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Installation

MetaPepView runs on top of the Dash framework in python. It is installed as a web server that is run locally on the PC and accessed inside the web browser. Before installation, check with the PC requirements if the system is suitable for running the dashboard tool.

MetaPepView can be installed from pip/pipx or by starting a Docker container.

Install MetaPepView with pipx (or pip)

The full MetaPepView application (including the mpv-buildref command line utility) can be installed on any PC system with pip. This installation provides the MetaPepView dashboard, as well as a command line utility for construction of experimental reference datasets. It is recommended to install the application with pipx. It works similar to pip, but is designed for installation of applications as opposed to libraries. When installing a package, pipx provides a separate environment for the tool to run without cluttering existing python environments and ensures the executables are exposed to the command line. When using pip, it is recommended to install MetaPepView in a separate environment (virtual environment or conda)

Installation with pipx

First, make sure python (3.11 or higher) is installed. Once python is installed, install pipx on the command line/terminal.

In Windows 10/11, pipx can be installed via pip:

# If you installed python using Microsoft Store, replace `py` with `python3` in the next line.
py -m pip install --user pipx
python -m pipx ensurepath

In Linux, pipx is often provided by a distro's built-in package manager:

Ubuntu: 

sudo apt install pipx
pipx ensurepath

Fedora: 

sudo dnf install pipx
pipx ensurepath

You may need to restart the terminal before you can run pipx.

Once pipx is installed, MetaPepView can be installed: 

pipx install git+https://github.com/RamonZwaan/metapepview.git

Once installed, the MetaPepView server can be started by running the application in the command line: 

metapepview

The dashboard can be accessed in the web browser (URL: http://localhost:8050).

To uninstall MetaPepView: 

pipx uninstall metapepview

Installation with pip

When python (3.11 or higher) is installed, MetaPepView may be installed directly with pip. Installation via pip will add MetaPepView as package to the global python environment and it is not certain that the application executables are exposed on the command line. To provide some isolation, it is recommended to install MetaPepView in a virtual environment or in a conda environment.

To install MetaPepView with pip: 

pip install git+https://github.com/RamonZwaan/metapepview.git

If the python environment is exposed to the operating system PATH, the MetaPepView server can be started by running the application in the command line: 

metapepview

To uninstall metapepview: 

pip uninstall metapepview

Run MetaPepView inside a Docker container.

To run the dashboard inside a container, make sure Docker (or another OCI compliant manager) is installed on the system.

First, build a Docker image using the Dockerfile template from the MetaPepView GitHub:

Note

Make sure the Docker daemon is running during the command execution (start Docker desktop if installed).

$ docker build -t metapepview https://github.com/RamonZwaan/metapepview.git#main

Now a Docker image named "metapepview" is created on the host system. The image can be found in Docker desktop, under Images.

Once the image is successfully built, start a container by running the following command:

$ docker run -p 8050:8050 metapepview

Here, we start a container from the image "metapepview". The options-p publishes port 8050 from the container to port 8050 in the host pc, which allows us to reach the dashboard in the container. The dashboard can be accessed in the web browser at http://localhost:8050. Note that the dashboard is only accessible from the host PC as long as the port is closed in the firewall.