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Setting up a demo site

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jpmckinney edited this page Feb 23, 2013 · 7 revisions

Brief instructions to get a demo site up quickly for your jurisdiction, in your language, with your public bodies, and without major security issues.

Launch an EC2 instance

From mySociety's EC2 AMI guide

Assumes you already have an EC2:

  • account
  • key pair
  • security group that opens ports 22 and 80

For a production website, you need to open port 25 for email.

  • Login to your AWS EC2 Console
  • Click "Launch Instance"
  • Click "Continue" to use the Classic Wizard
  • Click the "Community AMIs" tab
  • Select "64-bit" in the "Viewing:" select list and search for "ami-4d0ebc24"
  • Click "Select" once the AMI is found
  • Select your "Instance Type:" (medium is recommended for performance)
  • Click "Continue" repeatedly
  • Click "Launch"

You should be able to access your website at e.g. ec2-XX-XXX-XXX-XXX.compute-1.amazonaws.com.

Create an administrative user

From mySociety's installation guide

  • Go to http://ec2-XX-XXX-XXX-XXX.compute-1.amazonaws.com/en/profile/sign_in and sign up

  • Check your email and confirm your account

  • Go to http://ec2-XX-XXX-XXX-XXX.compute-1.amazonaws.com/admin?emergency=1

  • Login with username adminxxxx and password passwordx

  • Go to http://ec2-XX-XXX-XXX-XXX.compute-1.amazonaws.com/en/admin/user/edit/3

  • Change "Admin level" to none and click "Save"

  • Go to http://ec2-XX-XXX-XXX-XXX.compute-1.amazonaws.com/en/admin/user/list

  • Click on the name of the user you created, click "Edit", change "Admin level" to super and click "Save"

  • Secure the emergency username and password:

      sed -i "s/adminxxxx/`openssl rand -base64 32`/" config/general.yml
  sed -i "s/passwordx/`openssl rand -base64 32`/" config/general.yml
  ./script/rails-post-deploy

Upload a list of public bodies

  • Go to http://ec2-XX-XXX-XXX-XXX.compute-1.amazonaws.com/en/admin/body/import_csv

The lowercase, accentless versions of the names of public bodies must be unique.

Hide existing requests

  • Go to http://ec2-XX-XXX-XXX-XXX.compute-1.amazonaws.com/en/admin/request/list
  • Click on each request
  • Check the "Not a valid FOI request" radio button
  • Click "Hide request"

Localization

  • Add translations on Transifex

  • Install the Transifex client:

      sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
  sudo easy_install --upgrade transifex-client

  • Create a Transifex configuration file and download the translations (replace LOCALE below):

      sudo su - alaveteli
  cd $HOME
  tx init --host https://www.transifex.net
  cd $HOME/alaveteli
  tx pull -a -f
  bundle exec rake gettext:store_model_attributes
  bundle exec rake gettext:find
  sed -i 's/ es/ LOCALE/' config/general.yml
  ./script/rails-post-deploy

Additional documentation:

Note: tx init is run outside the Alaveteli directory to avoid overwriting .tx/config.

Next Steps

  • Use the stable version of Alaveteli:

      ssh -i /path/to/keypair.pem ubuntu@ec2-XX-XXX-XXX-XXX.compute-1.amazonaws.com
  sudo su - alaveteli
  cd $HOME
  git checkout master
  git pull
  ./script/rails-post-deploy

Additional documentation:

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