Creating custom projects

You can create custom projects that include only the ActiveState programming language distributions and packages you need for the specific operating systems you are working on. The Platform currently supports a wide variety of ActivePython and ActivePerl versions on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

  1. Open your web browser and navigate to https://platform.activestate.com and sign in.
  2. In the Your Organizations list, select the organization to create a custom build for, or click the Projects tab to create a personal project.
  3. Click Build a Custom Runtime.
  4. Enter a short, meaningful name for the project in Project Name.
  5. In the Select Languages section, select the checkbox next to the language to include in the project, and then select the appropriate version from the drop-down list.

To increase the likelihood of your build completing successfully, start with a recommended configuration (Python 3.6.6 on Linux) and add other languages once your project is building without errors.

  1. In the Select Platforms section, click the platform operating system to use and then click the checkbox next to the platform(s) to include. The platforms list includes a description of the operating system versions the platform is for.

  2. Click Create Project.

  3. Add packages to your project using the Customize your build options in the Requested packages panel:

    • Click Choose Packages to search for and add packages individually.
    • Click Import from requirements.txt to add the set of packages and versions required for your project. For more information on specifying your project requirements using a requirements.txt file, see Creating projects from requirements.txt files.

    The packages you selected are listed in the Requested Packages list, and any dependencies of these selected packages are listed in the Dependencies list.

  4. When you have reviewed the packages and dependencies that are included and you are satisfied, click Commit Changes to start the build process.

  5. Click View Status to see the progress of the build. Depending on the packages included and the complexity of the build it can take quite a bit of time for the build to complete. You may need to come back later to access the finished build output.

  6. If the build completed successfully, you can download the installer for your build on the Builds page by clicking Download. For Linux, the file you want to download is named ActivePython-linux-<platform>-<identifier>.tar.gz. You do not need to download the recipe.json, packages, or tests files that are listed unless you specifically require them.