Start ASReview LAB

After you install ASReview LAB, start the program via the command line to start using it.

asreview lab

When you are using Windows, open CMD.exe and run the command. When you use MacOS or Linux, you can open Terminal and run the command.

Read the following sections for advanced options to start or configure ASReview LAB users.

Command line arguments for starting ASReview LAB

ASReview LAB provides a powerful command line interface for running ASReview LAB with other options or even run tasks like simulations. For a list of available commands in ASReview LAB, type asreview lab --help.

asreview lab launches the ASReview LAB software (the frontend).

asreview lab [options]

-h, --help

Show help message and exit.

--host HOST

The host/IP address the server will listen on.

--port PORT

The port the server will listen on.

--enable-auth ENABLE_AUTH

Enable authentication. Deprecated.

--secret-key SECRET_KEY

Secret key for authentication. Deprecated.

--salt SALT

When using authentication, a salt code is needed for hasing passwords.

--config-path CONFIG_PATH

Path to a TOML file containing ASReview parameters.

--no-browser NO_BROWSER

Do not open ASReview LAB in a browser after startup.

--port-retries NUMBER_RETRIES

The number of additional ports to try if the specified port is not available.

--certfile CERTFILE_FULL_PATH

The full path to an SSL/TLS certificate file.

--keyfile KEYFILE_FULL_PATH

The full path to a private key file for usage with SSL/TLS.

--skip-update-check

Skip checking for updates.

Set environment variables

The following environment variables are available.

ASREVIEW_PATH

The path to the folder with project. Default ~/.asreview.

How you set environment variables depends on the operating system and the environment in which you deploy ASReview LAB.

In MacOS or Linux operating systems, you can set environment variables from the command line. For example:

export ASREVIEW_PATH=~/.asreview

On Windows, you can use the following syntax:

set ASREVIEW_PATH=~/.asreview

To check if you set an environment variable successfully, run the following on *nix operating systems:

echo $ASREVIEW_PATH

Or the following on Windows operating systems:

echo %ASREVIEW_PATH%

Run ASReview LAB on localhost with a different port

By default, ASReview LAB runs on port 5000. If that port is already in use or if you want to specify a different port, start ASReview LAB with the following command:

asreview lab --port <port>

For example, start ASReview LAB on port 5001:

asreview lab --port 5001

Local server with authentication

Note

For production use, it is recommended to use the Docker setup. See the ASReview LAB Server section for more information.

The most basic configuration of the ASReview LAB application with authentication is to run the application from the CLI with the --enable-auth flag. The application will start with authentication enabled and will create a SQLite database if it does not exist. The database will be stored in the ASReview projects folder. The database contains the user accounts and links them to projects.

Start the application with authentication enabled:

asreview lab --enable-auth --secret-key=<secret key> --salt=<salt>

where --enable-auth forces the application to run in an authenticated mode, <secret key> is a string that is used for encrypting cookies and <salt> is a string that is used to hash passwords. The --secret-key and --salt parameters are mandatory if authentication is required.

To create user accounts, one can use the add-users command of the auth-tool sub command of the ASReview application:

asreview auth-tool add-users

For more information about auth-tool and creating users, see the section Create user accounts below.