Canopy (previously known as phpWebSite) is an open-source content management system (CMS) that lets you build your own professional, PHP based websites on your own servers.
Canopy is also the CMS used at Appalachian State University.
This CMS enables you to build robust websites for your school, company or for any group looking to collaborate around the same ideas or issues.
Whether you’re creating a personal or company website, Canopy can help you build and manage your content on every device with its intuitive and powerful user and admin dashboard.
This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Canopy CMS with Apache2, MariaDB and PHP 7.2 support on Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 LTS.
Install Apache2 HTTP Server on Ubuntu
Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use today. since Canopy CMS needs it go and install it on Ubuntu.
To install Apache2 HTTP on Ubuntu server, run the commands below.
sudo apt update sudo apt install apache2
After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop apache2.service sudo systemctl start apache2.service sudo systemctl enable apache2.service
To test Apache2 setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address and you should see Apache2 default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Apache2 is working as expected.
Install MariaDB Database Server
MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open source database servers to use with Canopy. To install MariaDB run the commands below.
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots.
Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mysql.service sudo systemctl start mysql.service sudo systemctl enable mysql.service
Run these on Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
After that, run the commands below to secure MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.
sudo mysql_secure_installation
When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.
- Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
- Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
- New password: Enter password
- Re-enter new password: Repeat password
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Restart MariaDB server
To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to logon to MariaDB server
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then type the password you created above to sign on. if successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message
Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules
PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. in order to install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories.
Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2
sudo apt update
Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules.
sudo apt install php7.2 libapache2-mod-php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-sqlite3 php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip
After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open PHP default config file for Apache2.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini
Then make the changes on the following lines below in the file and save. The value below are great settings to apply in your environments.
file_uploads = On allow_url_fopen = On short_open_tag = On memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 100M max_execution_time = 360 date.timezone = America/Chicago
After making the change above, save the file and close out.
After installing PHP and related modules, all you have to do is restart Apache2 to reload PHP configurations.
To restart Apache2, run the commands below
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
To test PHP 7.2 settings with Apache2, create a phpinfo.php file in Apache2 root directory by running the commands below
sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php
Then type the content below and save the file.
<?php phpinfo( ); ?>
Save the file. then browse to your server hostname followed by /phpinfo.php
/phpinfo.php
You should see PHP default test page.
Create Canopy Database
Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for Canopy to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create a blank Canopy database.
To logon to MariaDB database server, run the commands below.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called canopy
CREATE DATABASE canopy;
Create a database user called canopyuser with new password
CREATE USER 'canopyuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON canopy.* TO 'canopyuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Download and Install Canopy CMS
To get Canopy latest release you may want to use Github repository… Install Composer, Curl and other dependencies to get started…
sudo apt install curl git curl -sS | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
After installing curl and Composer above, change into the /tmp directory. download and extract, then move Canopy content to Apache2 root directory…
After that, use composer to install its dependencies.
cd /tmp wget unzip master.zip sudo mv canopy-master /var/www/html/canopy sudo mkdir /var/www/html/canopy/images/ cd /var/www/html/canopy sudo composer install
Next, run the commands below to change the root folder permissions.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/canopy/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/canopy/
Configure Apache2 Canopy CMS Site
Next, configure Apache2 configuration file for canopy . This file will control how users access Canopy CMS content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called canopy.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/canopy.conf
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/canopy
ServerName example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/canopy/>
Options FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Save the file and exit.
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
Enable the Canopy Site and Rewrite Module
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below, then restart Apache2 server.
sudo a2ensite canopy.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Next, open your browser and go to the URL. and continue with the installation.
You should see Canopy installation wizard page. Type in the database name, user and password. then continue
After that, create an admin account for the back-end and continue.
After that, Canopy should be installed and ready do use.
Remove the setup directory after installing.
sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/canopy/setup/
Enjoy!
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