Emmaus Project

Yesterday Hugh, Dan, and I spent about an hour setting up Python, Django, the directory and everything it needed. I then realized how complicated this process really is, and how many things needed to get put together to make it all work. Mysql was one of the hardest things to get to work for most people I have talked to, and I really wanted to simplify it. Anyway I found that sqlite is very simple and really just enough for what we need for testing this stuff out. Long story short, I packaged everything you need in one zip file. Just extract, run install, and you should have the directory running on your computer in no time (assuming you have windows).

What this package includes:
Python 2.5
Django 0.96
Python Image Library
pysqlite
sqliteadmin
a snapshot of the source from 3/2/07 with a preconfigured settings.py file, templates with windows style line breaks, a small template bug fix, and database entries for all of the branches and divisions. There is also a superuser account with username: admin and password: admin.

Here's how to install it:

1. Download the zip file at http://acm.cs.umn.edu/~sweecoo/emmaus/emmaus3.zip. You should be able to save it to the desktop.
2. Extract the files by right-clicking the zip file, then selecting "Extract All...". A wizard should come up. Just keep clicking next, and eventually it should open up a folder.
3. Run install by double-clicking it.
4. Python should automatically install it self in C:\Python25
5. PIL will then start installing. Keep pressing next
6. pysqlite will install next. Keep pressing next
7. The Django Development Server will be started. Minimize that window, and press a key in the install window.
8. A browser window will pop up with the directory running on your own computer

Making Your First Edit
I recommend starting with the HTML templates if you don't know where to dig in. The template files describe what a page on the directory website looks like. I personally prefer the 'w' in 'welcome' to be capitalized, so let's change that as an example.

1. The file containing that is directory/templates/base.html. Find this file in the emmaus folder.
2. Edit this file by right clicking the file -> 'Open With...' -> 'Choose Program...' -> 'Notepad' -> 'OK'
3. Anything between < > is HTML, and anything between {{ }} or {% %} is Django's templating engine. Most other text will end up on the page.
4. In this file, find the section that looks like this:
   <p>welcome to the</p>
<h1>People of Praise Online</h1>
5. Change that to look like this:
   <p>Welcome to the</p>
<h1>People of Praise Online</h1>
6. Save the file.
7. Run the webserver if it is not running by double clicking runserver.bat in the directory folder.
8. Go to the website on your computer at http://127.0.0.1/. If you already have this page open, you can just click refresh, or press F5.
9. You should be able to see your edit. It takes a bit of bravery to edit these files, but try to make some more changes. If you mess something up, you can always delete everything and start over just fine.

Also check out http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/. That's where most people have learned how to use Django.