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Version: 1.2.1

Basic Setup

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you fullfill the requirements.

Also you should decide which version of Booklify you want to use. You can read more about the differences between the versions here.

Download the demo deployment

Booklify comes with a demo deployment that you can use to get started. Just download it by pulling the repository from GitLab.

git clone https://gitlab.eps-dev.de/Lilly/booklify-ce.git

Inside of the repository you will find a demo folder. This folder contains a docker-compose.yml file that you can use to start the demo deployment.

Below you will find a detailed explanation of everything you need to know to get Booklify up and running in your environment.

Setup and Configuration

The docker-compose.yml file

This file contains everything you need to start booklify. It contains the following services:

backend

This service is the backend of Booklify. By default it is running on port 3030.

By default it is configured to use the newest development version of Booklify. If you want to use a specific version, you can change the image property to the version you want to use. You can find the available versions here.

The configuration of the backend is done via a mounted config.json file. Read more about the configuration here.

It is also important that you specify the DATABASE_URL environment variable. If this variable is not set, the container will fail to run the database migrations and will exit with an error. You can change the value of this variable to the database you want to use. You can change the value of this variable in the .env file.

frontend

This service is the frontend of Booklify. By default it is running on port 8090.

By default it is configured to use the newest development version of Booklify. If you want to use a specific version, you can change the image property to the version you want to use. You can find the available versions here.

It is also important that you specify the BACKEND_URL environment variable. If this variable is not set, the frontend will not be able to connect to the backend. You can change the value of this variable in the .env file.

s3

Booklify requires an S3 compatible storage to store certain files like the book covers. By default the demo deployment uses the S3Mock Server to provide a simple S3 compatible storage. It works out of the box and does not require any configuration, but note that it is not suitable for production use.

info

For production use you should use a real S3 compatible storage like MinIO.

postgres

Booklify requires a PostgreSQL database to store most of its data. By default the demo deployment uses a PostgreSQL database. It works out of the box and does not require any configuration.

warning

Make sure to at least change the POSTGRES_PASSWORD environment variable to a secure password.

The .env file

This file contains environment variables that are used by the docker-compose.yml file. You can change the values of the variables to fit your environment.

The config/config.json5 file

This file contains the configuration of the backend. You can find information about all config options here. You only need to specify the options you want to change. The rest will be filled with default values.

Some important options are:

  • url: The URL of the fontend.
  • api_url: The URL of the backend.
  • db.url: The URL of the database.
  • security.key: The key which is used to encrypt sertain data. This key should be kept secret. Cannot be changed after the first start!
danger

Make sure to change the security.key option to a secure key. This key should be kept secret and should not be changed after the first start of the backend.

Start your deployment

After you have configured everything, you can start the deployment by running the following command in demo folder:

docker compose up -d

This will start the deployment in the background.

You can now access the frontend by opening http://localhost:8090 in your browser.

Next Steps

Now that you have a running deployment, you can read the Advanced Setup guide to learn how make further custumize your deployment. You can also read the Crawler Documentation to learn how to fetch more accurate metadata for your books.