How to Install and Configure Superdesk Publisher with Superdesk

This guide describes the functions of Superdesk Publisher and Superdesk, along with the required steps to run both applications concurrently in a production environment on two different servers. (However, both applications can also work on a single machine.)

How to Install Superdesk?

Prerequisites:

  • VPS or dedicated server: min 2GB RAM, 4GB Free space
  • Ubuntu 16.04 server version installed

Superdesk can be installed using one command line script which can be found here: https://github.com/takeit/superdesk-install/blob/master/install

Run command:

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sudo apt-get install curl -y
&& curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/takeit/superdesk-install/master/install | sudo bash

Note

If you see the following message:

The virtual environment was not created successfully because ensurepip is not
available. On Debian/Ubuntu systems, you need to install the python3-venv
package using the following command.
apt-get install python3-venv
You may need to use sudo with that command. After installing the python3-venv
package, recreate your virtual environment.
Failing command: [‘/opt/superdesk/env/bin/python3’, ‘-Im’, ‘ensurepip’, ‘ — upgrade’, ‘ — default-pip’]

Run:

export LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"
export LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"

and then again execute the command:

sudo apt-get install curl -y
&& curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/takeit/superdesk-install/master/install | sudo bash

The above command will install all the required dependencies needed by Superdesk. Once this is done, the Superdesk will run on your server. You will be able to access it via your browser: http://<ip_or_domain>.

The default login credentials will be:

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Username: admin
Password: admin

How to Install Superdesk Publisher?

Prerequisites:

See here to read more about all requirements.

Note

In this guide the Superdesk Publisher will be installed on another server.

Setting up the server/VPS

1. Install ElasticSearch

ElasticSearch v5.6 will be used. Run the following command to install ES:

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curl -L -O https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-5.6.0.deb &&
sudo dpkg -i elasticsearch-5.6.0.deb && sudo apt-get -y update &&
sudo apt-get -y install --no-install-recommends openjdk-8-jre-headless &&
sudo systemctl enable elasticsearch && sudo systemctl restart elasticsearch

The ElasticSearch should be running on port 9200. You can run the command:

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curl -s "http://localhost:9200"

to find out if all works fine.

2. Install PostgreSQL

Run command:

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sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib -y

The default PostgreSQL user is postgres.

Set the default PostgreSQL user password:

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sudo -u postgres psql postgres
\password postgres

Hit enter, and a prompt to type a new password will show up.

Type \q to exit the postgres console, once you type a new password.

3. Install PHP-FPM 7.2

Let’s install PHP-FPM 7.2 with all the required extensions:

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sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y php7.2-fpm php7.2-pgsql php7.2-gd php7.2-xml \
php7.2-intl php7.2-zip php7.2-mbstring php7.2-curl php7.2-bcmath

4. Configure PHP-FPM 7.2

Run command:

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cd /etc/php/7.2/fpm/pool.d/ &&
sudo curl -s -O https://gist.githubusercontent.com/takeit/2ee16ee50878eeab01a7ca11b69dec10/raw/e9eda2801ac3657495374fcb846c2ff101a3e070/www.conf
&& sudo service php7.2-fpm restart

5. Install Nginx server

Run command:

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sudo apt-get -y install nginx

6. Configure Nginx server

Run command:

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cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
&& sudo curl -s -O https://gist.githubusercontent.com/takeit/9c895b4d59930a9b550a43a0d26c0e0e/raw/bff973443d244929c8deda70f97b4ae862d9158b/default
&& sudo service nginx restart

7. Install RabbitMQ server

Run command:

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sudo apt install -y rabbitmq-server

8. Install Supervisor

Run command:

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sudo apt-get install -y supervisor

Before starting the installation make sure your server meets all the requirements listed above.

Completing the Superdesk Publisher installation

The Superdesk Publisher repository can be found on GitHub.

From there the source code can be downloaded and the Superdesk Publisher can be installed on your server.

Follow the guide below.

Assumed our server has 192.168.0.102 IP address. You can change it to your own IP or domain name. But in this guide we will use 192.168.0.102 IP for Superdesk Publisher instance. Superdesk instance will run using 192.168.0.101 IP address.

1. Install Composer

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cd ~/
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

2. Download the source code

The default directory where the Publisher source code will be downloaded can be /var/www/publisher and all console commands need to be executed inside that directory starting from now on.

Run commands in your terminal:

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cd /var/www/ && sudo git clone https://github.com/superdesk/web-publisher.git publisher

Install Superdesk Publisher source code dependencies:

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HTTPDUSER=$(ps axo user,comm | grep -E '[a]pache|[h]ttpd|[_]www|[w]ww-data|[n]ginx' | grep -v root | head -1 | cut -d\  -f1)
&& sudo chown -R "$HTTPDUSER":"$HTTPDUSER" publisher/ && cd publisher
&& sudo -u www-data SYMFONY_ENV=prod composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

All the source code dependencies will start to install. Once it is done, you will be asked to fill the parameters.yml file which needs to be completed before proceeding.

If you don’t know what to set, just simply use default values by hitting “enter” and replace the content of /var/www/publisher/app/config/parameters.yml file with:

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# This file is auto-generated during the composer install
parameters:
    env(DATABASE_HOST): 127.0.0.1
    env(DATABASE_PORT): null
    env(DATABASE_NAME): publisher
    env(DATABASE_USER): postgres
    env(DATABASE_PASSWORD): postgres
    env(DATABASE_SERVER_VERSION): 9
    mailer_transport: smtp
    mailer_host: 127.0.0.1
    mailer_user: null
    mailer_password: null
    env(SYMFONY_SECRET): SuperSecretTokenPleaseChangeIt
    swp_updater.version.class: SWP\Bundle\CoreBundle\Version\Version
    env(SWP_DOMAIN): 192.168.0.102 # server domain/IP where Superdesk Publisher is installed
    cache_servers:
        - 192.168.0.102 # server domain/IP where Superdesk Publisher is installed
    doctrine_cache_driver: array
    sentry.dsn: false
    session_memcached_host: localhost
    session_memcached_port: 11211
    session_memcached_prefix: sess
    session_memcached_expire: 3600
    test_env: doctrine
    allow_origin_cors: '*'
    superdesk_servers:
        - 192.168.0.101 # server domain/IP where Superdesk is installed
    env(ELASTICA_HOST): localhost
    env(ELASTICA_PORT): 9200
    env(RABBIT_MQ_HOST): 127.0.0.1
    env(RABBIT_MQ_PORT): 5672
    env(RABBIT_MQ_USER): guest
    env(RABBIT_MQ_PASSWORD): guest

And set proper permissions for cache and logs directories, run:

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sudo setfacl -dR -m u:"$HTTPDUSER":rwX -m u:$(whoami):rwX app/cache app/logs
&& sudo setfacl -R -m u:"$HTTPDUSER":rwX -m u:$(whoami):rwX app/cache app/logs

3. Check Requirements

Check if your server meets the requirements by running:

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php app/check.php

If everything is in order, you should see this message: Your system is ready to run Symfony projects on your screen.

4. Create the Database and Update the Schema

Inside /var/www/publisher directory, run the command to create the database:

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SYMFONY_ENV=prod php app/console doctrine:database:create

And populate the database with the schema, run:

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SYMFONY_ENV=prod php app/console doctrine:migrations:migrate --no-interaction

5. Create organization

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SYMFONY_ENV=prod php app/console swp:organization:create Publisher

6. Create tenant

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SYMFONY_ENV=prod php app/console swp:tenant:create <organization_code> 192.168.0.102 Testing

Where <organization_code> is the organization code generated by the previous command and 192.168.0.102 is your IP/domain name which points to the server where Superdesk Publisher is installed. Replace it with your and appropriate data.

7. Install theme

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sudo -u www-data SYMFONY_ENV=prod php app/console swp:theme:install <tenant_code> src/SWP/Bundle/FixturesBundle/Resources/themes/DefaultTheme/ -f --activate -p

<tenant_code> is the Tenant’s code generated by previous command. Replace it with the proper value.

Install theme assets:

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sudo -u www-data SYMFONY_ENV=prod php app/console sylius:theme:assets:install

8. Run supervisor

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sudo -u www-data SYMFONY_ENV=prod php app/console rabbitmq-supervisor:build --env=prod

The Superdesk Publisher should be running and be accessible using your remote server IP, 192.168.0.102 in this case.

9. Clear the cache

Run command:

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SYMFONY_ENV=prod php app/console cache:clear --env=prod

How to Configure Superdesk Publisher with Superdesk?

Now that the Superdesk and Superdesk Publisher applications are installed, it is possible to enable Superdesk Publisher Component inside the Superdesk UI.

Superdesk Publisher Component is a JavaScript component that is a separate dependency and can be included in Superdesk in order to manage Superdesk Publisher application.

The source code of this component can be found at GitHub.

1. Update Configuration File

Login to the server where the Superdesk is installed.

Inside /opt/superdesk/client/dist directory on your server open the config.js and config.<hash>.js (e.g. config.23fr4.js) files and override the content with the text as below:

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window.superdeskConfig={
    apps: ['superdesk-publisher'],
    publisher: {
        protocol: "http",
        tenant: '', // subdomain
        domain: '192.168.0.102', // IP address or domain name of your server where Superdesk Publisher is installed
        base: 'api/v1'
    },
};

That’s it! Now, when you log in to Superdesk in the left hamburger menu, you will see the Publisher menu item available:

Superdesk Publisher

2. Configure Subscriber to Publish Content from Superdesk to Superdesk Publisher

You can read more about this in the official Superdesk Publisher documentation.

Thank you for reading to the end of this post! If you liked what you saw, please give us a pat us on the back by starring our project on Github: https://github.com/superdesk/web-publisher.