quant 0.5

Operating System Dependencies

Before installation, make sure required system packages are installed:

$ sudo aptitude install python python-numpy python-scipy

Check your Python can load scipy with (returns silently if available):

$ python -c "import numpy"
$ python -c "import scipy"

Please note, if you will install Quant into an isolated virtual Python environment (e.g. with virtualenv), you will want to create library links to the Python packages for SciPy (and NumPy) before installing Quant.

Install Steps

Install the Quant Python package (and dependencies) by running either:

$ pip install quant

Or by downloading the Quant tarball, unpacking and running:

$ python setup.py install

After installation, please read the following help pages for more information:

$ quant-makeconfig --help
$ quant-admin help setup

Deployment Steps

Firstly, decide a filesystem path for the deployment:

$ mkdir YOUR-SITE-DIR

Secondly, create the configuration file:

$ quant-makeconfig --master-dir=YOUR-SITE-DIR YOUR-SITE-DIR/quant.conf

Thirdly, set up the site by running:

$ quant-admin --config=YOUR-SITE-DIR/quant.conf setup

Please note, if you installed Quant into an isolated virtual Python environment, you will want to use the –virtualenv-bin-dir option of quant-makeconfig.

The Quant Installer

You can create a Quant service in one step with the Quant installer:

$ wget http://appropriatesoftware.net/provide/docs/quant-virtualenv
$ chmod +x quant-virtualenv

Run the installer, at least with a path argument (see –help for options):

$ ./quant-virtualenv YOUR-SITE-DIR

The path argument can be relative or absolute.

The installer will build a virtual Python environment, and install the Quant software. The installer will then set up a new site with an SQLite database, and it will create an Apache config file to be included in the main Apache configuration (see below).

Apache Configuration Steps

Make sure the required system packages are installed:

$ sudo aptitude install apache2 libapache2-mod-wsgi

Also, make sure Apache mod_wsgi is enabled:

$ sudo a2enmod wsgi

Change ownership of the Quant files to the Apache server:

$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data YOUR-SITE-DIR

You can do more complicated things with the installer (see –help) and the file permissions and ownerships, but these few lines should work.

Pick a domain name for your site. Create a new virtual host which includes the auto-generated Apache configuration (path mentioned by the installer). Then configure your DNS. A new Apache virtual host could simply look like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName YOUR-SITE-DOMAIN-NAME
    Include YOUR-SITE-DIR/var/httpd-autogenerated.conf
</VirtualHost>

Please note, the path to the auto-generated file must be an absolute path (not a relative path).

After restarting, your virtual host will show a page saying ‘Welcome to Quant’. You will be able to login with username ‘admin’ and password ‘pass’.