To install a complete *development* environment for InvenTree, follow the steps presented below. A production environment will require further work as per the particular application requirements.
Installing the required Python packages inside a virtual environment allows a local install separate to the system-wide Python installation. While not strictly necessary, using a virtual environment is highly recommended as it prevents conflicts between the different Python installations.
To configure Inventree inside a virtual environment, ``cd`` into the inventree base directory and run the following commands:
``
apt-get install python3-venv
source inventree/bin/activate
``
This will place the current shell session inside a virtual environment - the terminal should display the ``(inventree)`` prefix.
..note::
Remember to run ``source inventree/bin/activate`` when starting each shell session, before running Inventree commands. This will ensure that the correct environment is being used.
InvenTree is a Python/Django application and relies on the pip package manager. All packages required to develop and test InvenTree can be installed via pip. Package requirements can be found in ``requirements.txt``.
which installs all required Python packages using pip package manager. It also creates a (default) database configuration file which needs to be edited to meet user needs before proceeding (see next step below).
Once the required packages are installed, the database configuration must be adjusted to suit your particular needs. InvenTree provides a simple default setup which should work *out of the box* for testing and debug purposes.
As part of the previous *install* step, a configuration file (``config.yaml``) is created. The configuration file provides administrators control over various setup options without digging into the Django *settings.py* script. The default setup uses a local sqlite database with *DEBUG* mode enabled.
Run ``cd InvenTree && python3 manage.py runserver 127.0.0.1:8000`` to launch a development server. This will launch the InvenTree web interface at ``127.0.0.1:8000``. For other options refer to the `django docs <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.2/ref/django-admin/>`_.
Whenever a change is made to the underlying database schema, database migrations must be performed. Call ``make migrate`` to run any outstanding database migrations.
Development and Testing
-----------------------
Other shorthand functions are provided for the development and testing process:
