Installation¶

How to Install Stalker¶

This document will help you install and run Stalker.

Install Python¶

Stalker is completely written with Python, so it requires Python. It currently works with Python version 2.6 and 2.7. So you first need to have Python installed in your system. On Linux and OSX there is a system wide Python already installed. For Windows, you need to download the Python installer suitable for your Windows operating system (32 or 64 bit) from Python.org

Install Stalker¶

The easiest way to install the latest version of Stalker along with all its dependencies is to use the setuptools. If your system doesn’t have setuptools (particularly Windows) you need to install setuptools by using ez_setup bootstrap script.

Installing setuptools with ez_setup:¶

These steps are generally needed just for Windows. Linux and OSX users can skip this part.

download ez_setup.py
run the following command in the command prompt/shell/terminal:
```
python ez_setup
```

It will install or build the setuptools if there are no suitable installer for your operating system.

Installing Stalker (All OSes):¶

After installing the setuptools you can run the following command:

easy_install -U stalker

Now you have installed Stalker along with all its dependencies.

Checking the installation of Stalker¶

If everything went ok you should be able to import and check the version of Stalker by using the Python prompt like this:

>>> import stalker
>>> stalker.__version__
0.2.21

For developers¶

It is highly recommended to create a VirtualEnv specific for Stalker development. So to setup a virtualenv for Stalker:

virtualenv --no-site-packages stalker

Then clone the repository (you need git to do that):

cd stalker
git clone https://github.com/eoyilmaz/stalker.git stalker

And then to setup the virtual environment for development:

cd stalker
../bin/python setup.py develop

This command should install any dependent package to the virtual environment.

Installing a Database¶

Stalker uses a database to store all the data. The only database backend that doesn’t require any extra installation is SQLite3. You can setup Stalker to run with an SQLite3 database. But it is much suitable to have a dedicated database server in your studio. And it is recommended to use the same kind of database backend both in development and production to reduce any compatibility problems and any migration headaches.

Although Stalker is mainly tested and developed on SQLite3, the developers of Stalker are using it in a studio environment where the main database is PosgreSQL, and it is the recommended database for any application based on Stalker. But, testing and using Stalker in any other database is encouraged.

See the SQLAlchemy documentation for supported databases.