python - Error trying to run pgAdmin4

Question

I've installed postgresql 9.6 (using suggested linux installer) which comes with pgAdmin4, but getting a few errors.

First, I had to change the folder name from "pgAdmin 4" (note the extra space) to "pgAdmin4" to avoid "file not found error".

Then I run sudo python pgAdmin4.py and got the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "../../pgAdmin4.py", line 24, in <module>
      from pgadmin import create_app
   File "/opt/PostgreSQL/9.6/pgAdmin4/web/pgadmin/__init__.py", line 17, in <module>
      from flask import Flask, abort, request, current_app
ImportError: No module named flask

I tried following this related question: Flask ImportError: No Module Named Flask -- managed to installed flask on virtualenv.

But then I started getting other flask related modules that are missing: flask_babel, flask_login, flask_security. I installed all of them using pip, but then I got an error on missing module htmlmin.minify which I can't seems to able to install.

Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "../pgAdmin4.py", line 24, in <module>
      from pgadmin import create_app
   File "/opt/PostgreSQL/9.6/pgAdmin4/web/pgadmin/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
      from htmlmin.minify import html_minify
ImportError: No module named htmlmin.minify

I also exported PYTHONPATH to the one on flask, as described here, still getting the same error.

So, anyone have an idea how to make pgAdmin4 work on ubuntu environemt?

Answer 1

According to https://www.pgadmin.org/download/pip4.php.

Install the virtualenv by running:

sudo apt-get install virtualenv

You also need to install these 2 libraries:

sudo apt-get install libpq-dev python-dev 

Then:

cd ~/bin/
virtualenv pgadmin4

I prefer to use the ~/bin/ directory for installing applications.

Then you download the pgadmin4-1.1-py2-none-any.whl or pgadmin4-1.1-py3-none-any.whl depending on the python version you use. For this example we use python 2.7.

You download pgadmin4:

wget https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/pgadmin3/pgadmin4/v1.1/pip/pgadmin4-1.1-py2-none-any.whl

Activate the virtualenv:

. ~/bin/pgadmin4/bin/activate

After that you will see (pgadmin4) in the terminal.

Inside of pgadmin4 run:

pip install ./pgadmin4-1.1-py2-none-any.whl

After that you must be able to run pgadmin4:

python ~/bin/pgadmin4/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgAdmin4.py 

In order to make the running process a bit easier you can create an alias. For instance, in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, add alias in the ~/.bash_aliases file:

alias pgadmin4='. /home/your_username/bin/pgadmin4/bin/activate; /home/your_username/bin/pgadmin4/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgAdmin4.py'

Where your_username should be replaced by your real user name.

Then give execute permission, for example, 764 to the pgAdmin4.py file in:

/home/your_username/bin/pgadmin4/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgAdmin4.py

Also you need to edit the pgAdmin4.py file and add this line in the very top:

#!/home/your_username/bin/pgadmin4/bin/python

where your_username is your real user name.

This will make sure that you run the application using the required version of python and include all necessary dependencies in order to run pgadmin4.

Then run . ~/.bashrc in order to apply the changes.

So now you can open your terminal and simply type pgadmin4 in order to run it.

Open your browser and point to:

http://127.0.0.1:5050

One more thing to note - if you need to run pgadmin4 in desktop mode you need to change SERVER_MODE to False in:

/home/your_username/bin/pgadmin4/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pgadmin4/config.py

Otherwise when you visit localhost:5050 it will ask you for your login and password.

UDPATE:

As of 2021 (and significantly earlier) a much better option would be to use a preconfigured docker container with pgadmin4 on it. For example, a pgadmin4 docker image can be downloaded from https://hub.docker.com/r/dpage/pgadmin4/.

Hope this helps.