How to Install AlchemyCMS Rails Framework on Ubuntu Linux

AlchemyCMS is an open source, headless content management system (CMS) based on Rails that adapts to your needs. It makes it super easy to develop and design static websites and is one of the leading open-source CMS frameworks based Rails.

You can use AlchemyCMS to create your personal or business websites in minutes by creating markup pages and content…. It splits pages into logical parts like headlines, paragraphs, images, etc. The only thing we store in the database is text, ids of images and rich text content. Nothing else.…

All you do is write your content and it’s instantly published… Other features like permalinks, categories, pages, posts, and custom layouts are all top content and SEO friendly…

For more about AlchemyCMS, check its homepage.

This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install AlchemyCMS on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 and 18.10 systems.

These are the packages we’re going to be setting up.

  • Ruby version 2.5.3
  • Rails version 5.2.1
  • MySQL Server

Install Ruby

To install Ruby and Rails on Ubuntu, you’ll need  to install some dependencies. To make that happen, install Node.js and Yarn repositories. This will make installing the dependencies easier.

First install these curl and git packages.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install curl git

Than run the commands below to add Node.js and Yarn repositories and keys to your system. Then install some core packages to get your environment going.

curl -sL  | sudo -E bash -
curl -sS  | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb  stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nodejs yarn zlib1g-dev build-essential libpq-dev libssl-dev libreadline-dev libyaml-dev libsqlite3-dev sqlite3 libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libffi-dev

When you’re done. continue below:

After adding the repositories and installing necessary packages above, install Ruby with your local profile settings using rbenv. you’ll then use rbenv to install ruby-build.

cd ~/
git clone  ~/.rbenv
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc
exec $SHELL

git clone  ~/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
exec $SHELL

After setting up your local profile. run the commands below to install Ruby version 2.5.3. If a newer version is available, replace the version number to that. visit this site to find out Ruby latest versions.

rbenv install 2.5.3
rbenv global 2.5.3

To verify that Ruby is installed, run the commands below:

ruby -v

You should see similar lines as below:

ruby 2.5.3p105 (2018-10-18 revision 65156) [x86_64-linux]

Another package management you’ll want to install is bundler. to do that, run the commands below

gem install bundler

Now run the command below after installing bundler.

rbenv rehash

Install MySQL Server

MySQL server can be installed on Ubuntu by running the commands below:

sudo apt-get install mysql-client mysql-server libmysqlclient-dev

Install Rails

Now that Ruby environment is set up, run the commands below to install Rails. Rails can be installed from a Node.Js. Run the commands below to install Node.js repository, then install Node.js package.

curl -sL  | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Now that Node.js is installed, run the commands below to install Rails.

gem install rails -v 5.2.1

Don’t forget to rehash your rbenv environment installing install new packages.

rbenv rehash

To verify if Rails is installed, run the commands below.

rails -v

You should see something similar to the lines below:

Rails 5.2.1

The installation of AlchemyCMS is very easy. You just need to run Ruby’s gem command. To do that, run the commands below.

gem install alchemy_cms
npm install gm

Configure AlchemyCMS

Now that your environment is ready, run the commands below to install Alchemy CMS and build your first site.  Alchemy is a Rails 4 engine, so at first you need to generate a fresh Rails 4 application, by running this command

rails new alchemycms

Next change into the Alchemy CMS folder and install there.

cd ~/alchemycms

Then run the commands to open the Gemfile there.

nano Gemfile

When it opens, copy and paste the lines below into the file and save.

gem 'alchemy_cms'
gem 'alchemy-devise'

Then file should look like this:

ruby '2.5.3'
#alchemy 
gem 'alchemy_cms'
gem 'alchemy-devise'
# Bundle edge Rails instead: gem 'rails', github: 'rails/rails'
gem 'rails', '~> 5.2.1'
# Use sqlite3 as the database for Active Record
gem 'sqlite3'

Save and exit.

After that, run the commands below:

bundle install

After that, you should see a message below:

Using web-console 3.7.0
Bundle complete! 19 Gemfile dependencies, 103 gems now installed.
Use `bundle info [gemname]` to see where a bundled gem is installed.
Post-install message from alchemy_cms:
-------------------------------------------------------------
            Thank you for installing Alchemy CMS
-------------------------------------------------------------

- Complete the installation in an existing Rails application:
  $ bin/rake alchemy:install
- Complete the upgrade of an existing Alchemy installation:
  $ bin/rake alchemy:upgrade
and follow the onscreen instructions.
Need help? Try:

* 
* 
* irc://irc.freenode.net#alchemy_cms

After a while, necessary packages should be installed. When you’re done, run the commands below to finish installing the CMS.

bin/rails g alchemy:devise:install
bin/rake alchemy:install
bin/rake alchemy:upgrade

Now that you have AlchemyCMS successfully installed, let’s move on by creating your first user with administrative privileges.

Run the commands below to start the server.

bin/rails s

Open your browser and browse to the localhost followed port # 3000. You should see AlchemyCMS home page.

Logon to the backend using the admin address and password.


You will be greeted with a screen that is prompting you to create the first user.

Congratulations, you can now access the backend.

Alchemy CMS Ubuntu Setup

Logon to the backend start building your content.

Alchemy CMS Ubuntu Setup

Congratulation! You have successfully installed AlchemyCMS platform on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 | 18.10

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