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Superdesk installation instructions (Docker)

Archive only

I haven't looked at Superdesk in close to two years now (I no longer work at Sourcefabric) and I have little to no recollection of how to set it up. I'm leaving this gist online mainly for archival reasons and because there's a lot of useful information in the comments that I don't want to disappear from the internet. I hope you get it up and running one way or another, and if you do, please pop your solution here/make a new gist and link it here for others!

How to install Superdesk using Docker

  1. Install Docker
  2. Copy and paste docker-compose.yml in this gist into a blank folder (call it something like superdesk/)
  3. Open the folder in a terminal
  4. Run docker-compose up
  5. Wait a few seconds...
  6. Navigate to localhost:8080

You should see the Superdesk login screen! Now to initialise some data:

  1. Open a new terminal in the same folder
  2. Run docker-compose run superdesk-server run python manage.py app:initialize_data to populate Superdesk with some starting data.
  3. Run docker-compose run superdesk-server run python manage.py users:create -u admin -p admin -e admin@localhost --admin to create an example administrator.
version: "3"
services:
mongo:
image: mongo:3
expose:
- "27017"
redis:
image: redis:3
expose:
- "6379"
elastic:
image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:7.9.3
environment:
- xpack.security.enabled=false
- discovery.type=single-node
expose:
- "9200"
- "9300"
ulimits:
memlock:
soft: -1
hard: -1
nofile:
soft: 65536
hard: 65536
cap_add:
- IPC_LOCK
superdesk-server:
image: nickdbush/superdesk-server:2.0
container_name: superdesk-server
depends_on:
- redis
- mongo
- elastic
environment:
- WEB_CONCURRENCY=2
- SUPERDESK_CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:8080
- GRAMMALECTE_URL=http://grammalecte:9999
- MONGO_URI=mongodb://mongo/test
- PUBLICAPI_MONGO_URI=mongodb://mongo/test_pa
- LEGAL_ARCHIVE_URI=mongodb://mongo/test_la
- ARCHIVED_URI=mongodb://mongo/test_ar
- ELASTICSEARCH_URL=http://elastic:9200
- ELASTICSEARCH_INDEX=superdesk
- CELERY_BROKER_URL=redis://redis:6379/1
- REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379/1
- AMAZON_ACCESS_KEY_ID
- AMAZON_CONTAINER_NAME
- AMAZON_REGION
- AMAZON_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
- REUTERS_USERNAME
- REUTERS_PASSWORD
# - MAIL_SERVER=example.com
# - MAIL_PORT=25
# - MAIL_USE_TLS=false
# - MAIL_USE_SSL=false
# - MAIL_USERNAME=user
# - MAIL_PASSWORD=pwd
- SENTRY_DSN
- SECRET_KEY
- CONTENTAPI_URL=http://localhost:8080/capi
- CONTENTAPI_MONGO_URI=mongodb://mongo/test_ca
superdesk-client:
image: nickdbush/superdesk-client:2.0
container_name: superdesk
environment:
- SUPERDESK_URL=http://localhost:8080/api
- SUPERDESK_WS_URL=ws://localhost:8080/ws
- VIEW_DATE_FORMAT
- VIEW_TIME_FORMAT
- IFRAMELY_KEY
depends_on:
- superdesk-server
ports:
- "8080:80"
@oguruma1218
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I've installed this on a Ubuntu 20.04 LTS VPS per the Docker instructions. IP:8080 gives me a blank page, though I do see the Superdesk logo in the tab.

I'm new to both Docker and Superdesk, so I am sure I am doing something wrong. Any ideas?

@kennk
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kennk commented Feb 19, 2021

My wild guess is - if the VPS is hosted by someone else, is it correctly configured to point the browser to the superdesk page without issues? I used a laptop - with docker installed - to run this script with nothing to report. I think if you provide more details, someone can help. ps: "IP:8080"? Hope you mean a real ip address as in xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx then :8080? Just to be sure.

@oguruma1218
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The VPS is installed on a KVM (in a DMZ) on my LAN. I'm not sure what details to provide... That's sort of my conundrum here.... I'm not even sure where to start... All I can say is that I installed it using the instructions into a completely Vanilla Ubuntu VPS. I'd assume that the Docker install would take care of the webserver configuration. I do know that I can see the Superdesk Favicon in the browser tab when I go to 10.1.1.6:8080 (the actual IP of the Superdesk Install). Other than that it's a blank page (but no 503/404 error).

@nickdbush
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Hi @oguruma1218, can you open DevTools and see if there are any errors logged to the javascript console? Sounds like it could be a problem loading the client application.

Also, it's worth noting that there are now official containers released, so you'll want to update your docker-compose file to sourcefabricoss/superdesk-server:latest and sourcefabricoss/superdesk-client:latest (you can find the containers in the sourcefabricoss user).

@nickdbush
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Also, for people trying to set this up, I've made a first attempt at trying to centralise some docs for you: https://superdesk-docs.netlify.app/. I'm adding to it all the time, so if there's something there that you can't find and need, or spot any issues, please email me at nicholas.bush@sourcefabric.org

@oguruma1218
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@nickdbush one thing I am missing is why the documentation calls for navigating to localhost:8080. Other than playing around with it, why would a person install this on their client machine (presumably a laptop or workstaiton)?

@kennk
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kennk commented Feb 19, 2021

@nickdbush one thing I am missing is why the documentation calls for navigating to localhost:8080. Other than playing around with it, why would a person install this on their client machine (presumably a laptop or workstaiton)?

For me => test before use

@nickdbush
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To echo @kennk, the original instructions are designed for users to install to start tinkering with the project, they are not intended to be production deployment instructions or advice.

@oguruma1218
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@nickdbush do you have a lot of (non-supported) installs in the wild? I have a class full of journalism students that I would love to roll this out out for soon. We don't need enterprise-grade support, by any means, but something reasonably stable (and free, given our basically non-existent budget) would be a great tool for the students to learn how to use.

@oguruma1218
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Hi @oguruma1218, can you open DevTools and see if there are any errors logged to the javascript console? Sounds like it could be a problem loading the client application.

Also, it's worth noting that there are now official containers released, so you'll want to update your docker-compose file to sourcefabricoss/superdesk-server:latest and sourcefabricoss/superdesk-client:latest (you can find the containers in the sourcefabricoss user).

It does look like I am getting console errors, specifically, connection refused. Digging through the .yaml file, I'm assuming the webserver is just configured to listen on 127.0.0.1?

@DanicoSantos
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Hi @oguruma1218, can you open DevTools and see if there are any errors logged to the javascript console? Sounds like it could be a problem loading the client application.
Also, it's worth noting that there are now official containers released, so you'll want to update your docker-compose file to sourcefabricoss/superdesk-server:latest and sourcefabricoss/superdesk-client:latest (you can find the containers in the sourcefabricoss user).

It does look like I am getting console errors, specifically, connection refused. Digging through the .yaml file, I'm assuming the webserver is just configured to listen on 127.0.0.1?

You should change localhost to your hostname on the docker-compose.yml file

@nerocil
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nerocil commented Sep 22, 2021

Hi @oguruma1218, can you open DevTools and see if there are any errors logged to the javascript console? Sounds like it could be a problem loading the client application.
Also, it's worth noting that there are now official containers released, so you'll want to update your docker-compose file to sourcefabricoss/superdesk-server:latest and sourcefabricoss/superdesk-client:latest (you can find the containers in the sourcefabricoss user).

It does look like I am getting console errors, specifically, connection refused. Digging through the .yaml file, I'm assuming the webserver is just configured to listen on 127.0.0.1?

You should change localhost to your hostname on the docker-compose.yml file

Thank you I had similar problem after change to localhost to server IP its works

@ciclanoio
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exactly @nerocil , in my case I was testing with Digital Ocean, and I had the same problem. With your tip, I removed from localhost to the server's external IP and that's it. The login page opened correctly

@SKJoy
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SKJoy commented Sep 12, 2023

SuperDesk always creating URLs with localhost! Browser Network tab shows it is trying to fetch http://localhost:8080/api/client_config. I have set the ENVIRONMENT variables as bellow but still no help :( Trying to host it under a domain using NginX reverse proxy.

Server

Client

Why does documents have to be so obscure always :(

@trondhuso
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trondhuso commented Nov 7, 2023

Problem: Running the docker-compose up command and when done it says: ERROR: Cannot locate specified Dockerfile: Dockerfile

There is no specified Dockerfile.

Any guidance welcome.

Solved this myself. The reason was that there were no dockerfile in the folder. I cloned the repo and ran the docker command.
Got much longer, but there are still issues which stops the installation....

@trondhuso
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@nickdbush - I have a gut feeling the package is some sort of broken. The install stops at build when running the tsc tests. According to online search this may be because of outdated ts.

@Saied-A
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Saied-A commented Mar 12, 2024

@nickdbush -Need Assistance with Superdesk User Verification Emails
Hi Nick,
I hope this message finds you well.
I've been using Superdesk and find it incredibly useful for my projects. However, I've encountered an issue that I'm hoping you can assist me with.
I'm currently facing an issue with user verification emails not being sent out when creating new users. I've configured the email settings in the docker-compose.yml file as per the documentation, but I'm still unable to receive the verification token on the specified email addresses, be it Gmail or my local mail server 'tbsuperdesk.org'.
As a result, all newly created users remain in a 'Pending' state, and I'm unable to activate them.
I've tried various troubleshooting steps, including restarting the Docker containers and ensuring that the email settings are correctly configured, but to no avail.
Could you please provide some guidance or insights into resolving this issue? Any assistance you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Best regards,
Saied Ashton

@nickdbush
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nickdbush commented Mar 12, 2024

@trondhuso @Saied-A I haven't looked at Superdesk in close to two years now (I no longer work at Sourcefabric) and I have little to no recollection of how to set it up. I'm leaving this gist online mainly for archival reasons and because there's a lot of useful information in the comments that I don't want to disappear from the internet. I hope you get it up and running one way or another, and if you do, please pop your solution here/make a new gist and link it here for others!

@Saied-A
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Saied-A commented Mar 13, 2024

@nickdbush Thank you for your quick response and for maintaining the gist for archival purposes. Your dedication to preserving resources is greatly appreciated. I'll continue working on resolving the user verification email issue and will share any solution I find in the comments, or a new gist as suggested.

@trondhuso
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I did set up a superdesk a few months back for myself - and to fresh up on knowledge.
Superdesk / sourcefabric has a docker install now that works much better than running the old stuff.

sorry to hear that you are no longer at sourcefabric, Nick.

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