Beginners guide: install and configure Pinax on Windows
Posted on 05 October 2009
| problems | step-by-step | before you start | conclusion | comments |
Let’s try something new, let’s try Pinax! It’s not that new, it’s been around for a while, but it’s one of the very few rather mature CMS’s around that have been developed completely with Python. While Python is the de facto language at Google’s, it may come as a surprise that there’s still quite little available at the wide area of CMS’s.
Because installing open source packages is not for the faint of heart and because you may not be aware with Python or Pinax parlor, I’ve put together this little “beginners installation guide” which is well suited for anybody, even non-beginners. While writing this post and installing Pinax on some systems, I found out that there’s little to fear of this CMS: it runs out of the box and apart from some small quirks, it runs real smooth too.
By the end of this guide, you will have a social networking site including blogs, friends, tweets etc set up!
Before you start
Let us assume that you are in need of a CMS and that you decided to install Pinax for one reason or another. Maybe you want to learn Python, maybe you just like the clean layout of Pinax’s homepage and you don’t want a complex CMS, just something easy. For this guide, I assume the following setup:
- You are on Windows (Vista, XP, 2003, 2008, 7, all good)
- You have some basic understanding of what a web server is, what it should do and what a CMS is
- You have a running version of Apache 2.2.x (installation Apache will not be covered here)
- You downloaded Python version 2.6.x Windows Installer
- You downloaded Python Imaging Library 1.1.6 for Python 2.6
- You downloaded the Pinax bundle 0.7 zip file
- You are reading this guide
There seems to be a lot of confusion about Django: you should not download it, it is included in the Pinax package and will be installed with it.
The promise
I shouldn’t do any promises. But when you are done reading through this page step by step guide, you will have a Pinax installation and you have a running social networking site including profiles, photos, blogs, tweets, bookmarking, and user chatting/messaging. That’s quite a lot that Pinax offers out of the box!
Installing Pinax step by step
The following sections take you through the installation, setup and configuration of Pinax. You can skip the first steps if you already have Python or PIL (Python Image Library) installed:
- Step 1: install Python, helps you installing the language Pinax runs on
- Step 2: install PIL, a necessary library for image manipulation that Pinax needs
- Step 3: install Pinax
- Step 4: create a Pinax CMS website, setups your first social website in Pinax
- Step 5: configure Apache for Pinax or run Pinax as a service (not covered here)
- Step 6: you’re done, start playing!
- Trouble?
Step 1: Install Python
The easy part. Depending on what browser you used for downloading, the MSI file may be blocked. If so, go to security properties and add the System user to the list of allowed users and click the Unblock button on the General tab of the properties.
Installation is straightforward. During installation, you may get a few warnings on files that cannot be created. This only seems to happen on Windows Vista and Windows 7. For each message, one time clicking Retry solves the issue.
- Make sure to use the 2.6.x version, not the newer 3.1 version of Python
- Install to a location of your choice. The location may contain spaces in the path
- After installation, add the installation path to your
%PATH%environment variable by hand:- Open System properties (Winkey + Pause)
- Go to Advanced System Settings (Vista) or the Advanced tab (XP)
- Click on “Environment Variables”
- Select the PATH under System Variables and add a “;” (semi colon) plus the path, no quotes around the path
- Open a command prompt and type “
python -?” (no quotes), it should show you a help screen
If you have some rather general questions, on installation or Python as a whole, check the Python Frequently Asked Questions.
Step 2: Install Python Image Library
The other easy part, you just have to know that you should install this. The installation is without hassle, just download the installer and run it, it will find the installed python package and install PIL for you in the right location. That’s all there is to installing PIL.
If you think you already have it, or if you have other questions, check the Python Image Library Frequently Asked Questions.
Step 3: Install Pinax
The tricky part. The first time I did this, I got the errors like mentioned under installation problems, if you get that too, check there for a solution. If you follow these instructions, you get Pinax installed quite easily:
- Unzip or unpack the Pinax zip file into a location or your choice, make it a location handy for future reference, it needs to remain available. In the example I use
d:\libs\python\pinax. - Create a folder for the Pinax installation. In the Pinax instructions, this is called a virtual environment. Don’t think too heavy about this, just consider it the installation location for your Pinax. You can run multiple sites from it, but I assume only one here. In the example I use
d:\internet\yoursite.org\px(where px is short for Pinax) - Configure your firewall to allow
python.exeto contact the internet. If you don’t know how to do it, put your firewall in Learning Mode (if it has one). If it doesn’t have a learning mode, continue with the next step, your firewall may pop up a question aboutpython.exeaccessing the internet in which case you should answer with “allow”. - Go to a command prompt and type the following (“prompt>” stands for whatever your prompt is, don’t type it):
prompt> d: prompt> cd \libs\python\pinax prompt> python scripts/pinax-boot.py d:/internet/yoursite.org/px
- You should see the log output as below. It is a lot and it may look slightly different on your system, but you get the idea. If you don’t see too many warnings and no errors, go on with the next step, activation.
New python executable in d:/internet/yoursite.org/px\Scripts\python.exe Installing setuptools...............done. Installing pip 0.4.1dev Installing setuptools-dummy 0.0.3 Installing setuptools-git 0.3.4 Installing Django 1.0.3 Going to install a full Pinax 0.7 release. Installing Pinax Ignoring indexes: http://pypi.python.org/simple Downloading/unpacking django-openid==0.2.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 43)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-openid Downloading/unpacking django-friends==0.1.4 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 35)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-friends Downloading/unpacking vobject==0.8.1c (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 16)) Running setup.py egg_info for package vobject Downloading/unpacking django-tagging==0.3 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 48)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-tagging Downloading/unpacking django-pagination==1.0.5.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 44)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-pagination Downloading/unpacking django-photologue==2.3 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 54)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-photologue warning: no previously-included files matching '*.pyc' found anywhere in distribution Downloading/unpacking django-oembed==0.1.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 42)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-oembed Downloading/unpacking django-uni-form==0.6.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 51)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-uni-form Downloading/unpacking django-mailer==0.1.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 38)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-mailer Downloading/unpacking django-sorting>=0.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 47)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-sorting Downloading/unpacking django-generic-flatblocks==0.3.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 58)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-generic-flatblocks Downloading/unpacking django-robots==0.6.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 45)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-robots Downloading/unpacking django-threadedcomments==0.5.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 49)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-threadedcomments Downloading/unpacking django-avatar==1.0.2 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 27)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-avatar Downloading/unpacking sorl==3.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 57)) Running setup.py egg_info for package sorl Downloading/unpacking django-db-log==1.0.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 29)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-db-log Downloading/unpacking gdata==1.3.3 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 9)) Running setup.py egg_info for package gdata Downloading/unpacking django-gravatar==0.1.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 36)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-gravatar Downloading/unpacking python-yadis==1.1.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 13)) Running setup.py egg_info for package python-yadis Downloading/unpacking django-filter==0.5.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 60)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-filter warning: no files found matching '*' under directory 'django_filters\fixtures' warning: no files found matching '*' under directory 'django_filters\tests\templates\django_filters' Downloading/unpacking django-timezones==0.1.4 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 50)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-timezones Downloading/unpacking django-dbtemplates==0.5.8 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 30)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-dbtemplates Downloading/unpacking BeautifulSoup==3.0.7a (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 17)) Running setup.py egg_info for package BeautifulSoup Downloading/unpacking django-announcements==0.1.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 25)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-announcements Downloading/unpacking textile==2.1.3 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 15)) Running setup.py egg_info for package textile Downloading/unpacking docutils==0.5 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 7)) Running setup.py egg_info for package docutils "optparse" module already present; ignoring extras/optparse.py. "textwrap" module already present; ignoring extras/textwrap.py. Downloading/unpacking django-locations==0.1.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 37)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-locations Downloading/unpacking django-markup==0.3 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 56)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-markup Downloading/unpacking django-atomformat==0.1.0dev (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 26)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-atomformat Downloading/unpacking django-swaps==0.5.3 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 46)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-swaps warning: no files found matching 'CONTRIBUTORS.txt' Downloading/unpacking geopy==0.93dev-r0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 21)) Running setup.py egg_info for package geopy Downloading/unpacking creole==1.0.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 23)) Running setup.py egg_info for package creole Downloading/unpacking django-ajax-validation==0.1.3 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 24)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-ajax-validation Downloading/unpacking django-wikiapp==0.2.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 53)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-wikiapp Downloading/unpacking simplejson==2.0.9 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 14)) Running setup.py egg_info for package simplejson Downloading/unpacking django-notification==0.1.4 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 41)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-notification Downloading/unpacking django-frontendadmin==0.4 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 59)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-frontendadmin Downloading/unpacking django-flag==0.1.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 34)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-flag Downloading/unpacking django-bookmarks==0.1.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 28)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-bookmarks Downloading/unpacking pytz==2009l (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 22)) Running setup.py egg_info for package pytz warning: no files found matching '*.pot' under directory 'pytz' warning: no previously-included files found matching 'test_zdump.py' Downloading/unpacking template-utils==0.4p2 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 61)) Running setup.py egg_info for package template-utils Downloading/unpacking Pinax==0.7 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 63)) Running setup.py egg_info for package Pinax Downloading/unpacking python-dateutil==1.4.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 6)) Running setup.py egg_info for package python-dateutil Downloading/unpacking python-openid==2.2.4 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 11)) Running setup.py egg_info for package python-openid warning: no files found matching 'README' under directory 'examples' warning: no files found matching 'discover' under directory 'examples' warning: no files found matching 'dhpriv' under directory 'openid\test' warning: no files found matching 'n2b64' under directory 'openid\test' Downloading/unpacking elementtree==1.2.7-20070827-preview (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 8)) Running setup.py egg_info for package elementtree Downloading/unpacking diff-match-patch==20090804 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 20)) Running setup.py egg_info for package diff-match-patch Downloading/unpacking django-debug-toolbar==0.7.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 31)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-debug-toolbar Downloading/unpacking Markdown==2.0.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 19)) Running setup.py egg_info for package Markdown Downloading/unpacking ybrowserauth==1.2 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 18)) Running setup.py egg_info for package ybrowserauth Downloading/unpacking django-extensions==0.4.1 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 33)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-extensions Downloading/unpacking django-email-confirmation==0.1.3 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 32)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-email-confirmation Downloading/unpacking django-staticfiles==0.1.2 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 62)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-staticfiles Downloading/unpacking python-twitter==0.6 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 12)) Running setup.py egg_info for package python-twitter Downloading/unpacking Pygments==1.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 10)) Running setup.py egg_info for package Pygments Downloading/unpacking django-messages==0.4.2 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 39)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-messages Downloading/unpacking django-voting==0.1-pre (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 52)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-voting Downloading/unpacking django-microblogging==0.1.2 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 40)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-microblogging Downloading/unpacking django-attachments==0.3 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 55)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-attachments warning: no files found matching '*' under directory 'attachments\fixtures' Installing collected packages: BeautifulSoup, creole, diff-match-patch, django-ajax-validation, django-announcements, django-atomformat, django-attachments, django-avatar, django-bookmarks, django-db-log, django-dbtemplates, django-debug-toolbar, django-email-confirmation, django-extensions, django-filter, django-flag, django-friends, django-frontendadmin, django-generic-flatblocks, django-gravatar, django-locations, django-mailer, django-markup, django-messages, django-microblogging, django-notification, django-oembed, django-openid, django-pagination, django-photologue, django-robots, django-sorting, django-staticfiles, django-swaps, django-tagging, django-threadedcomments, django-timezones, django-uni-form,django-voting, django-wikiapp, docutils, elementtree, gdata, geopy, Markdown, Pinax, Pygments, python-dateutil, python-openid, python-twitter, python-yadis, pytz, simplejson, sorl, template-utils, textile, vobject, ybrowserauth Running setup.py install for django-openid Running setup.py install for django-friends Running setup.py install for vobject Installing change_tz-script.py script to d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\Scripts Installing change_tz.exe script to d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\Scripts Installing ics_diff-script.py script to d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\Scripts Installing ics_diff.exe script to d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\Scripts Running setup.py install for django-tagging Running setup.py install for django-pagination Running setup.py install for django-photologue warning: no previously-included files matching '*.pyc' found anywhere in distribution Running setup.py install for django-oembed Running setup.py install for django-uni-form Running setup.py install for django-mailer Running setup.py install for django-sorting Running setup.py install for django-generic-flatblocks Running setup.py install for django-robots Running setup.py install for django-threadedcomments Running setup.py install for django-avatar Running setup.py install for sorl Running setup.py install for django-db-log Running setup.py install for gdata Running setup.py install for django-gravatar Running setup.py install for python-yadis Running setup.py install for django-filter warning: no files found matching '*' under directory 'django_filters\fixtures' warning: no files found matching '*' under directory 'django_filters\tests\templates\django_filters' Running setup.py install for django-timezones Running setup.py install for django-dbtemplates Running setup.py install for BeautifulSoup Running setup.py install for django-announcements Running setup.py install for textile Running setup.py install for docutils "optparse" module already present; ignoring extras/optparse.py. "textwrap" module already present; ignoring extras/textwrap.py. Running setup.py install for django-locations Running setup.py install for django-markup Running setup.py install for django-atomformat Running setup.py install for django-swaps warning: no files found matching 'CONTRIBUTORS.txt' Running setup.py install for geopy Running setup.py install for creole Running setup.py install for django-ajax-validation Running setup.py install for django-wikiapp Running setup.py install for simplejson building 'simplejson._speedups' extension C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\BIN\cl.exe /c /nologo /Ox /MD /W3 /GS- /DNDEBUG "-Ic:\program files\python\python26\include" -Id:\internet\yoursite.org\px\PC /Tcsimplejson/_speedups.c /Fobuild\temp.win32-2.6\Release\simplejson/_speedups.obj _speedups.c simplejson/_speedups.c(1834) : warning C4028: formal parameter 1 different from declaration C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\BIN\link.exe /DLL /nologo /INCREMENTAL:NO "/LIBPATH:c:\program files\python\python26\Libs" /LIBPATH:d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\libs /LIBPATH:d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\PCbuild /EXPORT:init_speedups build\temp.win32-2.6\Release\simplejson/_speedups.obj /OUT:build\lib.win32-2.6\simplejson\_speedups.pyd /IMPLIB:build\temp.win32-2.6\Release\simplejson\_speedups.lib /MANIFESTFILE:build\temp.win32-2.6\Release\simplejson\_speedups.pyd.manifest Creating library build\temp.win32-2.6\Release\simplejson\_speedups.lib and object build\temp.win32-2.6\Release\simplejson\_speedups.exp C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0\bin\mt.exe -nologo -manifest build\temp.win32-2.6\Release\simplejson\_speedups.pyd.manifest -outputresource:build\lib.win32-2.6\simplejson\_speedups.pyd;2 Running setup.py install for django-notification Running setup.py install for django-frontendadmin Running setup.py install for django-flag Running setup.py install for django-bookmarks Running setup.py install for pytz warning: no files found matching '*.pot' under directory 'pytz' warning: no previously-included files found matching 'test_zdump.py' Running setup.py install for template-utils Running setup.py install for Pinax Installing pinax-admin-script.py script to d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\Scripts Installing pinax-admin.exe script to d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\Scripts Running setup.py install for python-dateutil Running setup.py install for python-openid warning: no files found matching 'README' under directory 'examples' warning: no files found matching 'discover' under directory 'examples' warning: no files found matching 'dhpriv' under directory 'openid\test' warning: no files found matching 'n2b64' under directory 'openid\test' Running setup.py install for elementtree Running setup.py install for diff-match-patch Running setup.py install for django-debug-toolbar Running setup.py install for Markdown Created: d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\Scripts\markdown.bat Running setup.py install for ybrowserauth Running setup.py install for django-extensions Running setup.py install for django-email-confirmation Running setup.py install for django-staticfiles Running setup.py install for python-twitter Running setup.py install for Pygments Installing pygmentize-script.py script to d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\Scripts Installing pygmentize.exe script to d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\Scripts Running setup.py install for django-messages Running setup.py install for django-voting Running setup.py install for django-microblogging Running setup.py install for django-attachments warning: no files found matching '*' under directory 'attachments\fixtures' Successfully installed Please activate the newly created virtualenv by running: d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\Scripts\activate.bat Pinax environment created successfully. - Activate the environment by executing the following command from a command prompt:
prompt> d: prompt> cd internet/yoursite.org/px/scripts prompt> activate
this will change the look of your prompt (see image). If you want to deactivate the environment, you can do so by running the command
deactivatethe same way as you ran activate earlier. Note: nothing fancy has happened, nothing has been started. You are still in the same command shell. The only difference is a changed PATH environment that includes the current script path, and when you deactivate this extra path is removed.
Step 4: create a Pinax CMS website
Apache defaults nicely with the infamous “it works!” page. Pinax is not yet so pretty that it does all that for you. You will have to create the first default CMS site yourself. Once you’ve done that, it won’t be too hard to create some more if you have to.
- If you ended with the last point of Step 3, you’re fine, otherwise, open a command prompt and activate Pinax. You should see the prompt starting with
(px)to indicate it is activated. - Go to the directory that you want to be the parent of your website project.
- Create a new project, based on one of the existing projects that come in the package, which is done by cloning; you can do that by executing the following command (we call our brillant site “exciting-site”):
prompt> pinax-admin clone_project social_project exciting-site
the result should look something like the following:
Copying your project to its new location Updating settings.py for your new project Renaming and updating your deployment files Finished cloning your project, now you may enjoy Pinax!
- Go to the site and create the database by executing the following command:
prompt> cd exciting-site prompt> python manage.py syncdb
this will trigger the creation of the database and shows the following output (may take a moment depending on your system) which means it has created the necessary tables for you in the database:
Creating table auth_permission Creating table auth_group Creating table auth_user Creating table auth_message Creating table django_content_type Creating table django_session Creating table django_site Creating table notification_noticetype Creating table notification_noticesetting Creating table notification_notice Creating table notification_noticequeuebatch Creating table notification_observeditem Creating table emailconfirmation_emailaddress Creating table emailconfirmation_emailconfirmation Creating table robots_url Creating table robots_rule Creating table friends_contact Creating table friends_friendship Creating table friends_joininvitation Creating table friends_friendshipinvitation Creating table friends_friendshipinvitationhistory Creating table mailer_message Creating table mailer_dontsendentry Creating table mailer_messagelog Creating table messages_message Creating table announcements_announcement Creating table oembed_providerrule Creating table oembed_storedoembed Creating table threadedcomments_threadedcomment Creating table threadedcomments_freethreadedcomment Creating table threadedcomments_testmodel Creating table wiki_article Creating table wiki_changeset Creating table swaps_offer Creating table swaps_swap Creating table votes Creating table tagging_tag Creating table tagging_taggeditem Creating table bookmarks_bookmark Creating table bookmarks_bookmarkinstance Creating table blog_post Creating table photologue_gallery Creating table photologue_galleryupload Creating table photologue_photo Creating table photologue_photoeffect Creating table photologue_watermark Creating table photologue_photosize Creating table avatar_avatar Creating table flag_flaggedcontent Creating table flag_flaginstance Creating table microblogging_tweet Creating table microblogging_tweetinstance Creating table microblogging_following Creating table locations_location Creating table profiles_profile Creating table account_account Creating table account_otherserviceinfo Creating table account_passwordreset Creating table signup_codes_signupcode Creating table signup_codes_signupcoderesult Creating table tribes_tribe Creating table photos_photoset Creating table photos_image Creating table photos_pool Creating table topics_topic Creating table django_admin_log Creating table djangodblog_errorbatch Creating table djangodblog_error Creating table django_openid_nonce Creating table django_openid_association Creating table django_openid_useropenidassociation You just installed Django's auth system, which means you don't have any superusers defined. Would you like to create one now? (yes/no):
- The first time you do this, you need to define a superuser. The installation program will ask you for it:
You just installed Django's auth system, which means you don't have any superusers defined. Would you like to create one now? (yes/no):
type “yes” + enter for yes. You will be prompted for a username and a password (choose something you can remember) and an email address, which can used for resetting your password if you forget:
Username: mysuperuser E-mail address: my-email@example.com Password: Password (again): Superuser created successfully.
- After creation of the superuser, the installation will seem to pass for a bit. Sit back and wait. It will install a lot of stuff for you. After a while, you should see the following output:
Installing index for auth.Permission model Installing index for auth.Message model Installing index for notification.NoticeSetting model Installing index for notification.Notice model Installing index for notification.ObservedItem model Installing index for emailconfirmation.EmailAddress model Installing index for emailconfirmation.EmailConfirmation model Installing index for friends.Contact model Installing index for friends.Friendship model Installing index for friends.JoinInvitation model Installing index for friends.FriendshipInvitation model Installing index for friends.FriendshipInvitationHistory model Installing index for messages.Message model Installing index for announcements.Announcement model Installing index for threadedcomments.ThreadedComment model Installing index for threadedcomments.FreeThreadedComment model Installing index for wiki.Article model Installing index for wiki.ChangeSet model Installing index for swaps.Offer model Installing index for swaps.Swap model Installing index for voting.Vote model Installing index for tagging.TaggedItem model Installing index for bookmarks.Bookmark model Installing index for bookmarks.BookmarkInstance model Installing index for blog.Post model Installing index for photologue.GalleryUpload model Installing index for photologue.Photo model Installing index for photologue.PhotoSize model Installing index for avatar.Avatar model Installing index for flag.FlaggedContent model Installing index for flag.FlagInstance model Installing index for microblogging.Tweet model Installing index for microblogging.TweetInstance model Installing index for microblogging.Following model Installing index for locations.Location model Installing index for account.OtherServiceInfo model Installing index for account.PasswordReset model Installing index for signup_codes.SignupCode model Installing index for signup_codes.SignupCodeResult model Installing index for tribes.Tribe model Installing index for photos.Image model Installing index for photos.Pool model Installing index for topics.Topic model Installing index for admin.LogEntry model Installing index for djangodblog.ErrorBatch model Installing index for djangodblog.Error model Installing index for django_openid.UserOpenidAssociation model Installing json fixture 'initial_data' from 'd:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\oembed\fixtures'. Installing json fixture 'initial_data' from 'd:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pinax\apps\photos\fixtures'. Installed 18 object(s) from 2 fixture(s)
- Finally the moment we’ve all been waiting for, start the website and check out your http://localhost:8000 (may need to check your firewall, but usually, localhost is allowed on any port). Run the following command:
python manage.py runserver
which should yield the following output (if not, check if you had the error explained below, which is easy to solve)
Validating models... 0 errors found Django version 1.0.3, using settings 'exciting-site.settings' Development server is running at http://localhost:8001/ Quit the server with CTRL-BREAK.
- You now have a running CMS, congratulations! You can quit the CMS by hitting Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break. The CMS opening page looks something like the following:
Pinax default after installation
Step 5: configure Apache or run as a service
As you may have found out by now, you don’t need Apache to run this. Period. That’s different from what you may be used to with Ruby, PHP or other environments (.NET, J2EE all need a runtime environment and a web server). The reason is that this runs on top of Django (also built with Python), which is already a framework and a web server in one.
When you already have Apache configured, you can set it up as a proxy to your Django / Pinax installation. In addition, it is handy to have Pinax run as a service, which can run when you are not logged on. In a future post, not so far ahead, I’ll go into configuring Apache for Django and creating a Windows Service that runs Django.
Step 6: where to go from here
Play around a bit with your installation. Here’s a nice post explaining the working of the default site that Pinax just created. You just created a full working site, enjoy!
Installation problems Pinax
While installing the packages
If you follow the instructions above, or if you read the INSTALL file in the Pinax package which contains a more general version of these instructions, you should not receive this error. But if you do, then you have a connection problem. In all but a few cases, your firewall or virus scanner is blocking communication. Check your firewall settings or disable temporarily (don’t do this unless your computer is well protected by an external firewall or an ADSL modem with a firewall).
New python executable in d:/internet/yoursite.org/px\Scripts\python.exe Installing setuptools..............done. Installing pip 0.4.1dev Installing setuptools-dummy 0.0.3 Installing setuptools-git 0.3.4 Installing Django 1.0.3 Going to install a full Pinax 0.7 release. Installing Pinax Ignoring indexes: http://pypi.python.org/simple Downloading/unpacking django-openid==0.2.0 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 43)) Running setup.py egg_info for package django-openid Downloading/unpacking django-friends==0.1.4 (from -r D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt (line 35)) Exception: Traceback (most recent call last): File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py", line 288, in main File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py", line 463, in run File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py", line 1951, in install_files File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py", line 2021, in unpack_url File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py", line 2130, in unpack_file File "c:\program files\python\python26\Lib\tarfile.py", line 2523, in is_tarfile File "c:\program files\python\python26\Lib\tarfile.py", line 1647, in open File "c:\program files\python\python26\Lib\tarfile.py", line 1692, in taropen File "c:\program files\python\python26\Lib\tarfile.py", line 1570, in __init__ File "c:\program files\python\python26\Lib\tarfile.py", line 2311, in next File "c:\program files\python\python26\Lib\tarfile.py", line 1235, in fromtarfile IOError: [Errno 12] Not enough space Storing complete log in ./pip-log.txt Traceback (most recent call last): File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py", line 4128, in <module> File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py", line 978, in main File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py", line 304, in main IOError: [Errno 12] Not enough space Complete output from command d:/internet/yoursite.org/px\Scripts\python.exe d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py install --no-deps --no-index --ignore-installed --environment d:/internet/yoursite.org/px --requirement D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt --find-links file:///d:/libs/python/pinax/requirements/0.7 d:/internet/yoursite.org/px ___VENV_RESTART___: ---------------------------------------- Traceback (most recent call last): File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\Scripts\pip-script.py", line 8, in <module> File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py", line 978, in main File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py", line 272, in main File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py", line 1061, in restart_in_venv File "d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py", line 3852, in call_subprocess pip.InstallationError: Command d:/internet/yoursite.org/px\Scripts\python.exe d:\internet\yoursite.org\px\lib\site-packages\pip-0.4.1devdev-py2.6.egg\pip.py install --no-deps --no-index --ignore-installed --environment d:/internet/yoursite.org/px --requirement D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requirements\0.7\release.txt --find-links file:///d:/libs/python/pinax/requirements/0.7 d:/internet/yoursite.org/px ___VENV_RESTART___ failed with error code 1 Traceback (most recent call last): File "pinax/scripts/pinax-boot.py", line 1558, in <module> File "pinax/scripts/pinax-boot.py", line 424, in main File "pinax/scripts/pinax-boot.py", line 1251, in after_install File "pinax/scripts/pinax-boot.py", line 483, in call_subprocess OSError: Command d:\internet\yoursite.or...p.exe install --no-deps --no-index --ignore-installed --environment d:/internet/yoursite.org/px --requirement D:\Libs\Python\pinax\requireme...e.txt --find-links file:///d:/libs/python/pinax/r...s/0.7 failed with error code 1 D:\Libs\Python>
While trying to run the Pinax CMS server
You may see the following text when you try to run the server (under Step 4, point 8):
Validating models... 0 errors found Django version 1.0.3, using settings 'exciting-site.settings' Development server is running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/ Quit the server with CTRL-BREAK. Error: [Errno 10013] An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions
When you receive this error, there’s nothing wrong with your access permissions! The port is already in use, that’s all. To find out what program is using your current port, in case you want to disable it, run the following from a command prompt:
netstat -ao 2>nul | find "8000"
replace "8000" with the actual port you specified (default is 8000). The "2>nul" prevents you seeing unnecessary errors like “x: Windows Sockets initialization failed: 5″ which can happen for certain processes. "-ao" means all ports and process ids, “| find xxx” means select these lines only that contain that text. Result can look something like this:
TCP 127.0.0.1:8000 MyComp:0 LISTENING 6738
the important part to look for is the last number, 6738 in this example, which you can lookup on the task manager (right click task bar, select Task Manager) which will show the name in the list for that ID. Alternative, you can run the following command which shows the process name directly, by you cannot filter it that easily:
netstat -ab 2>nul
A common application that uses port 8000 is Eclipse with certain plugins, like Aptana Studio. This blog helped me solve this issue on my Vista machine, however on your machine, another application may be troubling. If you cannot shut down the application, you can run the following command to start the server on a different port:
prompt> activate prompt> python manage.py runserver localhost:8001
Yes, it’s that easy. You can choose any port you like as long as its free. The default HTTP port is port 80, which is usually occupied by either your web server or by Skype. If this is your first website project ever, you can try using it (make sure to close Skype first).
Other situations or errors
If your situation doesn’t fit to one of the errors above or the solutions didn’t work for you, please let me know by commenting on this post or sending me a tweet. I can only help with isntallation errors on Windows systems running Pinax.
Conclusion
In all honesty, I haven’t done much playing around with Pinax yet, but from what I see so far it seems like a well featured yet lightweight CMS system which can compete with many existing systems. The CMS market is very overloaded as it is and it is not easy to decide on a fit CMS system for your needs, but if you consider trying out something new, this is a very good candidate and is at least worth a thorough test. I cannot tell much about it being production stable, the version number being on 0.7 at the moment tells met that you should wait a while before really trying this in live corporate environments.
In a future article I will show how to really configure Apache, it proved to big to be included in this “getting started” article. And in the third and latest article, I will show you how you can run this without using Apache (if you don’t have it you don’t need to install it) as a Windows Service, so that it runs even when you are not logged on.
– Abel –
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