Introduction

A third party tool which enables an author to record coding tasks by using an interactive C-Language Compiler. This tool can help you embed and showcase the recorded tasks in any learning platform such as Open edX through an iframe link.

Prerequisites

• MySql
• Node (Version: 12.x.x is recommended)

Update Distribution

Make sure to update distribution:

# apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade

Create a User for CodeCast

Create a user to run CodeCast:

# adduser codecast

Install Requirements

Install NodeJS as follows:

# curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | bash -
# apt-get install -y nodejs build-essential libasound2-dev mysql-server

Create CodeCast Database

Create database as follows:

CREATE DATABASE codecast;
GRANT ALL ON codecast.* TO 'codecast'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Create NodeJS Environment for codecast User

Switch to codecast user to perform further setup steps.

Add the following environment variables to the end of ~/.bashrc:

# set NPM directory
NPM_DIR="$HOME/.npm"

# set PATH to include local NPM directory
PATH="$NPM_DIR/bin:$PATH"

# Unset manpath so we can inherit from /etc/manpath via the `manpath` command
unset MANPATH  # delete if you already modified MANPATH elsewhere in your configuration
MANPATH="$NPM_DIR/share/man:$(manpath)"

# Tell Node about these packages
NODE_PATH="$NPM_DIR/lib/node_modules:$NODE_PATH"

Create ~/.npmrc with following content:

prefix = ${HOME}/.npm

For the above environment changes to be effective:

source ~/.bashrc

Setup CodeCast

Switch to codecast user to perform further setup steps.

Clone CodeCast from git repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/edly-io/codecast.git

Restore user management schema as follows:

$ cd codecast
$ mysql -u codecast -p codecast < user_management_schema.sql

The schema creates a table named buckets. Add your S3 bucket configuration after logging into MySQL:

USE codecast
INSERT INTO buckets (bucket_id, value) values (0,'{ \"s3AccessKeyId\": \"<YOUR S3 ACCESS KEY ID>\", \"s3SecretAccessKey\": \"<YOUR S3 SECRET ACCESS KEY>\", \"s3Region\": \"<YOUR S3 REGION>\", \"s3Bucket\": \"<YOUR S3 BUCKET NAME>\", \"uploadPath\": \"uploads\" }');

Replace:

• <YOUR S3 ACCESS KEY ID> and <YOUR S3 SECRET ACCESS KEY> with Access Key ID and Secret Access Key, preferably of an IAM user who has access to the S3 bucket only.
• <YOUR S3 REGION> with the AWS region where S3 bucket has been created.
• <YOUR S3 BUCKET NAME> name of the S3 bucket.

Generate password hash for admin user:

$ echo -n password | md5sum

Use the password hash generated by the above command to add admin user via SQL query:

USE codecast
INSERT INTO users (username, email_id, password, is_active, is_admin, bucket_id) values ('<YOUR USERNAME>', '<YOUR ADMIN EMAIL ADDRESS>', '<MD5 PASSWORD HASH>', 1, 1, 0);

Replace:

• <YOUR ADMIN EMAIL ADDRESS> with admin email address.
• <MD5 PASSWORD HASH> with the password hash generated previously.

Create config.json under the codecast cloned directory:

{
     "host": "127.0.0.1",
     "port": 8001,
     "baseUrl": "http://IP_ADDRESS",
     "mountPath": "/",
     "database": {
         "host": "localhost",
         "port": "3306",
         "user": "codecast",
         "password": "password",
         "database": "codecast"
     },
     "session": {
         "secret": "RANDOM_SESSION_SECRET",
         "resave": false,
         "saveUninitialized": true,
         "cookie": {
             "secure": false,
             "maxAge": 60480000
         }
     },
     "enableOauth": false
 }

Replace IP_ADDRESS with either your IP address or host name matching NGINX server block configuration.

To install its required packages, run:

$ npm install

If you see any error something like that is given below, JUST IGNORE IT and proceed to next step:

gyp ERR! build error
gyp ERR! stack Error: `make` failed with exit code: 2
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.onExit (/home/umar/.nvm/versions/node/v12.10.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/build.js:196:23)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:209:13)
gyp ERR! stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:272:12)
gyp ERR! System Linux 4.15.0-20-generic
gyp ERR! command "/home/umar/.nvm/versions/node/v12.10.0/bin/node" "/home/umar/.nvm/versions/node/v12.10.0/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /home/umar/Documents/Work/codecast/node_modules/speaker
gyp ERR! node -v v12.10.0
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v5.0.3
gyp ERR! not ok

Compile assets using:

$ npm run build

Write a startup script /home/codecast/codecast.sh for CodeCast:

#!/bin/bash

source ~/.bashrc
export NODE_ENV=production
npm run start

Change the script permissions to executable:

$ chmod +x /home/codecast/codecast.sh

Setup Supervisor

Install and configure supervisor as root:

# apt-get install -y supervisor

Create a supervisor configuration file /etc/supervisor/conf.d/codecast.conf for CodeCast:

[program:codecast]

command=/home/codecast/codecast.sh

user=codecast
directory=/home/codecast/codecast
stdout_logfile=/var/log/supervisor/%(program_name)s-stdout.log
stderr_logfile=/var/log/supervisor/%(program_name)s-stderr.log
killasgroup=true
autorestart=true

CodeCast runs as a foreground process. Hence the above supervisor configuration file ensures that CodeCast is restarted if it crashes or quits for some reason.

Restart supervisor:

# systemctl restart supervisor

Setup NGINX

Install NGINX:

# echo -e "deb https://nginx.org/packages/debian/ stretch nginx" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list
# curl -O https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key && apt-key add ./nginx_signing.key
# apt-get update && apt-get install -y nginx
# rm -rf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf # Remove default server block

Configure NGINX server block for CodeCast in /etc/nginx/conf.d/codecast.conf:

upstream codecast {
  server 127.0.0.1:8001;
}

server {
  listen 80 default_server;
  
  server_tokens off;

  location / {
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_set_header Host $http_host;

    proxy_pass http://codecast;
    proxy_redirect off;
  }
}

Check if NGINX configuration is valid and restart NGINX:

# nginx -t && /etc/init.d/nginx restart

Go to http://IP_ADDRESS/login link and login using your admin credentials.

---

For development "npm run build" is not needed as webpack is configured to watch the source files:

NODE_ENV=development npm start

Build for offline use

rm -rf build
BUILD=offline NODE_ENV=production npm run build
zip -r offline.zip build assets