Installation Guide¶

This guide will help you install and set up Aura Art on your system.

Prerequisites¶

Docker Installation¶

For Docker installation, you only need:

Docker and Docker Compose
Git

Manual Installation¶

For manual installation, you need:

Python 3.11 or higher
pip or uv package manager
PostgreSQL (recommended) or SQLite
Git

Installation Steps¶

Docker Installation (Recommended)¶

The easiest way to run Aura Art is using Docker Compose:

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/dim-gggl/aura-app.git
cd aura-app

Set up environment variables:
```
cp env.example .env
```
Edit the .env file with your configuration settings.
Start the application:
```
docker-compose up -d
```

Create a superuser account:

docker-compose exec web python manage.py createsuperuser

Load initial data (optional):

docker-compose exec web python manage.py loaddata setup/fill_up/artists.json
docker-compose exec web python manage.py loaddata setup/fill_up/fake_artworks.json

You should now be able to access Aura Art at http://localhost:8000.

Manual Installation¶

If you prefer to install manually without Docker:

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/dim-gggl/aura-app.git
cd aura-app

Create and activate a virtual environment:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

Install dependencies:

uv sync

Or with pip:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Set up environment variables:
```
cp env.example .env
```
Edit the .env file with your configuration settings.
Run database migrations:
```
python manage.py migrate
```
Create a superuser account:
```
python manage.py createsuperuser
```

Load initial data (optional):

python manage.py loaddata setup/fill_up/artists.json
python manage.py loaddata setup/fill_up/fake_artworks.json

Start the development server:
```
python manage.py runserver
```

You should now be able to access Aura Art at http://localhost:8000.

Production Deployment¶

Aura Art is deployed at https://aura-app.org. The production deployment includes:

HTTPS: Secure SSL/TLS encryption
CDN: Fast global content delivery
Monitoring: 24/7 uptime monitoring
Backups: Automated daily backups
Updates: Regular security and feature updates

Access the live application at: https://aura-app.org

Configuration¶

Environment Variables¶

The following environment variables can be configured in your .env file:

Tip: In order to generate a secure secret key, you can use Clinkey-Cli using pip:

uv pip install clinkey-cli
# or pip install clinkey-cli
export DJANGO_SECRET_KEY=$(clinkey -l 64 -s - -t super_strong --lower)

DEBUG: Set to True for development, False for production
SECRET_KEY: Django secret key for security
DATABASE_URL: Database connection string
ALLOWED_HOSTS: Comma-separated list of allowed hosts
EMAIL_HOST: SMTP server for email functionality
EMAIL_PORT: SMTP port
EMAIL_HOST_USER: SMTP username
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD: SMTP password

Database Configuration¶

Aura Art supports multiple database backends:

PostgreSQL (recommended for production)
SQLite (default for development)
MySQL

For production deployments, PostgreSQL is strongly recommended for better performance and data integrity.

Troubleshooting¶

Common Issues¶

ImportError: No module named ‘django’

Make sure your virtual environment is activated and Django is installed.

Database connection errors

Verify your database settings in the .env file and ensure the database server is running. Depending on your PostgreSQL version, try running the following command (in a separate terminal):

pg_isready

If this command fails, you may need to start PostgreSQL. On macOS with Homebrew, you can use:

brew services start postgresql
# it's possible that you need to specify the version, like:
# brew services start postgresql@16

For Linux, you can use:

sudo systemctl start postgresql

For Windows, you can use:

net start postgresql

Permission errors

Make sure the application has proper permissions to write to the media and static directories.

Getting Help¶

If you encounter issues during installation:

Check the troubleshooting section above
Review the Django documentation
Check the project’s issue tracker
Contact the development team on GitHub : https://github.com/dim-gggl/aura-app/issues