Website Setup and Config

The Simmate website is built on top of Django, a high-level Python web framework. This guide covers how to set up and configure your website for both local development and production environments.

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Local Server Setup

To start a Simmate server on your local computer, use the following command:

command line

simmate run-server

While this command is running, open your preferred browser (Chrome, Firefox, etc.) and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:8000/.

Tip

You can view your current configuration at any time by running:

simmate config show

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Production Server Setup

To set up a production-ready server for your team, you have three options:

1. Managed Hosting: Request our team to manage a server for you.
2. Collaborate: Join the official Simmate server and collaborate with us.
3. Self-Hosted: Set up and manage your own server.

For options 1 and 2, please contact us at simmate.team@gmail.com.

For option 3, we provide several starting points in the Simmate repository under the envs/ directory:

• Docker: See envs/docker/docker-compose.yaml for a containerized setup.
• Kubernetes: See envs/helm/ for a Helm chart to deploy Simmate on a cluster.

Ensure you have also completed the base Simmate tutorials, particularly the ones on setting up a cloud database and setting up computational resources.

Warning

For any production server, ensure you update your SECRET_KEY, ALLOWED_HOSTS, and CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS settings. See the General Settings section below.

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General Settings

You can configure your website behavior using environment variables, a settings.yaml file, or the simmate config command.

Security and Networking

When deploying to a public server, you must update these settings:

Setting	Environment Variable	Description
secret_key	SIMMATE__WEBSITE__SECRET_KEY	A unique, secret key for this particular Simmate installation.
allowed_hosts	SIMMATE__WEBSITE__ALLOWED_HOSTS	A list of strings representing the host/domain names that this Simmate site can serve.
csrf_trusted_origins	SIMMATE__WEBSITE__CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS	A list of trusted origins for Unsafe requests (e.g. POST).

Example settings.yaml:

website:
  secret_key: "your-very-secret-key"
  allowed_hosts:
    - "simmate.example.com"
  csrf_trusted_origins:
    - "https://simmate.example.com"

Access Control

Setting	Environment Variable	Description
require_login	SIMMATE__WEBSITE__REQUIRE_LOGIN	Whether to require users to be logged in to access any part of the site.
login_message	SIMMATE__WEBSITE__LOGIN_MESSAGE	A message to display on the login page.

Email Settings

If you want your server to send automated emails (e.g. for password resets), you must configure an email backend.

Setting	Environment Variable	Description
email.host	SIMMATE__WEBSITE__EMAIL__HOST	The host for sending emails (e.g. smtp.gmail.com).
email.port	SIMMATE__WEBSITE__EMAIL__PORT	The port for sending emails (e.g. 587).
email.host_user	SIMMATE__WEBSITE__EMAIL__HOST_USER	The username for the email host.
email.host_password	SIMMATE__WEBSITE__EMAIL__HOST_PASSWORD	The password for the email host.

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Third-Party Sign-Ins

Simmate supports sign-ins via third-party accounts such as Google, GitHub, and Microsoft, thanks to the django-allauth package.

By default, servers won't display these sign-in buttons. To enable them, you need to provide the Client ID and Secret for each provider.

GitHub OAuth

1. Create a new OAuth application here using the following information:
   • Application name: My Simmate Server (or any name you prefer)
   • Homepage URL: http://127.0.0.1:8000 (update to your domain in production)
   • Authorization callback URL: http://127.0.0.1:8000/accounts/github/login/callback/
2. Generate a new client secret and copy it along with the Client ID.
3. Configure Simmate using one of the following methods:

Command Linesettings.yamlEnvironment Variables

simmate config update website.social_oauth.github.client_id=YOUR_ID
simmate config update website.social_oauth.github.secret=YOUR_SECRET

website:
  social_oauth:
    github:
      client_id: YOUR_ID
      secret: YOUR_SECRET

export SIMMATE__WEBSITE__SOCIAL_OAUTH__GITHUB__CLIENT_ID=YOUR_ID
export SIMMATE__WEBSITE__SOCIAL_OAUTH__GITHUB__SECRET=YOUR_SECRET

Google OAuth

1. Follow the Google Cloud Console guide to create your OAuth credentials.
2. For the Authorized redirect URI, use http://127.0.0.1:8000/accounts/google/login/callback/ (update to your domain in production).
3. Configure Simmate:

Command Linesettings.yaml

simmate config update website.social_oauth.google.client_id=YOUR_ID
simmate config update website.social_oauth.google.secret=YOUR_SECRET

website:
  social_oauth:
    google:
      client_id: YOUR_ID
      secret: YOUR_SECRET

Microsoft OAuth

1. Register your application in the Azure Portal.
2. For the Redirect URI, use http://127.0.0.1:8000/accounts/microsoft/login/callback/ (update to your domain in production).
3. Configure Simmate:

Command Linesettings.yaml

simmate config update website.social_oauth.microsoft.client_id=YOUR_ID
simmate config update website.social_oauth.microsoft.secret=YOUR_SECRET

website:
  social_oauth:
    microsoft:
      client_id: YOUR_ID
      secret: YOUR_SECRET

Note

By default, Microsoft login is limited to organizations. You can further customize the TENANT setting in your Django configuration if needed.

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