Observation Portal

An Astronomical Observation Web Portal and Backend

Within an observatory control system, the observation portal provides modules for:

Proposal management: Calls for proposals, proposal creation, and time allocation
Request management: Observation request validation, submission, and cancellation, as well as views providing ancillary information about them
Observation management: Store and provide the telescope schedule, update observations, and update observation requests on observation update
User identity management: Oauth2 authenticated user management that can be used in other applications

Prerequisites

Optional prerequisites can be skipped for reduced functionality.

Python >= 3.6
PostgreSQL >= 9.6
A running Configuration Database
(Optional) A running Downtime Database
(Optional) A running Elasticsearch

Environment Variables

	Variable	Description	Default
General	`DEBUG`	Whether the application should run using Django's debug mode	`False`
	`SECRET_KEY`	The secret key used for sessions	`random characters`
Database	`DB_NAME`	The name of the database	`observation_portal`
	`DB_USER`	The database user	`postgres`
	`DB_PASSWORD`	The database password	`Empty string`
	`DB_HOST`	The database host	`127.0.0.1`
	`DB_PORT`	The database port	`5432`
Cache	`CACHE_BACKEND`	The remote Django cache backend	`django.core.cache.backends.locmem.LocMemCache`
	`CACHE_LOCATION`	The cache location or connection string	`unique-snowflake`
	`LOCAL_CACHE_BACKEND`	The local Django cache backend to use	`django.core.cache.backends.locmem.LocMemCache`
Static and Media Files	`AWS_BUCKET_NAME`	The name of the AWS bucket in which to store static and media files	`observation-portal-test-bucket`
	`AWS_REGION`	The AWS region	`us-west-2`
	`AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	The AWS user access key with read/write priveleges on the s3 bucket	`None`
	`AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	The AWS user secret key to use with the access key	`None`
	`MEDIA_STORAGE`	The Django media files storage backend	`django.core.files.storage.FileSystemStorage`
	`MEDIAFILES_DIR`	The directory in which to store media files	`media`
	`STATIC_STORAGE`	The Django static files storage backend	`django.contrib.staticfiles.storage.StaticFilesStorage`
Email	`EMAIL_BACKEND`	The Django SMTP backend to use	`django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend`
	`EMAIL_HOST`	The SMTP host	`localhost`
	`EMAIL_HOST_USER`	The SMTP user	`Empty string`
	`EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD`	The SMTP password	`Empty string`
	`EMAIL_PORT`	The SMTP port	`587`
External Services	`CONFIGDB_URL`	The url to the configuration database	`http://localhost`
	`DOWNTIMEDB_URL`	The url to the downtime database	`http://localhost`
	`ELASTICSEARCH_URL`	The url to the elasticsearch cluster	`http://localhost`
Task Scheduling	`DRAMATIQ_BROKER_HOST`	The broker host for dramatiq	`redis`
	`DRAMATIQ_BROKER_PORT`	The broker port for dramatiq	`6379`

Local Development

Set up external services

Please refer to the Configuration Database and Downtime Database projects for instructions on how to get those running, as well as the Elasticsearch documentation for options on how to run Elasticsearch.

Set up a virtual environment

Using a virtual environment is highly recommended. Run the following commands from the base of this project. (env) is used to denote commands that should be run using your virtual environment.

python3 -m venv env
source env/bin/activate
(env) pip install numpy && pip install -r requirements.txt

Set up the database

This example uses the PostgreSQL Docker image to create a database. Make sure that the options that you use to set up your database correspond with your configured database settings.

docker run --name observation-portal-postgres -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres -e POSTGRES_DB=observation_portal -v/var/lib/postgresql/data -p5432:5432 -d postgres:11.1

After creating the database, migrations must be applied to set up the tables in the database.

(env) python manage.py migrate

Run the tests

(env) python manage.py test --settings=test_settings

Run the portal

(env) python manage.py runserver

The observation portal should now be accessible from http://127.0.0.1:8000!

zemogle/observation-portal