eConvenor is the Django-based web app which powers the eConvenor web service.

eConvenor helps progressive campaigns and organisations be more effective.

If you're interested in contributing to eConvenor, check out our volunteering page.

If you want to be a part of the project, there's plenty to do. Take your pick from anything on our issue tracker!

These instructions are written for Ubuntu Linux. If you're running a different operating system, you will probably need to adjust them.

When you see text following a $ symbol in grey box, type or paste it into a terminal window, then press Enter.

Make sure your source list is up-to-date:

$ sudo apt-get update

If you already have these set up, skip to Step 2.

Install pip:

$ sudo apt-get install python-pip

Install virtualenv and virtualenvwrapper:

$ sudo pip install virtualenv virtualenvwrapper

Open the ~/.bashrc file:

$ nano ~/.bashrc

Add these lines to the end of it:

export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/.virtualenvs
export PROJECT_HOME=$HOME/Projects
source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh

Save and close the file. If you're in the Nano editor, you do that with Ctrl + O, then Enter, then Ctrl + X.

Reload ~/.bashrc:

$ source ~/.bashrc

Create a virtualenv for your eConvenor development environment:

$ mkvirtualenv econvenor

Open the ~/.virtualenvs/econvenor/bin/postactivate file, which will be empty:

$ nano ~/.virtualenvs/econvenor/bin/postactivate

Paste these lines into it:

export ECONVENOR_ADMIN_URL=administration
export ECONVENOR_DATABASE_NAME=econvenor_database
export ECONVENOR_DATABASE_PASSWORD=ncds8rbce7
export ECONVENOR_DATABASE_USER=eonvenor_database_owner
export ECONVENOR_EMAIL_PASSWORD=no_email_password
export ECONVENOR_EMAIL_PORT=no_port
export ECONVENOR_ENVIRONMENT=development
export ECONVENOR_SECRET_KEY=13480dj3io12nrb4786ydge76gq78yd3b

Now we need to restart the virtualenv so that these setting take effect. First, deactivate the virtualenv:

$ deactivate

Now re-start the virtualenv:

$ workon econvenor

For these instructions we'll clone this repo to ~/Projects/econvenor, but you can put the eConvenor code anywhere you like.

Make the ~/Projects/econvenor directory:

$ mkdir -p ~/Projects/econvenor

Then open it:

$ cd ~/Projects/econvenor

You'll need to have Git installed. If you don't have it installed, install it now:

$ sudo apt-get install git

Clone the repo to your computer:

$ git clone https://github.com/econvenor/econvenor.git

Install some system-wide dependencies which will be needed:

$ sudo apt-get install python-dev postgresql libpq-dev

Go to the directory which contains requirements.txt:

$ cd ~/Projects/econvenor/econvenor

Install the required Python packages in your virtualenv:

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Initialise the database:

$ python manage.py syncdb

As the database is being initialised you'll be asked if you'd like to create a superuser. Answer yes. Set up a superuser with account name superuser, email superuser@econvenor.org and password superuser.

Migrate the database:

$ python manage.py migrate

Load the example data:

$ python manage.py loaddata testdata

This has set up a user with email ash@econvenor.org and password ashanderson1! and populated that account with test data.

Create the directory which will contain user-generated content:

$ mkdir -p ~/Projects/econvenor/econvenor/media

That's it! You should now have a complete eConvenor instance which is ready to be started!

Once you've set up a development instance, the commands below will start it up anytime.

Start the virtualenv:

$ workon econvenor

Go to the directory which contains eConvenor's manage.py file:

$ cd ~/Projects/econvenor/econvenor

Start the development server:

$ python manage.py runserver

Now point your browser to localhost:8000 and the site will load. You can sign in to eConvenor as ash@econvenor.org with the password ashanderson1!.