This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to install Live Helper Chat platform on Ubuntu 18.04 | 16.04 with Apache2 HTTP server.
Live Helper Chat is a free, open source chat software for websites developed in PHP.
With Live Helper Chat, you can install or embed it on your websites and provide live chat service with unlimited operators, chats at the same time, multiple departments, multiple locations and more.
Whether you’re creating a personal or company chat support platform, Live Helper Chat can help you with customer support chat on your sites and works across every device with its intuitive and powerful user and admin dashboard.
For more on Live Helper Chat , please visit its home page
To get started with installing Live Helper Chat, follow the steps below:
Install Apache2 HTTP
Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use. so install it since Live Helper Chat needs it.
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 find out if Apache2 HTTP server is installed, simply open your web browser and type in the server’s IP or hostname.
When you see the page similar to the one below, then Apache2 is installed and working.
Install MariaDB Database Server
Live Helper Chat also needs a database server to store its content. and MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open source database servers to use with Live Helper Chat.
To install MariaDB run the commands below.
sudo apt 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
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-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-bcmath php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip php7.2-sqlite
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 max_input_vars = 1500 date.timezone = America/Chicago
After making the change above, save the file and close out.
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 Live Helper Chat Database
Now that you’ve install all the packages that are required, continue below to start configuring the servers. First create a Live Helper Chat database.
Run the commands below to logon to MariaDB. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called livehelperchat
CREATE DATABASE livehelperchat;
Create a database user called livehelperchatuser with new password
CREATE USER 'livehelperchatuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the livehelperchat database.
GRANT ALL ON livehelperchat.* TO 'livehelperchatuser'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Download Live Helper Chat Latest Release
To get Live Helper Chat latest release you may want to use Github repository. Install wget if you don’t already have it and continue. Then change into the /tmp directory, download Live Helper Chat and extract into its root directory.
sudo apt install wget cd /tmp wget unzip master.zip sudo mv livehelperchat-master /var/www/livehelperchat
Since you just ran the web server as root, you should make sure any newly created files are owned by the www-data user and group.
To do that, run the commands below:
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/livehelperchat/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/livehelperchat/
Configure Apache2
Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for Live Helper Chat. This file will control how users access Live Helper Chat content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called livehelperchat.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/livehelperchat.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/livehelperchat/lhc_web
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
<Directory /var/www/livehelperchat/lhc_web/>
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.
Enable the Live Helper Chat and Rewrite Module
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo a2ensite livehelperchat.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name or hostname. This is often localhost but can be a host name or IP address. Your server admin or hosting company will have this information available.
Continue with the installation wizard and validate that all requirements are met and continue.
Next, enter the database username, password and the database created above.
After that, create an admin account to manage the platform.
After installing, login and start begin managing your platform.
Conclusion:
You have learned how to install Live Helper Chat on Ubuntu with Apache2 HTTP server. If you find any errors above, please leave a comment below
Thanks,
