View Source As a developer

These instructions will set up a development environment with the Torus server running directly on the host machine.

Mostly Automated Steps

  1. Install dependencies:

    • Docker and docker-compose
    • Elixir ($ brew install elixir)
    • Phoenix ($ mix archive.install hex phx_new 1.5.9)

  2. Clone this repository $ git clone https://github.com/Simon-Initiative/oli-torus

  3. Run $ sh ./devmode.sh

  4. Run $ mix phx.server

  5. Open your web browser to https://localhost.

Mostly Manual Steps

  1. Install dependencies:

    • Docker and docker-compose
    • Elixir ($ brew install elixir)
    • Phoenix ($ mix archive.install hex phx_new 1.5.9)

  2. Clone this repository $ git clone https://github.com/Simon-Initiative/oli-torus

  3. Create configuration env files:

    $ cp oli.example.env oli.env
$ cp postgres.example.env postgres.env

  4. Configure oli.env for running natively:

    Make sure DB_HOST is set to localhost (as opposed to postgress).

    DB_HOST=localhost

  5. Start dockerized postgres 12 via the included docker-compose file:

    $ docker-compose up -d postgres

  6. Install server and client dependencies:

    $ mix deps.get
$ cd assets && yarn

  7. Build frontend assets

    $ yarn deploy

  8. Create database

    $ cd ../ && mix ecto.create

  9. Run migration to create schema

    $ mix ecto.migrate

  10. Seed the database

    $ mix run priv/repo/seeds.exs

  11. Configure bash to properly source environment variable configurations

    $ set -a

  12. Load phoenix app configuration from environment file. This step is necessary anytime you change a configuration variable

    $ source oli.env

  13. Start Phoenix server

    $ mix phx.server

    Note: Use Ctrl+c to stop the Phoenix server

  14. Open your web browser to https://localhost.

Notes

In order to sign in, you must use https and accept the self-signed cert browser warning to avoid CSRF issues. If you would like to provide your own cert instead of accepting the included one, simply replace priv/ssl/localhost.crt -or- use the localhost tunneling method below to generate a public URL with SSL enabled.

To access email verification message and activate your locally-created account, visit http://localhost/dev/sent_emails.

Default administrator credentials are defined in oli.env as ADMIN_EMAIL and ADMIN_PASSWORD. These values are only used to seed the database during mix ecto.setup / mix ecto.reset.

Docker is not a strict dependency. We use it here to simplify the install and running of Postgres. You can choose to install and run Postgres bare-metal, but you will not be able to use the Mostly Automated Steps above (since the ./devmode.sh script depends on Docker).

Running Tests

Note: If you are running using docker-compose as described in Quick Start, you can create a bash session to execute any of the following commands using docker-compose exec app bash

  1. Run JavaScript tests

    $ cd assets && yarn test

  2. Run elixir tests

    $ mix test

  3. Run elixir tests for a specific file, watch for changes and automatically re-run tests

    $ mix test.watch --stale --max-failures 1 --trace --seed 0 lib/some_dir/file_to_watch.ex

    Re-run only failed tests

    $ mix test.watch --failed --trace --seed 0 lib/some_dir/file_to_watch.ex

    Using fswatch, re-run only the test files that have changed as well as the tests that have gone stale due to changes in lib and pause on any failures

    $ fswatch lib test | mix test --listen-on-stdin --stale --seed 0 --trace --max-failures 1

  4. Generate an html coverage report

    $ mix coveralls.html

  5. Occasionally the test database will need to be reset (e.g. if tests were cancelled partway through)

    $ MIX_ENV=test mix ecto.reset

Tunneling localhost connection for LTI development

When making an LTI connection from an LMS such as Canvas, we need an internet accessible FQDN with SSL to properly configure a connection. The service ngrok offers an easy to use command line tool that does just this.

  1. Download ngrok and install using their instructions (Create a free account if required)
  2. Run ngrok locally to tunnel to phoenix app on port 4000 ngrok http 4000
  3. Access your running webapp using the generated https address (shown in console after Forwarding). This will be the same address used to configure the LMS LTI connection

Configuring an LTI 1.3 Connection

Torus supports LTI 1.3 integration and leverages the Learning Management System for course delivery.

To configure an LTI connection, refer to the Torus LTI 1.3 Manual Configuration.