Developing myRobogals on a Mac

Here's how to install a local development copy of myRobogals on Mac OS X.

This guide will be helpful for Linux users too - for the first part, instead install Django using instructions for your specific OS (Google is your friend), then the rest is the same for Linux as for Mac.

Install Python and Django

We currently use Django 1.3 with Python 2.6. For maximum compatibility with what's running on the live server, it's recommended that you use these versions too. You also need the "pytz" package.

You can install Django, Python and pytz using any method you wish.

Example using Fink (http://www.finkproject.org):

fink selfupdate-cvs
fink install django-py26 pytz-py26

Example using Macports (http://www.macports.org):

sudo port update
sudo port install py-django

Macports doesn't have pytz, so you'll need to download that yourself and put it somewhere in your Python path, for example in your site-packages directory.

Check out the myRobogals repository

Fork the myRobogals repository from Github to create your own copy of it, then check out that copy. The following pages may be helpful:

Github: Set up git

Github: Fork a repo

myRobogals repo

Create the settings file

In the "myrobogals" directory inside the "myrobogals" directory (yes you read that correctly), copy the file "settings.py.sample" to "settings.py"

Edit the file and fill in the path to your myRobogals directory at the top of the file.

Create the database and import sample data

If you leave the myRobogals sample settings as-is, Django will simply create an SQLite database for you when you execute the following command in the "myrobogals" directory (the same one that has settings.py in it). It will also import the sample data, which includes a few chapters and members.

python manage.py syncdb

Start the development server

python manage.py runserver

The development server will now be running on http://127.0.0.1:8000/ - click there and you'll see your very own local copy of myRobogals.

All the sample accounts have the password "test", so you can log in with the username "marita" and password "test" to get started.

Now get coding, and contribute your changes back to us as a "Pull Request" on Github!