README.md

# Go (URL Shortener)

A project of [GMU SRCT](http://srct.gmu.edu).

Go is a drop-in URL shortening service. It aims to provide an easily
branded service for institutions that wish to widely disseminate
information without unnecessarily outsourcing branding.

## Package Installation
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### Prerequisities
First, install python, pip, and git on your system.
* Python is the programming language used for Django, the web framework used by Go.
* Git is the version control system used for SRCT projects.

Open a terminal and run the following command:

`$ sudo apt-get update`

This retrieves links to the most up-to-date and secure versions of your packages.

Next, with:

`$ sudo apt-get install python git`

you install python and git.

### Cloning the Go Codebase
Now, we're going to clone down a copy of the Go codebase from [git.gmu.edu](http://git.gmu.edu/srct/go), the SRCT code respository.

Configure your ssh keys by following the directions at [git.gmu.edu/help/ssh/README](git.gmu.edu/help/ssh/README).

Now, on your computer, navigate to the directory in which you want to download the project (perhaps one called development/ or something similar), and run

`$ git clone git@git.gmu.edu:srct/go.git`


### Required Packages
Finally, install these packages from the standard repositories:
 - VirtualBox ??
 - Vagrant ++
 - Ansible ++

## Developing with Vagrant
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### Initial Setup


## On Deployemnt
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### Cron

In order to expire links, you need to set up a cron job to run the manage.py
expirelinks command regularly. A sample cron script is available in the
repository and is named go-cleanlinks.cron. Drop this in cron.hourly and
change the paths so that they point to the virtualenv activate script and
manage.py.