Volunteasy

Starting the project

For installing Laravel, please refer to Official Laravel installation guide.

Check the server eequirements of the version in the project, install and enable the required php modules.

Installing dependencies (assuming apache as web server and mysql as db):

In a nutshell (assuming debian-based OS), first install the dependencies needed:

Note: php5 package installs apache2 as a dependency so we have no need to add it manually.

% sudo aptitude install php5 php5-cli mcrypt php5-mcrypt mysql-server php5-mysql

Install composer according to official instructions (link above) and move binary to ~/bin:

% curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php5 && mv composer.phar ~/bin

Download Laravel installer via composer:

% composer global require "laravel/installer=~1.1"

And add ~/.composer/vendor/bin to your $PATH. Example:

% cat ~/.profile
[..snip..]
LARAVEL=/home/username/.composer/vendor
PATH=$PATH:$LARAVEL/bin

And source your .profile with % source ~/.profile

After cloning the project with a simple git clone https://github.com/scify/VoluntEasy.git, type cd VoluntEasy/VoluntEasy && composer install to install all dependencies.

Editing the .env file

Copy the existing VoluntEasy/.env.example file to VoluntEasy/.env.

First, you have to generate an application key. Use php artisan key:generate.

An example .env file should look like this (populate it using your own credentials):

APP_DEBUG=false
APP_KEY=generatedkeygoeshere

DB_HOST=localhost
DB_DATABASE=volunteasy
DB_USERNAME=volunteasy
DB_PASSWORD=secretpass

CACHE_DRIVER=file
SESSION_DRIVER=file
QUEUE_DRIVER=sync

MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.mailtrap.io
MAIL_PORT=2525
MAIL_USERNAME=username
MAIL_PASSWORD=mailpassword
[email protected]
MAIL_FROM_NAME=Name

LOCALE=el

MODE=municipality
ROOT_URL=http://volunteasy.example.com

Apache configuration:

% cat /etc/apache2/sites-available/mysite.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
	ServerName myapp.localhost.com
	DocumentRoot "/path/to/VoluntEasy/VoluntEasy/public"
	<Directory "/path/to/VoluntEasy/VoluntEasy/public">
		AllowOverride all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Make the symbolic link:

% cd /etc/apache2/sites-enabled && sudo ln -s ../sites-available/mysite.conf

Enable mod_rewrite and restart apache:

% sudo a2enmod rewrite && sudo service apache2 restart

Fix permissions for storage directory:

% chmod -R 755 path/to/VoluntEasy/VoluntEasy/storage && chown -R www-data:www-data /path/to/VoluntEasy/VoluntEasy/storage

Test your setup with:

% php artisan serve

and navigate to localhost:8000.

Nginx configuration:

Add additional the additional dependencies needed:

% sudo aptitude install nginx php5-fpm

Disable cgi.fix_pathinfo at /etc/php5/fpm/php.ini: cgi.fix_pathinfo=0

% sudo php5enmod mcrypt && sudo service php5-fpm restart

Nginx server block:

server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server ipv6only=on;

    root /var/www/laravel/public;
    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    server_name server_domain_or_IP;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri /index.php =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

% sudo service nginx restart && sudo chmod -R 755 path/to/project/storage

And finally, set the group appropriately:

% sudo chown -R www-data:www-data storage

Database

Creating a new database

Initialize the database with php artisan migrate and test the installation with php artisan serve and hit localhost:8000/auth/register at your browser of choice.

After running migrations, it's time to create an initial user.

Navigate at the root directory and run ./config-user.pl. The script asks for initial user info. After filling everything, you will be asked if the info is correct. If not, just press n and it will run once more. Upon successful completion, the database seed file will be generated. It's time to seed the database with php artisan db:seed --class=UserTableSeeder.

Try login credentials by navigating at http://localhost/auth/login

Importing the demo database

If you want, you may try to import the .sql file into your database instead of creating a new one. Just enter mysql -u user -p database_name < project_voldemo.sql.

Credentials for the root user are:

user:	[email protected]
pass:	demo1234

Command scheduling

As of now, a background job performs a search for actions that are going to expire in seven days and sends a questionnaire link to all the subscribed volunteers. While the job exists, because it resides on artisan, you will need to add a cronjob entry for this. Something like

% crontab -l
0 1 * * * php /path/to/artisan schedule:run 1>> /dev/null 2>&1

will suffice.