Deploying FilmFox

This section will get you up and running with deploying the FilmFox application on your local machine. One of the main focuses of FilmFox is to create a simple and down-to-the-point deployment routine. It shouldn't take hours and hours of playing around with config files, dependency servers, incompatibilities, etc. to get you to a running state. So let's do this as quick as possible. Read on!

Running Dependencies with Vagrant

First thing you'll need is Vagrant (and VirtualBox). Vagrant helps us setup a portable environment so that we can set up all the dependency servers we require using a simple script located in the root directory of the repository, called 'Vagrantfile'. For more information about Vagrant, please visit Vagrant.

FilmFox was developed using VirtualBox as the underlying Vagrant provider, although you can use VMWare as well, however that has not been formally tested (just yet!)

Tested under:

VirtualBox - Version 5.0.6 r103037
Vagrant - Version 1.8.1

Step-by-step

  1. Download and install VirtualBox v5.0.6 or later @ VirtualBox Downloads
  2. Download and install Vagrant @ Vagrant Downloads
  3. Navigate to the root directory of the FilmFox repository and run the following command in Terminal or Command Line:
> vagrant up
  1. After vagrant has finished downloading/provisioning the servers needed for the application to run, you can proceed to the next section.

Running the application

Running the application once Vagrant is up and running is simple. Here's how to do it:

If you're running the application for the first time, you should load in some sample data into the environment. To do this, we grab the CQL script from src/main/resources named BaseCassandraData.cql and execute the full content on a Cassandra CQL command line (using cqlsh tool). To get the full configuration for Cassandra, observe src/main/resources/application.properties file. (Automation of execution of this script will be coming in future release.)

Step-by-step

  1. In the Terminal or Command Line, to start up the app, just run:

On Linux or OSX

> ./activator run

On Windows

> activator.bat run
  1. Navigate to your browser and open http://localhost:8080

That's all there is to it. My aim is to make it stay this way, as simple and clean as possible.

Customizing your build

Setting a custom port

FilmFox app lets you choose which port to bind the application on. By including a simple command line flag, you can perform this operation:

On Linux or OSX

> ./activator -Dserver.port=9000 run

On Windows

> activator.bat -Dserver.port=9000 run

In this example we set the port to be 9000, but you are free to set a port of your own choosing (make sure to pick an open port and above the 1024 range for fear of potential collisions).