gtsoy454 / xtuple-vagrant

Vagrant-powered development environment for the xTuple's open-source ERP software: http://github.com/xtuple.

xTuple and Vagrant

xTuple uses Vagrant to build disposable Linux virtual machines (VMs). The files in the xtuple-vagrant repository simplify spinning up new VMs for several different use cases, including hosting demonstration databases and developing for the mobile web and desktop clients.

The setup files and instructions below are designed to let you edit files on either the host computer or from the VM. There are other ways to use Vagrant. This system works for us.

Creating a Vagrant Virtual Development Environment

Vagrant is open-source software used to create lightweight and portable virtual development environments. Vagrant works like a "wrapper" for VirtualBox that can create, configure, and destroy virtual machines with the use of its own terminal commands. Vagrant facilitates the setup of environments without any direct interaction with VirtualBox and allows developers to use preferred editors and browsers in their native operating system. This blog describes a typical workflow using Vagrant in a development environment.

New to Github? Learn more about basic Github activities here.

Note: If you are using a Windows host, please use these instructions.

Install Vagrant

• Download and install VirtualBox 4.3.12. Do not open VirtualBox or create a virtual machine. This will be done by Vagrant later.
• Download and install Vagrant 1.6.4. Package managers like apt-get and gem install will install different versions of Vagrant so you must use the download page.

Install git

Make sure you have git installed on your host computer. You can do this in any of several different ways:

• $ sudo apt-get install git on some Linux distributions
• installing Xcode from Apple's App Store
• downloading GitHub's desktop client
• downloading an installer from git-scm.com

Get the Source Files

Fork the following repositories on GitHub:

• xtuple
• xtuple-extensions
• qt-client only if you are going to make changes to xTuple's desktop client
• openrpt only if you are going to make changes to the OpenRPT report writer
• csvimp only if you are going to make changes to the CSVImp utility

Important: If you have previously forked these repositories, you should update your fork and update your dependencies.

Clone your forks of the xtuple and xtuple-extensions repositories to a directory on your host machine:

host $ mkdir dev
host $ cd dev
host $ git clone --recursive https://github.com/<your-github-username>/xtuple.git
host $ git clone --recursive https://github.com/<your-github-username>/xtuple-extensions.git
host $ #and the following only if you plan to change them
host $ git clone --recursive https://github.com/<your-github-username>/qt-client.git
host $ git clone --recursive https://github.com/<your-github-username>/openrpt.git
host $ git clone --recursive https://github.com/<your-github-username>/csvimp.git

Clone xtuple's xtuple-vagrant repository in a separate directory adjacent to your development folder:

host $ cd ..
host $ ls dev       # this should show xtuple, xtuple-extensions, ...
host $ mkdir vagrant
host $ cd vagrant
host $ git clone https://github.com/xtuple/xtuple-vagrant.git   # no need to fork
host $ cd xtuple-vagrant

Configure Your VM

You probably need to configure your VM before you start it for the first time. We've made it easy to change some basic settings that control how the VM interacts with the host computer and what software gets installed in the VM. You can change the amount of memory the VM uses, its hostname and IP address, what version of PostgreSQL is installed, etc.

There is a list of variables at the top of the Vagrantfile. You can override these settings by creating a file called xtlocal.rb and placing new variable assignments in this file. For example, if you need to change the amount of memory the VM can use, override the xtVboxMemory setting:

host $ cat 'xtVboxMemory = "2048"' > xtlocal.rb

One common case is configuring a second or third VM running on a single host. This is easy to do. You must overrride the network address of the VM and the network ports that the host forwards to the VM. To assign these ports manually, change the xtlocal.rb file to look like this:

xtHostAddr      = "192.168.33.11"
xtHostAppPort   = 8444
xtHostRestPort  = 3001
xtHostWebPort   = 8889

You can also use the xtHostOffset variable. First get the variables to change:

host $ egrep ^xtHost Vagrantfile > xtlocal.rb

Then edit the resulting file to look something like this:

xtHostOffset    = 2
xtHostAddr      = "192.168.33.12"
xtHostAppPort   = xtGuestAppPort  + xtHostOffset
xtHostRestPort  = xtGuestRestPort + xtHostOffset
xtHostWebPort   = xtGuestWebPort  + xtHostOffset

Now make sure the VM will play nicely with your host machine:

host $ vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest

Important: Make sure the xtSourceDir variable matches the location of the cloned xTuple source code on the host machine. It should be a relative path

Important: The default configuration runs a script to set up the VM for mobile-web client development. You can override this by changing the xtHostSetupFile:

• mvdev_setup.sh sets up the VM for developing the mobile web client.
• qt4src_setup.sh downloads the source code for Qt 4, then compiles and installs it. This takes a long time but is similar to the configuration we use to build the desktop client for releases. The resulting VM may be used for both desktop and mobile web client development.
• Create your own script to set up a VM for a differeutn purpose.

Connect to the Virtual Machine

Start the virtual machine:

host $ vagrant up

Vagrant will automatically run the shell script named by the xtHostSetupFile variable in either the Vagrantfile or xtlocal.rb to install the right tools. This may take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to run, depending on which script you choose to run.

Connect to the virtual machine via ssh:

host $ vagrant ssh

Note that the xTuple source code is synced to the folder ~/dev:

vagrant $ ls dev    # you should see xtuple and xtuple-extensions

Start the datasource:

vagrant $ cd dev/xtuple/node-datasource
vagrant $ node main.js

xTuple Mobile Web

Launch your local browser and navigate to application using localhost http://localhost:8888 or the static IP address of the the virtual machine http://192.168.33.10:8888. You will need to use a different IP address if you changed xtHostAddr in your xtlocal.rb.

The default username and password to your local application are admin

xTuple Desktop Client

The xTuple ERP desktop client application can use the database server running in the vagrant VM. Just make sure the application matches the xTuple database version - that is, run a 4.9.1 client to talk to a 4.9.1 database, 4.10.0 development client to talk to a 4.10.0 development database, etc. Just make sure to log in to the database using the admin user, admin password (unless you changed it!-), and proper IP address and database server port.

Simplifying Desktop Development

If you set up the VM for desktop client development, you can tweak the VM configuration to make it easier to work in. Set the xtGui variable to true in xtlocal.rb and restart the VM:

host $ vagrant reload

This will reboot the VM and show the Linux display in a VirtualBox window so you can work in it directly. You can still connect to the VM on the command line with vagrant ssh. Remember that you should use vagrant commands to shutdown or reboot the VM whenever possible.

Using Qt Creator

Note: This section is optional and only relevant if you are changing the xTuple ERP desktop client application.

Qt Creator is a good IDE for working with Qt projects but we at xTuple have had trouble getting it to work properly. The qtkpt_setup.sh and qt4src_setup.sh scripts install Qt Creator for you but you do not have to use it. There are a few things you need to know:

• Open the qt-client project by navigating to the qt-client directory and opening xtuple.pro
• The xTuple widgets plugin must be installed properly before you can edit .ui files. You can tell whether it's installed by opening a .ui within Creator and making sure there is a section called xTuple Custom Widgets in the widgets palette.
• If it isn't there, check Tools > Form Editor > About Qt Designer Plugins... and look under Failed Plugins.
  • If the xTuple plugin is listed but there was an error loading it, try clicking the Refresh button.
  • If the xTuple plugin is not listed:
    1. close the .ui file
    2. open any .cpp file in the widgets directory and make a simple change, like adding then removing a space
    3. save the modified .cpp
    4. click the Build Project button (looks like a hammer)
    5. open Refresh the plugins again as described above
    6. open a .ui file and double-check the widgets palette
  • If you continue to have problems:
    • make sure you have write-permissions on /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt4/plugins/designer and that it contains libxtuplewidgets.so
    • check that /etc/ld.so.conf.d/xtuple.conf exists and that it lists both the /home/vagrant/dev/qt-client/lib and /home/vagrant/dev/qt-client/openrpt/lib dirs. If not, create this file, add each of these directories on separate lines, and run ldconfig.

Additional Information

Shutting down, restarting, and destroying your VM:

Basic commands

See Configure Your VM if you have special needs, such as more than one xTuple vagrant VM. If running on a Mac with 8GB of RAM or less, set your VM to use 2GB. Set xtVboxMemory = "2048" in your xtlocal.rb, then either vagrant up or vagrant reload.