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Install OpenQDA manually ​

This guide is intended for users/developers, who want to install OpenQDA locally without using Docker.

Set up Laravel ​

OpenQDA is built with Laravel. Therefore, you need to install Laravel first.

Please visit https://laravel.com/ and follow their installation guide.

Setup MySQL ​

The default Laravel installation comes with SQLite, however we intend to use MySQl. You will therefore have to install the MySQL database as well.

Please visit https://www.mysql.com/ and follow their installation guide.

Install Dependencies ​

Once you have sucessfully installed Laravel and MySql you should execute the following commands in the web directory:

  • php artisan key:generate - Generates a unique APP_KEY. Learn more about it.
  • composer install - Installs PHP dependencies.
  • npm install - Installs Node.js packages.
  • npm run dev - Runs Vite locally for development.
  • npm run build - Compiles assets for production.

Database and Application Setup ​

  1. Run php artisan migrate to create database tables.
  2. Customize and run the seeder ( database/seeders) to populate the database with initial data via php artisan db:seed.
  3. create a HMAC key, there are several ways to do it. This is used by ALTCHA.
  4. set the ALTCHA_HMAC_KEY.

RTFENDPOINT and RTFPASSWORD are necessary only if you set your .env file to "Production", otherwise it will use the internal python script called convert_rtf_to_html_locally.py.

Now you should be able to run OpenQDA, but you still need further steps to enable the websocket server and enable the collaboration tools.

Real-Time Configuration ​

  1. Configure Laravel Reverb for real-time capabilities by setting the following in your .env:
REVERB_APP_ID=my-app-id
REVERB_APP_KEY=my-app-key
REVERB_APP_SECRET=my-app-secret
VITE_REVERB_APP_KEY="${REVERB_APP_KEY}"
VITE_REVERB_HOST="${REVERB_HOST}"
VITE_REVERB_PORT="${REVERB_PORT}"
VITE_REVERB_SCHEME="${REVERB_SCHEME}"
  1. Start the WebSocket server with php artisan reverb:start.
  2. Use php artisan queue:work --queue=conversion,default. OpenQDA uses Laravel Queues and Laravel Echo to process the presence of users and convert files on production. For the online presence we use the "default" queue, for converting rtf files we use the "conversion" queue.

On Production, please make sure to install SSL certificates correctly on your web engine (apache, nginx, etc.) as well as our .env production file with the absolute path of your certificate, private key and CAfile:

LARAVEL_WEBSOCKETS_SSL_LOCAL_CERT=
LARAVEL_WEBSOCKETS_SSL_LOCAL_PK=
LARAVEL_WEBSOCKETS_SSL_CAFILE=

Mail logging ​

OpenQDA sends E-Mails on various occasions. For local email logging, consider using MailTrap (free with a usage limit) or Laravel Herd (paid service).