How to Install Wagtail on OpenBSD

Wagtail is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) that is built on top of Django, a high-level Python web framework. OpenBSD is a free and secure operating system. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the process of installing and setting up Wagtail on OpenBSD.

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure that you have the following prerequisites:

A running instance of OpenBSD.
A user account with sudo privileges.
Python 3 installed on your system.

Step 1: Update Packages

The first step is to update the packages to their latest version. Use the following command to update your system:

$ sudo pkg_add -u

Step 2: Install Virtualenv

Next, we will install Virtualenv, a tool that creates isolated Python environments. This will help to prevent any conflicts with other Python packages that you may have installed.

$ sudo pkg_add py3-virtualenv

Step 3: Create a Virtual Environment for Wagtail

Once Virtualenv is installed, we will create a virtual environment for Wagtail. This will ensure that Wagtail has access to all the dependencies it needs.

$ python3 -m venv wagtail_env

Step 4: Activate the Virtual Environment

We need to activate the virtual environment that we created in the previous step. This can be done by running the following command:

$ source wagtail_env/bin/activate

You should see the name of your virtual environment appear in your terminal prompt.

Step 5: Install Wagtail

Now we can install Wagtail using pip, the Python package manager. Run the following command to install Wagtail:

$ pip3 install wagtail

Step 6: Create a Wagtail Project

Once Wagtail is installed, we can create a new Wagtail project. Run the following command to create a new project called myproject:

$ wagtail start myproject

Step 7: Configure the Database

Next, we need to configure the database that Wagtail will use. Open the myproject/settings/base.py file in your favorite text editor.

$ vi myproject/settings/base.py

Find the following block of code:

# Database
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/ref/settings/#databases

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': BASE_DIR / 'db.sqlite3',
    }
}

We will change this to use PostgreSQL instead of SQLite. Replace the above code with the following:

# Database
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/ref/settings/#databases

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
        'NAME': 'myproject',
        'USER': 'myprojectuser',
        'PASSWORD': 'mypass',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '5432',
    }
}

Make sure that you replace myproject, myprojectuser, and mypass with your own values.

Step 8: Set Up the Database

Now we need to create the database for our project. Run the following command:

$ createdb myproject

Step 9: Migrate the Database

We need to apply the initial migrations to our database. Run the following command:

$ ./manage.py migrate

Step 10: Create a Superuser

Finally, we can create a superuser account that we will use to log in to the Wagtail admin. Run the following command:

$ ./manage.py createsuperuser

Step 11: Start the Development Server

We are ready to start the development server! Run the following command:

$ ./manage.py runserver

You should see output similar to the following:

Watching for file changes with StatReloader
Performing system checks...

System check identified no issues (0 silenced).
January 01, 2021 - 00:00:00
Django version 3.1.4, using settings 'myproject.settings.dev'
Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.

You can now access your Wagtail project by visiting http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your web browser.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we walked you through the process of installing and setting up Wagtail on OpenBSD. Wagtail is a flexible and powerful content management system that can help you build amazing websites and web applications.

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