Below is a general overview of how you can run ResearchSpace on your local machine using Docker containers. If you prefer a native/manual setup, you’ll need to install Java 11 and configure it directly on your system (see details here). The official ResearchSpace documentation is created and maintained by Kartography CIC.
- Installing Docker
- Installing the ResearchSpace platform
- Configuring your docker setup using the .env file
- Backup Data, Images and other Files
- Troubleshooting
The easiest way to install docker and docker compose is using Docker Desktop available for free for personal use.
Depending on the operating system running on your local machine you can follow these steps.
git clone [email protected]:researchspace/researchspace-docker-desktop.git
cd yourDirectoryPath/researchspace-docker-desktop
If using UBUNTU, run the following two commands; Not necessary for OS X setups. You may need to run these commands with sudo
chmod +x ./fix-folder-permissions.sh
./fix-folder-permissions.sh
docker compose up -d
The platform takes some time to start loading the first time, so check the platform loading status with command:
docker logs localhost-researchspace-1
The platform has started when the logs end with the following message
INFO:oejs.AbstractConnector:main: Started ServerConnector@40fd1a78{HTTP/1.1, (http/1.1)}{0.0.0.0:8080}
INFO:oejs.Server:main: Started
If you don't see the message above, rerun the command docker logs localhost-researchspace-1 until that message is displayed or an error message is shown.
Open your browser and go to http://127.0.0.1:10214/login. You can now access the platform with admin/admin
docker compose down
The .env is a simple text file that holds environment variables in the format KEY=VALUE. docker compose automatically reads this file and substitutes any matching ${KEY} references in your docker-compose.yml
Use this file to specify the memory allocations or Java runtime parameters.
Once the system starts a set of folders and files are automatically generated. Data is stored in a triplestore, while images, files, and other ResearchsSpace created resources are placed in the researchspace/runtime-data folder.
When creating a backup of your docker setup make sure the folders below are included.
Your data is saved in a special file, called a journal, you can find it on your machine's local filesystem at:
cd blazegraph/blazegraph.jnl
All files from the current running application are stored in the researchspace/runtime-data
If ResearchSpace or the triplestore doesn't have enough memory to start, you may see OutOfMemoryError or time out errors. Increase allocated memory via Docker Compose or the -Xmx Java option.
Ensure the ports used by ResearchSpace (10214) and your triplestore (10215) are not in use by other apps.
- Docker logs or the server logs will show detailed stack traces if there’s a problem.
- If you can’t connect to the triple store, check their container's logs too.
List all running docker containers:
docker ps -a
View specific logs:
docker logs <yourdockercontainerid>