askbot/virt/bin/uwsgi --emperor /srv/askbot/libo-askbot/uwsgi_config
  directory=/srv/askbot/
  user=askbot
  autorestart=true
  autostart=true
  redirect_stderr=true
  

• Restart supervisord / add uwsgi-askbot-emperor to supervisord.

• Basic nginx configuration in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/askbot:

  upstream askbot-en {
          server unix:///tmp/askbot-en.sock;
  }
  server {
          listen 80 default;
          client_max_body_size 4G;
          server_name ask.libreoffice.org;
          keepalive_timeout 5;
          # path for static files
          #root /srv/askbot/libo-askbot/static;
          location / {
            rewrite  ^(.*)$  /en$1  permanent;
          }
          location /static/ {
            location ~* ^.+\.(html|py) {
              deny all;
              return 404;
              break;
            }
            alias /srv/askbot/libo-askbot/static/;
            expires 30d;
          }
          location ^~ /upfiles/ {
            alias /srv/askbot/libo-askbot/askbot/upfiles/;
            expires 30d;
          }
          error_page 500 502 503 504  /500.html;
          location = /500.html {
            root  /var/www/maintenance/;
          }
          location /en/ {
              uwsgi_pass askbot-en;
              #uwsgi_param SCRIPT_NAME /en;
              include uwsgi_params;
          }
      }
  

Add translation

• Create a database for The language:

  createdb --template template0 --locale C.utf8 --encoding utf-8 --owner askbot askbot_LANGCODE
  

• Add the file settings_LANGCODE.py in /srv/askbot/libo-askbot:

  from settings import *
  _ = lambda x: x
  
  #DEBUG = True
  #TEMPLATE_DEBUG = DEBUG
  DATABASE_NAME = 'askbot_LANGCODE'             # Or path to database file if using sqlite3.
  EMAIL_SUBJECT_PREFIX = '[askLibo-LANGCODE]'
  TIME_ZONE = 'ADAPT'
  LANGUAGE_CODE = 'LANGCODE'
  CACHE_PREFIX = 'askbot_LANGCODE'
  LOG_FILENAME = 'askbot_LANGCODE.log'
  ASKBOT_URL = 'LANGCODE/'
  LOGIN_URL = '/%s%s%s' % (ASKBOT_URL,_('account/'),_('signin/'))
  LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = ASKBOT_URL
  CSRF_COOKIE_NAME = 'ask.libreoffice.org_LANGCODE_csrf'
  SESSION_COOKIE_PATH = '/%s' % ASKBOT_URL
  

• Add the file manage_LANGCODE.py in /srv/askbot/libo-askbot:

  #!/usr/bin/env python
  from django.core.management import execute_manager
  try:
      import settings_LANGCODE as settings # Assumed to be in the same directory.
  except ImportError:
      import sys
      sys.stderr.write("Error: Can't find the file 'settings.py' in the directory containing %r. It appears you've customized things.\nYou'll have to run django-admin.py, passing it your settings module.\n(If the file settings.py does indeed exist, it's causing an ImportError somehow.)\n" % __file__)
      sys.exit(1)
  
  if __name__ == "__main__":
      execute_manager(settings)
  

• Synchronize the new database:

  ./manage_LANGCODE.py syncdb --migrate
  

• Symlink /srv/askbot/libo-askbot/uwsgi_config/askbot.skel to /srv/askbot/libo-askbot/uwsgi_config/LANGCODE.ini:

  cd /srv/askbot/libo-asktob/uwsgi_config
  ln -s askbot.skel LANGCODE.ini
  

• Add nginx configuration to head of /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/askbot:

  upstream askbot-LANGCODE {
          server unix:///tmp/askbot-LANGCODE.sock;
  }
  

• Add nginx configuration to the end of the server-directive in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/askbot:

  location /en/ {
                uwsgi_pass askbot-en;
                #uwsgi_param SCRIPT_NAME /en;
                include uwsgi_params;
            }
  

Error Handling

Service unavailable

• Do the sockets in /tmp/askbot-* exist?

  • No:

    /etc/init.d/supervisord restart
    

  • Yes:

    /etc/init.d/supervisord stop
    rm /tmp/askbot-*
    /etc/init.d/supervisord start
    

Start

The askbot process is managed by supervisord:

sudo supervisorctl start uwsgi-askbot-emperor

Stop

The askbot process is managed by supervisord:

sudo supervisorctl stop uwsgi-askbot-emperor

Disable

Set autostart=false in /etc/supervisord.conf in the section program:uwsgi-askbot-emperor

Enable

Set autostart=true in /etc/supervisord.conf in the section program:uwsgi-askbot-emperor

Responsible

Alexander Werner