Installation
Meta-PepView 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.
Meta-PepView can be installed from pip/pipx or by starting a Docker container.
Install meta-PepView with pipx (or pip)
The full meta-PepView application (including the mpv-buildref command line utility) can be installed on any PC system with pip. This installation provides the meta-PepView dashboard, as well as a command line utility for construction of experimental reference datasets.
It is recommended to install meta-PepView 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 meta-PepView in a separate environment (virtual environment or conda)
Note
In the instructions below, meta-PepView is installed by pip(x) by fetching the code from the GitHub repository. For this, git needs to be installed on the PC.
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, meta-PepView can be installed:
pipx install git+https://github.com/RamonZwaan/metapepview.git
Once installed, the meta-PepView 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 meta-PepView:
pipx uninstall metapepview
Installation with pip
When python (3.11 or higher) is installed, meta-PepView may be installed directly with pip. Installation via pip
will add meta-PepView 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 meta-PepView in a virtual environment
or in a conda environment.
To install meta-PepView with pip:
pip install git+https://github.com/RamonZwaan/metapepview.git
If the python environment is exposed to the operating system PATH, the meta-PepView server can be started by running the application in the command line:
metapepview
To uninstall metapepview:
pip uninstall metapepview
Run meta-PepView 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 meta-PepView 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 that is running inside 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.