How to Setup clearFusion CMS on Ubuntu Linux with Nginx

This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to install and configure clearFusion CMS on Ubuntu 18.04 | 16.04 with Nginx HTTP server.

clearFusion is a content management system (CMS) that is easy is both developer and user friendly and gives you powerful sets of tools to help you easily build and manage high quality websites.

This CMS is robust and mobile-friendly and responsive out-of-the-box so your users can enjoy reading and interacting with your website from any device.

clearFusion CMS comes with an intuitive and powerful backend that will get you started right away without knowing anything about coding in HTML or CSS. You also get a powerful search tool, backend analytics, drag n drop media panel and more.

This CMS platform is designed for ease of use to allow webmasters to collaborate and automate engaging experiences with users across multiple devices, including mobile.

For more about clearFusion, please check their Homepage

To get started with installing clearFusion, follow the steps below:

Install Nginx HTTP Server

You will need a web server to run clearFusion and Nginx HTTP server is probably the second most popular open source web server available today. So go and get it for clearFusion.

To install Nginx server, run the commands below:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

After installing Nginx webserver, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable Nginx service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop nginx.service
sudo systemctl start nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

Now that Nginx 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 Nginx is successfully installed.

Install MariaDB Database Server

clearFusion 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 clearFusion.

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

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-FPM and Related Modules

clearFusion is a PHP based CMS and PHP is required. However, PHP 7.2-FPM may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. To run PHP 7.2-FPM 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-FPM

sudo apt update

Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2-FPM and related modules.

sudo apt install php7.2-fpm php7.2-common php7.2-sqlite3 php7.2-mysql php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-gd php7.2-bcmath 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 Nginx.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/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
cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
date.timezone = America/Chicago

Everytime you make changes to PHP configuration file, you should also restart Nginx web server. To do so, run the commands below:

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Create clearFusion Database

Now that you’ve install all the packages that are required, continue below to start configuring the servers. First create a clearFusion 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 clearfusion

CREATE DATABASE clearfusion;

Create a database user called clearfusionuser with new password

CREATE USER 'clearfusionuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

Then grant the user full access to the clearfusion database.

GRANT ALL ON clearfusion.* TO 'clearfusionuser'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download clearFusion Latest Release

After installing the server and packages above,  go and get the latest copy of clearFusion from its download site.

After downloading, use the commands below to extract the archived content into Nginx root directory.

cd /tmp
wget 
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/clearfusion
sudo unzip clearFusionCMSFree-3.4.1.zip -d /var/www/clearfusion

Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for clearFusion root directory and give Nginx control.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/clearfusion/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/clearfusion/

Configure Nginx

Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for clearFusion. This file will control how users access clearFusion content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called clearfusion

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/clearfusion

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.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name  example.com www.example.com;
    root   /var/www/clearfusion;
    index  index.php;
    
    access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.error.log;

    client_max_body_size 100M;
  
    autoindex off;

    location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
      }

    location ~ \.php$ {
         include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
         fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
         fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
         include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Save the file and exit.

Enable the clearFusion and Rewrite Module

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/clearfusion /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see clearFusion setup wizard to complete.

Before you can continue with the installation wizard, you must first register for a free license of clearFusion CMS. Get a license key and paste it into the box and continue.

Next, validate that all requirements are met and continue.

After that, you’ll then be asked to enter the database name, username and password and create an admin account for the site. When you’re done, the site should be installed and ready to use.

That’s it!

Enjoy~

Congratulation! You have successfully installed clearFusion on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04

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