iPython Notebook Vagrant Box

This project is a simple skeleton for easily running iPython Notebooks on your local machine. The goal is to provide a simple way for you to:

Install and run the iPython Notebook server and all its dependencies
Create and save notebook files on your local machine
Easily push and pull your notebooks to your GitHub account

The project is inspired by Matthew Russell's Mining the Social Web, 2nd edition.

Using the box

Before you start, you'll need to:

Install git
Install Vagrant and VirtualBox . Matthew Russell's excellent Appendix A: Virtual Machine Experience provides full details on how to get set up.
Install the Vagrant Omnibus plug-in:

vagrant plugin install vagrant-omnibus

Once you've got these installed, you can create the virtual machine:

Clone this repository to your machine. For example, you might put it in "/Users/odewahn/Desktop/ipython-notebox"
"vagrant up" from within the directory and wait a few minutes while all the dependencies are installed

Building a notebook from your Atlas project

Once you've got the VM installed (this is probably the hardest part), you're ready to go. Once you get a working HTML build, can generate a notebook like this:

   atlas2ipynb _YOUR-ATLAS-API-TOKEN_ _YOUR-PROJECT-NAME_

For example:

   atlas2ipynb r1pB4y95uMxT3m8t9zRf oreillymedia/razzpisampler

Here are the steps to follow:

Use vagrant ssh to log into the box
Use atlas2ipynb to build, download, unzip, and convert your project. (You'll need your API key from Atlas.)
Assuming the build succeeds, cd into the new directory and type nbserver
Open your browser and go to "http://localhost:8888"

If you want to view just your static site, you can run:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

In the directory and then open "http://localhost:8000" in your browser.

TODO

Here are some things we still need to figure out

Installing additional requirements / packages on the box

It's very likely that you'll want to install some additional requirements/dependencies on the box that are specific to your project. For example, if you're doing Python, you might want to install a bunch of things from pip. To do this, you might put all your dependencies in a file called "requirements.txt in Atlas and then run Pip on the box to install them, like this:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

If you're using Ruby, you might make a Gemfile and then rune "bundle install".

We'll need to figure this out as we go, so we're open to suggestions.

Building a docker image

This VM also installs Packer and Docker in order to create a Docker image of the VM. This will (eventually!) let us make a much simpler process for spinning up and deploying new content repos:

Use packer to make an ipython-notebox base docker image
For content, use inherit from ipython-notebox and use Dockerfiles to install the content

There's still more work to do here.

To create the image:

sudo su - root
cd /vagrant
packer build packer-ipython-notebox-docker.json

After you build the image, you can run it like this: