ECHE List API

This repository contains the specification of the ECHE List API, along with its documentation.

Introduction

What is the ECHE List API?

The ECHE List API is designed to expose the list of institutions holding the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education, as published by the European Commission, in a machine readable format.

Installation

The main app is built with Flask, and it requires Python 3.8+ to run. To start the virtual environment and install the required libraries, execute the following commands:

# generate and activate a virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
# install required libraries
pip install -r requirements.txt

In order to run the app, some preparatory steps are needed:

# check the local settings
cp echeapi/settings/default.py echeapi/settings/local.py
nano echeapi/settings/local.py
# create empty database
python echeapi/manage.py initialize
# populate the database
python echeapi/manage.py populate

Development

When developing the Python application, install the development packages as well:

# install required libraries
pip install -r requirements-dev.txt

Inside the redoc directory there is a README file with detailed instructions to build the interactive specification.

Built-in server

To use the built-in web server locally, in debug mode, execute the following command:

python echeapi/manage.py run

Or:

export FLASK_APP=echeapi
export FLASK_ENV=development
flask run

Deployment

By default, this application is deployed on a server with the Plesk web admin panel. Alternative deployment methods are also suggested below.

Plesk + nginx + Phusion Passenger

Deploy the code to the DOCROOT; for a top-level domain, it will be httpdocs; for a subdomain, it will look like sub.domain.tld. Follow the installation instructions above.

After the code is deployed, go to Hosting settings and change the Document root to DOCROOT/echeapi.

Then, go to Apache & nginx Settings and do the following:

1. under nginx settings turn off Proxy mode to stop using Apache;
2. under Additional nginx directives add passenger_enabled on; and save.

Phusion Passenger by convention will read the passenger_wsgi.py file from one level above the new Document root and use the correct Python binary from the venv created upon installation.

Apache2 + uWSGI

Requirements:

apt install apache2 uwsgi libapache2-mod-proxy-uwsgi uwsgi-plugin-python3
a2enmod proxy proxy_http proxy_uwsgi alias headers deflate

To deploy using Apache2 and uWSGI, copy configuration file templates:

# copy Apache2 config
cp deploy/apache.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/eche-api.conf
ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/eche-api.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/eche-api.conf
# copy uWSGI config
cp deploy/uwsgi.ini /etc/uwsgi/apps-available/eche-api.ini
ln -s /etc/uwsgi/apps-available/eche-api.ini /etc/uwsgi/apps-enabled/eche-api.ini

NOTE: These config files are only templates, it will be necessary to adjust some paths and other parameters.

Once the config files are ready:

# restart services
service apache2 restart
service uwsgi restart

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This project is a work in progress and is considered unstable.