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Set up Guide

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Prakhar Trivedi edited this page Aug 10, 2022 · 5 revisions

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Set-up Guide

Welcome to the Access set-up guide! Setting up Access is super easy as it was designed to be clone- and admin-friendly! Let's get started!

Setup Requirements

This guide assumes that you have the following tools/platforms:

  • Windows 10 and higher
  • macOS High Sierra and higher
  • Python 3.7 and higher
  • A git installation (Install git here)
  • Basic knowledge on how to operate the system. (Not that hard to understand, read up on the Access Startup and Access Emailing pages in this wiki).

Here we go:

Download a copy of Access

If you want the latest stable release, click this link. This will immediately start your download for the latest stable version of Access.

If you want the latest beta release (might have bugs), simply clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/Prakhar896/Access

Run Access Startup

cd into your folder then run the accessStartup.py file (Access Startup service) using python3/python accessStartup.py.

If any of the required modules are not installed, you should see the service automatically proceeding to install them. After that, the service will display the Startup Menu with a series of options that you can choose from.

Create a .env file in the Access directory

Don't know what a .env file is? Click here

Please read the The Steps section in the Access Emailing page in order to learn more about how to configure Access' emailing services with the AssignedSystemEmail and AccessEmailPassword .env variables.

Create the following variables that will configure how Access runs. Read the variables breakdown below carefully.

  • AccessAPIKey: This variable is the API key that all Access front-end files will use to authenticate and query the Access API service. Set this to access@PRAKH0706!API.key#$69.
  • (OPTIONAL) GitpodEnvironment: This variable allows you to enable/disable Access' emailing services. Set to True to enable, False to disable; if you disable the Emailer service, do note that the system cannot be used publicly, as important credentials that are sent in emails for some operations on Access cannot be accessed by the end-user due to emailing being disabled.
  • AssignedSystemEmail: Set this to the email of the Gmail account that you have designated for Access to use. Set to NIL if you already disabled emailing by setting GitpodEnvironment to False.
  • AccessEmailPassword: Set this to the generated App Password of the Gmail account that you have designated for Access to use. Set to NIL if you already disabled emailing by setting GitpodEnvironment to False.
  • APP_SECRET_KEY: Set to any string you like.
  • AccessAnalyticsEnabled: This field can only be set either True or False. If set to True, you hereby grant the Access Analytics service permission to collect and store system usage data in a text file in the system folder. The admin of the system (aka you) can later use an in-built data analysis function to generate a report from the collected data for your understanding on how the system is used.
  • FileUploadsLimit: Set this to any number you want. This is the limit for the number of files each identity's user can upload to their Access Folder. By default, if this is not set, the limit is 3 files.
  • RuntimePort: Set this to the port you want Access to server web app content on. This will be the port from which you can access the Access web app.
  • (OPTIONAL) DeveloperModeEnabled: This can be set to True or False only. This enables/disables the Developer Tools service (can be accessed from the Startup menu if enabled) that allows the admin to gain manual access to the system's database files.

envFileExample

An example of what your .env could look like

Run Access CheckUp

Run Access CheckUp by first running Access Startup via python accessStartup.py. Then, type in the number of the Access CheckUp option to run Access CheckUp.

This step is actually a recommended step. Access CheckUp will check your system's environment, check the presence of all required files and .env config variables.

At this stage, you should receive multiple warnings but no critical issues. If you do see any critical issues in the CheckUp report, please fix them immediately.

You receive multiple warnings because the system hasn't been booted yet, so all the database files and directories have not been automatically created. Hence, do not worry, they will go away when you boot the system later.

checkupInitialReportExample

An example of the ideal initial CheckUp report

Boot up Access! 🎉 🚀

And that's it! You are ready to boot up Access! Open up the Startup menu by running python accessStartup.py then type in the number of the Access Boot option!

You should see boot pre-processing complete successfully and that the system starts serving content at the RuntimePort you chose earlier!

bootExample

An example of what the Access boot output should look like on a system running 1.0.3-beta in which the RuntimePort is set to be 8800

You can now access the web app on http://localhost:<RuntimePort>! Thank you for using Access!

Copyright 2022 Prakhar Trivedi

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