Superdesk - tricky installation and confusing documentation
  • Hi there.

    I'm eager to get Superdesk running on my Ubuntu server as I'm interested in embedding a Live Blog onto a website. I would say that my knowledge of Linux is "intermediate", but I presently run and maintain servers with Airtime and Newscoop with little trouble.

    It's obvious that Superdesk is a far more complicated beast, and after spending the day trying to install this and get it up and running, I haven't made any progress. There seems to be a bit of conflicting documentation floating around different parts of Sourcefabric and Github, and what seems to be the most up-to-date bits documentation are quite vague and ambiguous.
    I get the feeling that at present, installation of Superdesk is aimed more at developers and server administrators with a greater knowledge of this stuff than I have, which I completely understand but I think is a shame. I'd like to try this product out, the videos and articles I've read got me very excited.

    Are there any plans to simplify the installation of Superdesk in the near future?
  • 7 Comments sorted by
  • Along these lines, would you consider packaging in a more standard way (pip, distribute, pypi)? As a longtime python developer, I had lots of trouble getting the app up and running because it's packaged in a way i've never seen before.
  • We are working on a standard packaging using pip. Even now you can create
    eggs but they are not submitted to PyPI

    Mugur Rus
    Senior Software Developer, Sourcefabric
    mugur.rus@sourcefabric.org
    http://www.sourcefabric.org

    Cluj-Napoca, Romania
    +40 720 528408
    skype: mugur_rus



    On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 2:20 AM, Ryan Mark <<br />superdesk-dev@lists.sourcefabric.org> wrote:

    > Along these lines, would you consider packaging in a more standard way
    > (pip, distribute, pypi)? As a longtime python developer, I had lots of
    > trouble getting the app up and running because it's packaged in a way i've
    > never seen before.
    >
    >
  • Hi Mugus,

    I have the same problem as the Gerald above. Being struggling for a week now to install Superdesk. Just got stuck at the Ally-Py stage, read all the documentations, the video seems old compare to the files I am seeing. Sent you an email last weekend, haven't heard back? Can I get help with installation please?

    Thanks,

  • Here is an updated version of install file:

    https://github.com/sourcefabric/Superdesk/blob/devel/INSTALL.txt



    Gerald
  • Thanks, I will try this again.
  • I have finished following those instructions to the letter and it says it
    starts but throws a bunch of errors, the admin panel also shows up as only a
    white page.

    Here are the errors given when the application is started:
    ------
    ERROR A problem occurred for controlled event:
    __plugin__.livedesk.upgrade.upgradeLiveBlog14 ally.container._impl._call
    Traceback (most recent call last): File
    "/var/opt/ally-py/superdesk/distribution/libraries/SQLAlchemy-0.7.1-py3.2.egg/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py",
    line 1592, in _execute_context context) File
    "/var/opt/ally-py/superdesk/distribution/libraries/SQLAlchemy-0.7.1-py3.2.egg/sqlalchemy/engine/default.py",
    line 327, in do_execute cursor.execute(statement, parameters)
    sqlite3.OperationalError: duplicate column name: phone_number

    The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

    Traceback (most recent call last): File
    "build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/ally/container/_impl/_call.py", line 492, in
    __call__ try: self._value = self.call() File
    "build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/__plugin__/livedesk/upgrade.py", line 52, in
    upgradeLiveBlog14 session.execute("ALTER TABLE person ADD COLUMN phone_number
    VARCHAR(255) UNIQUE") File
    "/var/opt/ally-py/superdesk/distribution/libraries/SQLAlchemy-0.7.1-py3.2.egg/sqlalchemy/orm/session.py",
    line 759, in execute clause, params or {}) File
    "/var/opt/ally-py/superdesk/distribution/libraries/SQLAlchemy-0.7.1-py3.2.egg/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py",
    line 1358, in execute params) File
    "/var/opt/ally-py/superdesk/distribution/libraries/SQLAlchemy-0.7.1-py3.2.egg/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py",
    line 1491, in _execute_clauseelement compiled_sql, distilled_params File
    "/var/opt/ally-py/superdesk/distribution/libraries/SQLAlchemy-0.7.1-py3.2.egg/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py",
    line 1599, in _execute_context context) File
    "/var/opt/ally-py/superdesk/distribution/libraries/SQLAlchemy-0.7.1-py3.2.egg/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py",
    line 1736, in _handle_dbapi_exception from e sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError:
    (OperationalError) duplicate column name: phone_number 'ALTER TABLE person ADD
    COLUMN phone_number VARCHAR(255) UNIQUE' () INFO Published themes
    'lib/livedesk-embed' __plugin__.livedesk_embed.theme_default INFO Nothing to
    report for 'Server', everything fits nicely ally.design.processor.assembly
    INFO Registering 58 services into the resources structure
    __setup__.ally_core.resources INFO
    ================================================== Started Async HTTP
    server... ally.http.server.server_asyncore
    ================================================== Application started in
    ================================================== 15.11 seconds
  • Please restart the install process by dropping the database and deleting
    the properties files from superdesk/distribution directory.



    On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 6:24 PM, yomi editor <<br />superdesk-dev@lists.sourcefabric.org> wrote:

    > I have finished following those instructions to the letter and it says it
    > starts but throws a bunch of errors, the admin panel also shows up as only
    > a
    > white page.
    > *
    > *
    > *Here are the errors given when the application is started:*
    > ----