FlaskBB is a free and open-source forum software built with Flask, a Python web framework. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the installation of FlaskBB on Debian Latest.
Before starting this guide, ensure that you have the following:
To avoid any package conflicts and ensure the system has the latest security updates and bug fixes, run the following command to update and upgrade your Debian system:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Before installing FlaskBB, we need to install its dependencies. Run the following commands to install Python, pip and other required packages:
sudo apt install python3 python3-pip python3-dev postgresql-server-dev-all postgresql-client postgresql
FlaskBB uses a PostgreSQL database. Before proceeding, we need to create a new database and user for FlaskBB to use.
Log into PostgreSQL by typing:
sudo su postgres
psql
Once you are logged in, create a new user and database by running the following SQL commands:
CREATE USER flaskbb_user WITH PASSWORD 'flaskbb_password';
CREATE DATABASE flaskbb;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE flaskbb TO flaskbb_user;
Clone the FlaskBB project from its GitHub repository by typing the following command:
git clone https://github.com/flaskbb/flaskbb.git
This will clone the latest version of FlaskBB into a new directory named "flaskbb" in your current working directory.
Now that we have cloned the FlaskBB repository, we can install all its required packages by running the following command:
cd flaskbb
pip3 install -r requirements/dev.txt
FlaskBB comes with a sample configuration file located in the "./flaskbb/configs" directory. We need to rename this sample configuration file, update it according to our environment, and move it to the project root directory "./flaskbb".
First, copy the sample configuration file to the project root directory:
cp ./flaskbb/configs/development.py ./flaskbb/config.py
Next, open the newly copied configuration file and make the following changes:
Update the "DATABASE_URI" variable to reflect your PostgreSQL configuration:
DATABASE_URI = 'postgresql://flaskbb_user:flaskbb_password@localhost/flaskbb'
Set the "SECRET_KEY" variable to a random string:
SECRET_KEY = 'your-secret-key'
FlaskBB uses SQLAlchemy to interact with PostgreSQL, so we need to create the database tables. Run the following command to create the tables:
flask db upgrade
This will create all the required tables in the PostgreSQL database.
Finally, we can start the FlaskBB server by running the following command:
flask run
FlaskBB will be accessible at http://localhost:5000 in your web browser.
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