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Open edX Platform

Purpose

The Open edX Platform is a service-oriented platform for authoring and delivering online learning at any scale. The platform is written in Python and JavaScript and makes extensive use of the Django framework. At the highest level, the platform is composed of a monolith, some independently deployable applications (IDAs), and micro-frontends (MFEs) based on the ReactJS.

This repository hosts the monolith at the center of the Open edX platform. Functionally, the edx-platform repository provides two services:

  • CMS (Content Management Service), which powers Open edX Studio, the platform's learning content authoring environment; and
  • LMS (Learning Management Service), which delivers learning content.

Documentation

Documentation can be found at https://docs.openedx.org/projects/edx-platform.

Getting Started

For Production

Installing and running an Open edX instance is not simple. We strongly recommend that you use a service provider to run the software for you. They have free trials that make it easy to get started: https://openedx.org/get-started/

However, if you have the time and expertise, then it is is possible to self-manage a production Open edX instance. To help you build, customize, upgrade, and scale your instance, we recommend using Tutor, the community-supported, Docker-based Open edX distribution.

You can read more about getting up and running with a Tutor deployment at the Site Ops home on docs.openedx.org.

For Development

Tutor also features a development mode which will also help you modify, test, and extend edx-platform. We recommend this method for all Open edX developers.

Bare Metal (Advanced)

It is also possible to spin up an Open edX platform directly on a Linux host. This method is less common and mostly undocumented. The Open edX community will only be able to provided limited support for it.

Running "bare metal" is only advisable for (a) developers seeking an adventure and (b) experienced system administrators who are willing to take the complexity of Open edX configuration and deployment into their own hands.

System Dependencies

OS: * Ubuntu 22.04

  • Ubuntu 24.04

Interperters/Tools:

  • Python 3.11
  • Node 18

Services:

  • MySQL 8.0
  • Mongo 7.x
  • Memcached

Language Packages:

  • Frontend:

    • npm clean-install (production)
    • npm clean-install --dev (development)

  • Backend build:

    • pip install -r requirements/edx/assets.txt

  • Backend application:

    • pip install -r requirements/edx/base.txt (production)
    • pip install -r requirements/edx/dev.txt (development)

    Some Python packages have system dependencies. For example, installing these packages on Debian or Ubuntu will require first running sudo apt install python3-dev default-libmysqlclient-dev build-essential pkg-config to satisfy the requirements of the mysqlclient Python package.

Codejail Setup

As a part of the baremetal setup, you will need to configure your system to work properly with codejail. See the codejail installation steps for more details.

Build Steps

Create two MySQL databases and a MySQL user with write permissions to both, and configure Django to use them by updating the DATABASES setting.

Then, run migrations:

./manage.py lms migrate
./manage.py lms migrate --database=student_module_history
./manage.py cms migrate

Build static assets (for more details, see building static assets):

npm run build  # or, 'build-dev'

Download locales and collect static assets (can be skipped for development sites):

make pull_translations
./manage.py lms collectstatic
./manage.py cms collectstatic

Set up CMS SSO (for Development):

./manage.py lms manage_user studio_worker [email protected] --unusable-password
# DO NOT DO THIS IN PRODUCTION. It will make your auth insecure.
./manage.py lms create_dot_application studio-sso-id studio_worker \
    --grant-type authorization-code \
    --skip-authorization \
    --redirect-uris 'http://localhost:18010/complete/edx-oauth2/' \
    --scopes user_id  \
    --client-id 'studio-sso-id' \
    --client-secret 'studio-sso-secret'

Set up CMS SSO (for Production):

  • Create the CMS user and the OAuth application:

    ./manage.py lms manage_user studio_worker <[email protected]> --unusable-password
./manage.py lms create_dot_application studio-sso-id studio_worker \
    --grant-type authorization-code \
    --skip-authorization \
    --redirect-uris 'http://localhost:18010/complete/edx-oauth2/' \
    --scopes user_id

  • Log into Django admin (eg. http://localhost:18000/admin/oauth2_provider/application/), click into the application you created above (studio-sso-id), and copy its "Client secret".

  • In your private LMS_CFG yaml file or your private Django settings module:

  • Set SOCIAL_AUTH_EDX_OAUTH2_KEY to the client ID (studio-sso-id).
  • Set SOCIAL_AUTH_EDX_OAUTH2_SECRET to the client secret (which you copied).

Run the Platform

First, ensure MySQL, Mongo, and Memcached are running.

Start the LMS:

./manage.py lms runserver 18000

Start the CMS:

./manage.py cms runserver 18010

This will give you a mostly-headless Open edX platform. Most frontends have been migrated to "Micro-Frontends (MFEs)" which need to be installed and run separately. At a bare minimum, you will need to run the Authentication MFE, Learner Home MFE, and Learning MFE in order meaningfully navigate the UI.

License

The code in this repository is licensed under version 3 of the AGPL unless otherwise noted. Please see the LICENSE file for details.

More about Open edX

See the Open edX site to learn more about the Open edX world. You can find information about hosting, extending, and contributing to Open edX software. In addition, the Open edX site provides product announcements, the Open edX blog, and other rich community resources.

Getting Help

If you're having trouble, we have discussion forums at https://discuss.openedx.org where you can connect with others in the community.

Our real-time conversations are on Slack. You can request a Slack invitation, then join our community Slack team.

For more information about these options, see the Getting Help page.

Issue Tracker

We use Github Issues for our issue tracker. You can search previously reported issues. If you need to report a bug, or want to discuss a new feature before you implement it, please create a new issue.

How to Contribute

Contributions are welcome! The first step is to submit a signed individual contributor agreement. See our CONTRIBUTING file for more information – it also contains guidelines for how to maintain high code quality, which will make your contribution more likely to be accepted.

New features are accepted. Discussing your new ideas with the maintainers before you write code will also increase the chances that your work is accepted.

Code of Conduct

Please read the Community Code of Conduct for interacting with this repository.

Reporting Security Issues

Please do not report security issues in public. Please email [email protected].

People

The current maintainers of this repository can be found on Backstage.