Ferris has very few dependencies because it relies on included App Engine libraries and bundles everything else. Just make sure you have the latest Google App Engine SDK for Python installed.
However, if you want take advantage of unit testing, you’ll need to install the following python packages:
- unittest2
- nose
- ferrisnose
- webob
- webtest
- BeautifulSoup (optional)
These packages can be easily installed with pip:
pip install --upgrade unittest2 nose ferrisnose webob webtest beautifulsoup
The latest version of Ferris can be always be obtained from Bitbucket. You can either use git to clone Ferris or download a copy of the source. The easiest way for most is to just download a zip of the latest release (direct link to download). Either way you do it, place the contents of the Ferris’ source into the directory where you will be creating your application.
A little bit of configuration is required. Open ./app.yaml and set the application and version properties appropriately, like below:
application: ferris-getting-started #.appspot.com
version: 1
You’ll want to pick a unique application name in case you want to actually deploy this. For more information, check out the App Engine documentation.
If you wish to use OAuth2 or Email, you’ll also need to change some settings in ./settings.py or use the Settings plugin.
Using the development server with a Ferris application is the same as using it with any other App Engine applications. Just issue dev_appserver.py . on unix/linux or use the launcher on Windows/Mac. Once it’s started you should be able to open up your app via http://localhost:8080. You should see a rather generic landing page.
Note
If you’re using the launcher, the URL for your application and the App Engine console may use a different port. Make note of this as the tutorial and examples all use http://localhost:8080 and http://localhost:8000 for the application and console respectively.