Getting Started

To get the server running, complete the following steps.

Step 1. Install the Python Interpreter

The webserver uses the Python programming language to run. If you don't have it yet, you'll need to install it.

To install it, download the installer from the Python website.

If you get an option to "add Python to PATH", take the option.

Step 2. Create a virtual environment

Open the terminal, and navigate to the consortia directory. Then run the following commands, depending on if you're on Windows or MacOS/Linux. You should see the text "(venv)" added to the command prompt.

Windows

py -3 -m venv venv

venv\Scripts\activate

MacOS / Linux

python3 -m venv venv

source venv/bin/activate

Step 3. Install third party packages

Execute the following command to install python libraries

pip install -r requirements.txt

Step 4. Create a .env file

This file contains secrets that are not committed to GitHub. Create a file in the consortia directory called ".env", then add the following text to it. The values don't especially matter.

SECRET_KEY=whatever
EMAIL_PASSWORD=secretpasswordexceptnotreally

Step 5. Start the server

Now, just start the server, and open the website running locally on your computer, localhost:8080. To start the server again in the future, run the "activate" command in step 2 before starting the server.

flask run -h localhost -p 8080