Running the OpenREM website in a virtual directory

If you want to run the OpenREM in a virtual directory (like http://server/dms/) you need to configure this in your web server configuration as well as in the OpenREM configuration.

The following steps are necessary:

Configure virtual directory settings in the Docker .env.prod file
Update Nginx webserver configuration
Update the reverse.js file
Restart the containers

Docker setup

Stop the containers if they are running before changing the configuration, using a shell (command prompt) in the Docker OpenREM installation folder

$ docker-compose down

Configure virtual directory settings in .env.prod

Django needs to know the virtual directory name and which URLs the static and media files are served from.

Edit .env.prod, uncomment the following lines (remove the #) and set them as appropriate. The VIRTUAL_DIRECTORY setting must have a trailing /. For example, to serve the website from a subfolder/virtual directory named dms:

## For installations in a virtual directory
VIRTUAL_DIRECTORY=dms/
MEDIA_URL=/dms/media/
STATIC_URL=/dms/static/

Modify webserver configuration

Edit nginx-conf/conf.d/openrem.conf to update the locations — again using the example virtual directory dms:

server {
    listen 80;
    location /dms/ {
        proxy_pass http://openremproject;
        # ...
    }
    location /dms/static/ {
        alias /home/app/openrem/staticfiles/;
    }
    location /dms/media/ {
        alias /home/app/openrem/mediafiles/;
    }
}

Start the containers

$ docker-compose up -d

Update reverse.js

The static reverse.js file should be updated in order to change the URLs in the static javascript files.

Open a shell (command prompt) and navigate to the Docker OpenREM installation folder

$ docker-compose exec openrem python manage.py collectstatic_js_reverse

Test!

You should now be able to reach the OpenREM interface using the virtual directory address.

Non-Docker install

$ sudo systemctl stop openrem-gunicorn.service
$ sudo systemctl stop nginx.service

Update local_settings.py

Update local_settings.py with the same variables as in the .env.prod file. If the values aren’t in your copy of the file just add them in:

$ cd /var/dose/veopenrem3/lib/python3.10/site-packages/openrem/
$ nano openremproject/local_settings.py

VIRTUAL_DIRECTORY = "dms/"
STATIC_URL = "/dms/static/"
MEDIA_URL = "/dms/media/"

Modify webserver configuration

$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/openrem-server

server {
    # ...
    location /dms/static {
        alias /var/dose/static;
    }
    location /dms {
        proxy_pass http://unix:/tmp/openrem-server.socket;
        # ...
    }
}

Update reverse.js

$ . /var/dose/veopenrem3/bin/activate
$ cd /var/dose/veopenrem3/lib/python3.8/site-packages/openrem/
$ python manage.py collectstatic_js_reverse

Restart the services

$ sudo systemctl start openrem-gunicorn.service
$ sudo systemctl start nginx.service