How To Install AlphApexManager To Your Local Machine

Introduction- Directory Management Tutorial

Sometimes it will be easier and more useful to create project directories and compile that project's specific data without using the engineering api's like AlphaFlood for projects that will not need floodway, floodzone, and wetland engineering. The python packages in AlphApexManager are essentially the same code and methods that handle all the mundane, but extremely necessary directory, file, saving, syncing, and organization of all the project data in the more robust engineering programs in the AlphApex repository, the difference being the user now has more functionality and control over the local management aspects and can easily customize project directories, files, templates, data research, and deliverables to each unique project's needs.

Prerequisites

To complete this tutorial, you will need:

• A local development environment for python. Just having a fairly recent version of python on your local machine should suffice since most of the python libraries used in these specific packages come with each python installation.
• Terminal like Command Prompt or Powershell.
• A code editor like VS Code to execute the python packages from. By using VS Code you get a file explorer, terminal, code editor all in one making it very simple and quick to create custom directory templates, create/modify/add/remove file templates, create project directories with these templates interactively using the command line only.
• Download Git if you do not already have installed. You can follow this quick tutorial (How to Install Git on Windows).

Step 1 — Clone AlphApexManager Repository To Local Machine

Now that you have Git downloaded and ready to use, we can get ready to clone all the python packages we need. Since these are technicality python packages and not standalone programs, we can open up a terminal in VS Code and set the working directory to the current user's location to keep things as simple as possible.

You should be able to open up VS Code easily by hitting the windows button on your keyboard, typing "vs" only and hitting 'Enter'. Followed with using the windows shortcut " CTRL + ` " (control button + backtick) to make sure a terminal is open and you can change the current working directory to the user's location if it is not already there. copy and paste the cell below into your terminal and press Enter:

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/johnnybalright/AlphApexManager.git
cd .\AlphApexManager\alpha_manager

You'll see the following output:

Now we can start to use directory_manager.py to manage and generate templates.

Step 2 — Use the Manager Package Interactively

The alpha manager package can be used in one of two ways: 1. an interactive program at the command line 2. a python script executed at command line with the correct arguments.

To use it as an interactive program, run the python file with no arguments.

python directory_manager.py

You'll see the following output:

Use the prompts to navigate the different functions of the program.

Step 3 — Use the Manager Package as a Python Script

Another introduction

python directory_manager.py --generate --output ~/Desktop --project_name Smith --project_number 24999

You'll see the following output:

This is what the newly generated directory should look like.

Conclusion