Install an existing application

On this page, we explain the procedure to build an application from only the current application code.

If you want to use an existing database, you should ignore all the commands concerning the database.

This guide assumes that:

  • all dependencies described in the requirements are installed,

  • Git is used as revision control.

For specific environments, this page contains some notes to give some help.

Set up the database

Every c2cgeoportal application requires a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database. The application works with its own tables, which store users, layers, etc. These tables are located in a specific schema of the database.

If the application has MapServer layers linked to PostGIS tables, these tables and the application-specific tables must be in the same database, preferably in separate schemas. This is required for layer access control (restricted layers), where joining user/role tables to PostGIS layer tables is necessary.

If you wish to use the similarity function within the full-text search, create the pg_trgm extension.

Create the unaccent extension to have accent-insensitive search within the full-text search.

By default, c2cgeoportal assumes that the www-data user exists with all rights on the application schemas.

Create the schemas

Each application needs two application-specific schemas. To create them, do:

sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE SCHEMA <schema_name>;" <db_name>
sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE SCHEMA <schema_name>_static;" <db_name>
sudo -u postgres psql -c 'GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA <schema_name> TO "www-data"' <db_name>
sudo -u postgres psql -c 'GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA <schema_name>_static TO "www-data"' <db_name>

Install the application

Windows Specific Configuration

Some Python modules cannot currently be installed through the Python Package Index (PyPI) and they have to be downloaded manually and stored. This is because these packages use DLLs and binaries which would have to be compiled using a C compiler.

Furthermore, some changes in the Apache WSGI and MapServer configurations are required to make c2cgeoportal work on Windows.

Also, between all the different command interfaces available on Windows (cmd, Cygwin, git mingw), only Windows default cmd interface handles paths correctly in all stages of the application setup.

Command interface and environment variable

Only use Windows default command interface:

Start > Run... > cmd

Cygwin and git mingw are not compatible. Powershell is untested.

In addition, you need to add all the resource paths to your system PATH environment variable, for cygwin, git and node binaries.

Cygwin

You must install the following packages:

  • git

Install the application

You can build and install the application with the command:

./build

This previous command will do many things like:

  • adapt the application configuration to your environment,

  • build the JavaScript and CSS resources into compressed files.

Activate the devlopement environment:

cp docker-compose.override.sample.yaml docker-compose.override.yaml

Run the composition:

docker compose up -d

Then create the application tables:

docker compose exec geoportal alembic --config=alembic.ini \
    --name=main upgrade head
docker compose exec geoportal alembic --config=alembic.ini \
    --name=static upgrade head

Your application should now be available at: https://localhost:8484/.

If you ahave an Apache in front of your application, add in the /var/www/vhosts/<vhost_name>/conf/proxies.conf file (create it if it does not exist):

ProxyPass "/<instance>"  "http://localhost:<application_port>/<instance>"
ProxyPassReverse "/<instance>"  "http://localhost:<application_port>/<instance>"
ProxyPreserveHost On
RequestHeader set X-Forwarded-Proto "https"
RequestHeader set X-Forwarded-Port "443"
ProxyRequests Off

Where <application_port> is the value of DOCKER_PORT, and /<instance> the value of VISIBLE_ENTRY_POINT.

The root instance should be at the end.

Migrating to a new server

If you are migrating to a new server, keep in mind that your variable DOCKER_WEB_HOST must contain the exact host name that browsers should use to access your site. Consider the following migration scenario: your current site runs on server old-site.customer.ch with the visible host name gis.customer.ch. You wish to setup a new server new-site.customer.ch, install the application and test it, and then switch your DNS so that gis.customer.ch now points to new-site.customer.ch. To accomplish this, you must proceed as follows:

  • set DOCKER_WEB_HOST to new-site.customer.ch

  • install the application on new-site.customer.ch and test the application at https://new-site.customer.ch

  • later, when going live, you must:

    • change DOCKER_WEB_HOST to gis.customer.ch

    • re-build, re-deploy - but do not test yet!

    • change your DNS so that gis.customer.ch points to new-site.customer.ch.

    • Now test your new live site.