There are two ways to get setup for the NLP training session. The recommended option is to setup a python environment on your local computer.
If you are unable to perform the recommended install option (below), you can use a Linux virtual machine preconfigured with everything needed for the class. To go this route, download and install VirtualBox on your system: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads.
Then, download the file for the preconfigured virtual machine here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/farcon-nlp/NLP+Environment+64-bit.ova.7z. If you are having trouble unzipping the file use 7-zip: http://www.7-zip.org/download.html. Once you unzip the file you should be able to open it with VirtualBox and start the virtual machine. There is no need to download any other files mentioned in the steps below, as they are already included in the virtual machine.
I'm using Conda to manage and create the python environment. For an in-depth explanation of this workflow see the excellent bog post by Tim Hopper, My Python Environment Workflow with Conda.
Here is a video walk-through of the steps below on a Mac: https://vimeo.com/230225216.
If you already have Anaconda or Miniconda installed, skip to step 2.
Download the python 3.6 version of Anaconda for your system from here: https://www.continuum.io/downloads
Follow the setup instructions on the Anaconda site.
If you have limited space on your system you can download Miniconda. This will only install what is needed for the training session and will skip many of the components that are included in the full version of Anaconda. Follow these instructions to install Miniconda on your system: https://conda.io/docs/install/quick.html
Use git to clone the repository for the training session down to your computer. Here is the link to the main repository: https://github.com/juskaiser/FARCON_NLP.
Navigate to your desired installation location in command line and clone the repository with the following commands:
Via HTTPS: $ git clone https://github.com/juskaiser/FARCON_NLP.git
Or
Via SSH: $ git clone git@github.com:juskaiser/FARCON_NLP.git
In command line, navigate to the folder for the training session that was just cloned. It should be called FARCON_NLP unless it was changed. Run $ ls from within the directory in command line, you should see a result like this:
$ ls
README.md Test.ipynb data environment.yml
*Note: there may be additional files to those listed above.
In command line, from within the FARCON_NLP folder, run the following command:
$ conda env create -f environment.yml
This will download and install the python packages needed for the training session and may take a few minutes, depending on the speed of your internet connection.
See Use environment from file in the conda documentation for troubleshooting & reference: https://conda.io/docs/using/envs.html#use-environment-from-file
To verify the new conda environment was created, run the following command in command line:
$ conda env list
You should see a result like this:
# conda environments:
#
far_nlp /Users/Justin/anaconda/envs/far_nlp
root * /Users/Justin/anaconda
The new conda environment (far_nlp) should be listed. The asterisk indicates the current active environment.
Activate the new environment with the following command:
OS X, Linux: $ source activate far_nlp
Windows: $ activate far_nlp
Now, run $ conda env list a second time to verify the new environment is active. You should see that the asterisk is now on the line for far_nlp, indicating the new environment is active.
# conda environments:
#
far_nlp * /Users/Justin/anaconda/envs/far_nlp
root /Users/Justin/anaconda
See the conda documentation for more info on managing and switching between environments: https://conda.io/docs/using/envs.html
Before proceeding, make sure the new conda environment, far_nlp, is activated (see the previous step). The spaCy NLP package was already installed in previous step, but you need to manually install the English language model for spaCy. Install the English model by entering the following command in command line:
$ python -m spacy download en
*Note: you can enter this command from any location in the command line.
SpaCy installation instructions for troubleshooting & reference: https://spacy.io/docs/usage/
Download the data we'll use in the session from the link below. Unzip the file and place each unzipped data file in the data directory within FARCON_NLP.
Data for NLP training session: https://s3.amazonaws.com/farcon-nlp/data.zip
The structure for the FARCON_NLP directory should look like this after you've copied in the unzipped data files:
FARCON_NLP
├── README.md
├── Test.ipynb
├── data
│ ├── amazon_electronics_reviews_subset.csv
│ └── sandisk_sd_card_reviews.csv
├── environment.yml
└── utilities.py
Navigate to the FARCON_NLP directory in command line. From within the directory start Jupyter Notebook by running this command from command line:
$ jupyter notebook
If your default browser doesn't launch with the Jupyter Notebook home page automatically, check back in your terminal window. You'll probably see an error message like this:
Copy/paste this URL into your browser when you connect for the first time, to login with a token:
http://localhost:8888/?token=cf6d21cbb1fbd2c1ce677607c2300bf56e213b93917efc15
69:77:
execution error: Can’t get application "chrome". (-1728)
Follow the error instructions and copy the full link containing the security token into your browser address bar and hit enter. Your browser should then load the Jupyter Notebook home screen, as shown below:
Click the tab named Nbextensions to go to the settings page for Jupyter Notebook extensions.
Click the check box to enable Collapsible Headings. Also make sure that Freeze is enabled (it should be enabled by default). Collapsible Headings and Freeze are an extra features in Jupyter notebook that will be helpful in the main notebook for the training session.
*Note: If you don't see the Notebook Extensions tab, you may need to run this command, and restart Jupyter Notebook:
$ jupyter contrib nbextension install --user
Let's use Jupyter Notebook to perform some tests on our installation. Navigate back to the Jupyter Notebook home location by clicking the Files tab. Then, Click on Test.ipynb to launch the Test notebook:
Once the Test notebook is open press shift + enter to run the cell and proceed to the next cell. Continue on and hit shift + enter for each cell in the notebook. If each cell runs without any errors, your installation should be good. Below is what the notebook should look like after running each cell successfully.
You can perform a more in-depth installation test for spaCy by following these instructions: https://spacy.io/docs/usage/#tests
You can do the same for sci-kit learn by following these instructions: http://scikit-learn.org/stable/developers/advanced_installation.html#testing
Each of these tests take a few minutes to run.