Installation

There are multiple ways to install Trendlines depending on your needs. Some methods are admittely more supported than others, and I’m sorry about that.

• Docker: Good for trying out Trendlines to see if you like it.
• Docker Compose: The recommended way for deploying to a production environment.
• Direct Install: When you have a dedicated server to run things. Though I’d still recommend using a Docker Compose install.

Docker

The easiest way to get up and running with Trendlines is with Docker:

$ docker run -p 5000:80 dougthor42/trendlines:latest

Then open a browser to http://localhost:5000/ and you’re all set. Add some data (see below) and refresh the page.

Warning

Data will not persist when the container is destroyed!

Docker Compose

Note

WIP!

If you’re doing more than just playing around, you’ll likely want to set up Docker Compose. I’ve included an example Compose file in the repo.

Before using the example Compose file, you’ll need to:

1. Make a directory to store the config file (and database file if using SQLite)
2. Make sure that dir is writable by docker-compose.
3. Create the configuration trendlines.cfg within that directory.

$ mkdir /var/www/trendlines
$ chmod -R a+w /var/www/trendlines
$ touch /var/www/trendlines/trendlines.cfg

Next, edit your new trendlines.cfg file as needed. At the very least, the following is needed:

# /var/www/trendlines/trendlines.cfg
SECRET_KEY = b"don't use the value written in this README file!"
DATABASE = "/data/internal.db"

Tip

You can generate a secure secret key from the python REPL like so:

>>> import os
>>> import binascii
>>> binascii.hexlify(os.urandom(32))
b'<some string of hex [0-9a-f]>'

Which you can then copy into trendlines.cfg’s SECRET_KEY field. Don’t forget the leading b!

You should be all set to bring Docker Compose up:

$ docker-compose -f path/to/docker-compose.yml up -d

Again, open up a browser to http://localhost and you’re good to go. Add some data as outlined below and start playing around.

Tip

If you get an error complaining about “Error starting userland proxy: Bind for 0.0.0.0:80: Unexpected error Permission denied”, then try changing the port in docker-compose.yml to something else. I like 5000 myself:

ports:
  - 5000:80

and then navigate to http://localhost:5000 in your browser.

Direct Install

Attention

Not yet supported.

Running behind a proxy

A typical case, for me at least, is adding this application to a server that’s already running Apache for other things. In this case, make the following adjustments:

1. Add a proxy to the VirtualHost in your apache config.
2. Make sure to set the URL_PREFIX variable in your Trendlines config file.
3. Have the following apache mods enabled: + mod_proxy + mod_proxy_http + mod_headers

# /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/your-site.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
    # optionally replace all instances of "trendlines" with whatever you want
    # Make sure the port on ProxyPass and ProxyPassReverse matches what is
    # exposed in your docker-compose.yml file.
    <Location /trendlines>
        ProxyPreserveHost On
        ProxyPass http://0.0.0.0:5082/trendlines
        ProxyPassReverse http://0.0.0.0:5082/trendlines

        RequestHeader set X-Forwarded-Port 80
    </Location>
</VirtualHost>

# /var/www/trendlines/trendlines.cfg
URL_PREFIX = "/trendlines"    # Whatever you put in your Apache proxy

Running with Celery

Add the following services to your docker-compose.yml:

redis:
  image: redis:5.0.5-alpine
  ports:
    - "6379:6379"
celery:
  image: dougthor42/trendlines:latest
  ports:
    - "2003:2003"
  volumes:
    # should be the same as what's in the 'trendlines' service
    - type: bind
      source: /var/www/trendlines
      target: /data
  command: celery worker -l info -A trendlines.celery_app.celery
  depends_on:
    - "redis"