How to install new Platform UI on bare metal?

[galmiklos]

I have InvenTre installed on bare metal.

I can see a link on the log in page to try the new UI, but that link does not exist in my installation.

Are there any instructions how to install the new UI on bare metal? The ones I found at https://docs.inventree.org/en/latest/develop/react-frontend/ don't seem to include bare metal.

Thanks,
Miki.

[matmair]

Please update to the newest release, there are better error messages for PUI included with that.

[galmiklos]

I was trying to find upgrade instructions, but I only found them for docker based and apt based bare metal deployment. I installed InvenTree from source manually, following the instructions here (not docker, not installer).

https://docs.inventree.org/en/latest/start/install/#bare-metal-setup

Are there any upgrade instructions for this kind of installation, by chance?

Or is it as simple as updating my local copy of the repository (I cloned originally), and run invoke update? It looks like I am up-to-date with the stable release.

env) inventree@roki:~/inventree$ git status
Refresh index: 100% (4472/4472), done.
On branch stable
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/stable'.

Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
	modified:   contrib/deploy/supervisord.conf
	modified:   src/backend/InvenTree/gunicorn.conf.py

Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
	src/backend/InvenTree/config.zip

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

Do I have to pull the latest (git pull origin master)?

[SchrodingersGat]

For a bare metal install, just pull down the sourcecode from git and run invoke update :)

[galmiklos]

So, I stopped the server and the cluster, moved the previous version inventree directory, and cloned a new one.

I entered the new directory, copied over the config.yaml and gunicorn.conf.py, and ran invoke update. I think it all went OK, I attached the log.

update_0.17.7_log.txt

I suppose the latest release is a "development" version, so it came with no frontend.

So, following the instructions, I tried building it, but it failed.

(env) inventree@roki:~/inventree$ invoke int.frontend-build
Building frontend
yarn run v1.22.22
$ tsc && vite build --emptyOutDir
Version 0.8.3.0
Syntax:   tsc [options] [file ..]

Examples: tsc hello.ts
          tsc --out foo.js foo.ts
          tsc @args.txt

Options:
  -c, --comments        Emit comments to output
  --declaration         Generates corresponding .d.ts file
  -e, --exec            Execute the script after compilation
  -h, --help            Print this message
  --module KIND         Specify module code generation: "commonjs" (default) or "amd"
  --nolib               Do not include a default lib.d.ts with global declarations
  --out FILE|DIRECTORY  Concatenate and emit output to single file | Redirect output structure to the directory
  --sourcemap           Generates corresponding .map file
  --target VER          Specify ECMAScript target version: "ES3" (default), or "ES5"
  -v, --version         Print the compiler's version: 0.8.3.0
  -w, --watch           Watch output files
  @<file>               Insert command line options and files from a file.
error Command failed with exit code 1.
info Visit https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/run for documentation about this command.
ERROR: InvenTree command failed: 'yarn run build --emptyOutDir'
- Refer to the error messages in the log above for more information

I have these installed "locally".

(env) inventree@roki:~/inventree$ which node
/home/inventree/inventree/node_modules/node/bin/node
(env) inventree@roki:~/inventree$ which yarn
/home/inventree/inventree/node_modules/yarn/bin/yarn
(env) inventree@roki:~/inventree$ which tsc
/home/inventree/inventree/node_modules/typescript/bin/tsc
(env) inventree@roki:~/inventree$ node --version
v23.8.0
(env) inventree@roki:~/inventree$ yarn --version
1.22.22
(env) inventree@roki:~/inventree$ tsc --version
Version 0.8.3.0

Perhaps I am using the wrong node, yarn, and tsc versions?

[galmiklos]

I had the wrong tsc installed. It was node-typescript, rather than typescript. After fixing it, I still had trouble, but it was just because I have no idea what I was doing. ;-) Because the biuld failed miserably, with a lot of "missing module" errors. So, I installed the dependencies (npm install in the frontend directory), and finally the build was successful. :-)

However, when I fired up the original gunicorn server with supervisor, I got An error occurred while loading translations, see browser console for details. in the browser. Apparently, it doesn't work like that. Still a lot to learn.

So, I just followed the instructions, and started the development frontend server (invoke dev.frontend-server), and connected to it at port 5173. And since I saw "The InvenTree backend server must also be running" in the instructions, I started the inventree-server from supervisor. Well, that didn't work either, I couldn't log in. So, again, I decided to follow the instructions (to the letter), and fired up the development backend server (invoke dev.server) instead.

It works! :-) I got the fancy new frontend!

Now I just have to figure out how it all fits into the "production" environment...

Wait a minute. Did I just shoot myself in the foot? I cloned the "master" branch, and it looks like it is the latest development version.

Since I created a fresh backup before updating the database (django database migration), and I still have the previous "inventree" directory renamed, I think I will try to go back, and pull version 0.17.7, that I think is the latest stable version.

[galmiklos]

Restoring was successful, I got 0.17.0 running up again, but I realized something. The reason I didn't have "platform" (the original question at the top) is because I didn't build the frontend. Now I see how it's done, so I did invoke int.frontend-build with the old, stable release, and I started up the server with supervisor as if nothing happened. I still can log in to the old UI, and now I have "platform", but I only get this in the browser.

It's the same phenomenon I experienced with the development release first. Since I don't want to mess up this "production" set up I have running, I now have to get to the bottom of why it happens.

Any help is appreciated.

[galmiklos]

I tried starting the development frontend server (invoke frontend-server) while my production gunicorn server was up, and I faced the same issue again, that I didn't seem to have a backend when trying to log in to the new UI at port 5173. And then I realized, I was running my production server at a non standard port (8001), and apparently the development frontend server is trying to connect to port 8000.

So, I changed my production port to 8000, and now the new UI runs correctly on the development server.

But the production server at port 8000 still gives that "loading translations" error.

BTW, am I correct assuming the gunicorn server at port 8000 is serving the backend as well as the frontend?

[matmair]

if you have node installed running invoke update should also compile the frontend including the translations. Alternatively, you can also run inv int.frontend-compile to trigger only the frontend build process. That should place everything you need in your static directory - you only need to run gunicorn.

[galmiklos]

Yes, invoke int.drontend-compile did the trick, thank you! :-)

I think I know what happened. It is of course, now pretty confusing, because I did a lot of things. ;-) Anyways, my first attempt with the development version of update didn't properly compile the frontend, because I didn't have yarn and typescript installed. I mean I had them, but some old version, I don't even know how they were installed on my server, so I installed node, yarn, and typescript locally, in the active inventree dircetory, and added them to the PATH.

(env) inventree@roki:~/inventree$ npm list
/home/inventree/inventree
├─┬ [email protected]
│ └── [email protected]
├── [email protected]
└── [email protected]

(env) inventree@roki:~/inventree$ env | grep PATH
PATH=/home/inventree/inventree/node_modules/.bin:/home/inventree/env/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin

But then it was too late, update was already done, and I only did int.frontend-build after update.

After rolling back to the 0.17.0 stable release, there was no update, and after installing node, yarn, and typescript in that environment, I only did build.

Thank you again for the great advice, and I am so sorry for boring everyone with my "journey" to get deeper in understanding what's what. I learned a lot! :-)

[matmair]

great to hear! Would you be willing to submit docs that help other users?

[galmiklos]

Sure, if my limited understanding is enough... ;-)