make base dir configurable

[robert-elles]

You should separate between code and state and it is not a good idea that you are writing to your own install location. Better would be to make it configurable where generated data will be written to.

for me mercury fails because it is installed to a read only location and there is on way, at least that i saw in your code or documentation on how to configure where base dir or media dir points to.

your documentation is lacking the description for settings or command line options

[pplonski]

Hi @robert-elles,

Thank you for feedback. Could you please describe what is your use case, so I can better understand your need.

Yes, documentation needs improvements, sorry about it!

Mercury is created based on Django, so it is possible to setup BASE_DIR and MEDIA_ROOT to any location on hard drive or even store them in the cloud. What do you think about providing some additional arguments for command line?

[robert-elles]

Hi @pplonski,

How exactly would I configure mercury such that all data that it creates is written to a specific location outside of its install folder?
Looking in your settings.py I see you load this .env file but it looks like MEDIA_ROOT cannot be specified by it because it depends on BASE_DIR. But if i change BASE_DIR with a patch mercury won't find an index.html for the frontend part.

Also i noticed mercury dropped me some celery.db in the folder from where I ran mercury. It would be great if I could configure something like DATA_DIR and everything that is created will be insider or below this DATA_DIR

Thanks

[pplonski]

Hi @robert-elles,

Right now, there is no such functionality. I will write it. I like the idea with configurable MEDIA_DIR and DATA_DIR.

What is your use case for Mercury? Do you like it?

[robert-elles]

Thank you!
I like the idea of Mercury. It looks promising. I haven't been able yet to really work with it due to the mentioned issue^.

My use case is that I like to program in notebooks in vscode but then also want to access the notebook from other devices like my mobile phone or share the notebooks as a web app with other non technical people.

I think it is great for prototyping, sharing and getting quick feedback from someone else.

[robert-elles]

Hi @pplonski,

since pull request 395 I think this issue can be closed.

[pplonski]

I need to make a new release and update the docs, that's why I keep it open. Thanks for contributing @robert-elles. Do you manage to build app as you want with Mercury?

[robert-elles]

Got it. Yes, thank you. I have now used it successfully for a couple of things but then realized I need a more responsive design for mobile. I am now learning more about web development for mobile and might contribute on that in the future.