Mono CMS offers a clean and minimalistic approach to content management system. Built with PHP and no database requirement, this CMS platform lets you build great websites for personal and professional use.
If you are looking for a flat-file CMS platform that is easy to install, simple to maintain and flexible, then you should be looking at Mono CMS. With Mono CMS, you get a simple and fast editor for creating posts, clean design and lightweight.
This CMS platform is fast and gives webmasters extensible features to collaborate and automate engaging experiences with users across multiple devices, including mobile.
For more about Mono CMS, please check their Homepage
This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Mono CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 LTS.
To get started with installing Mono CMS, follow the steps below:
Install Apache2 HTTP Server
Mono CMS requires a web server and Apache2 HTTP server is the most popular open source web server available today. To install Apache2 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
Now that Apache2 is installed. to test whether the web server is working, open your browser and browse to the URL below.
If you see the page above, then Apache2 is successfully installed.
Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules
Mono CMS is a PHP based CMS and PHP is required. However, PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. To run PHP 7.2 on Ubuntu 16.04 and previous, you may need to run the commands below:
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-mysql php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc 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 configuration file for Apache2.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini
The lines below is a good settings for most PHP based CMS. Update the configuration file with these and save.
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
Everytime you make changes to PHP configuration file, you should also restart Apache2 web server. To do so, run the commands below:
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Now that PHP is installed, to test whether it’s functioning, create a test file called phpinfo.php in Apache2 default root directory. ( /var/www/html/)
sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php
Then type the content below and save the file.
<?php phpinfo( ); ?>
Next, open your browser and browse to the server’s hostname or IP address followed by phpinfo.php
/phpinfo.php
You should see PHP default test page.
Download Mono CMS Latest Release
To get Mono CMS latest release you may want to go and download from its download page. Or use the commands below to use wget and get it downloaded.
Once downloaded extract the downloaded content into the newly created Mono CMS directory.
cd /tmp wget sudo mkdir /var/www/html/monocms unzip MonoCMS -d /var/www/html/monocms
Next, run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Mono CMS root directory and give Apache2 control.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/monocms/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/monocms/
Configure Apache2
Finally, configure Apache2 site configuration file for Mono CMS. This file will control how users access Mono CMS content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called monocms.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/monocms.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/monocms
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/monocms/>
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 Mono CMS and Rewrite Module
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo a2ensite monocms.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name to bring up Mono CMS portal.
When you first upload Monocms, you must change the password and username but you don’t have to do that if you just want to transfer from a directory to another.
To change password, you must login using the default username and password and then you can change your password from the settings page and your username from the accounts management page.
Congratulation! You have successfully installed Mono CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04.
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