Getting Started

OpenDataBio is a web-based software supported in Debian, Ubuntu and Arch-Linux distributions of Linux and may be implemented in any Linux based machine. We have no plans for Windows support, but it may be easy to install on a Windows machine using Docker.

OpenDataBio is written in PHP and developed with the Laravel framework. It requires a web server (Apache or nginx), PHP and a SQL database – tested only with MySQL and MariaDB.

You may install OpenDataBio easily using the Docker files included in the distribution. The repository now includes a docker/prod profile and docker-compose.prod.yml so Docker can also be used for production deployments (with server-specific tuning and secrets management).

If you just want to test OpenDataBio locally, follow the Docker Installation.

Next steps

1. Apache Installation
2. Nginx Installation
3. Docker Installation
4. Upgrade OpenDataBio

Prep for installation

1. You may want to request a Tropicos.org API key for OpenDataBio to be able to retrieve taxonomic data from the Tropicos.org database. If not provided, mainly the GBIF nomenclatural service will be used;
2. OpenDataBio sends emails to registered users, either to inform about a Job that has finished, to send data requests to dataset administrators or for password recovery. You may use a Google Email for this, but will need to change the account security options to allow OpenDataBio to use the account to send emails (you need to turn on the Less secure app access option in the Gmail My Account Page and will need to create a cron job to keep this option alive). Therefore, create a dedicated email address for your installation. Check the “config/mail.php” file for more options on how to send e-mails.