Install Cockpit CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 | 18.10 with Apache2 and PHP 7.2

Cockpit CMS is an open source, self-hosted headless and api-driven content management system (CMS) for folks who want to build flexible content structure but don’t want to be limited in how to use the content..

It’s also easy to install. Just upload the web content files to your server and you’re done!

With Cockpit, you can browse your website, make changes and see the result immediately. It’s a great way to build and update your content..  It offers features that may not be available to other PHP based CMS, like WordPress Joomla or Drupal.

For one, it doesn’t need a database server, call it database-less. You can build any content with Cockpit.

For more about Cockpit CMS, please check its homepage.

This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to install Cockpit CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 LTS  / 18.10 with Apache2 and PHP 7.2 support.

Step 1: Install Apache2 HTTP Server

Cockpit 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.

Step 2: Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules

Cockpit 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-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-sqlite3 php7.2-soap php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-curl 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

You should see PHP default test page.

Step 4: Download Cockpit CMS Latest Release

To get Cockpit CMS latest, run the commands below:

cd /tmp
wget 
unzip master.zip
sudo mv cockpit-master /var/www/html/cockpit

Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Cockpit CMS to adjust the directory permissions.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/cockpit/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/cockpit/

Step 5: Configure Apache2 Cockpit CMS Site

Finally, configure Apache2 configuration file for Cockpit CMS. This file will control how users access Cockpit CMS content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called cockpit.conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/cockpit.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/cockpit
     ServerName example.com
     ServerAlias www.example.com

     <Directory /var/www/html/cockpit/>
          Options FollowSymlinks
          AllowOverride All
          Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
    
     <Directory /var/www/html/cockpit/>
            RewriteEngine on
            RewriteBase /
            RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
            RewriteRule ^(.*) index.php [PT,L]
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Save the file and exit.

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

Step 6: Enable Cockpit CMS Site and Rewrite Module

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below, then restart Apache2 server.

sudo a2ensite cockpit.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Next, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address and you should see Cockpit CMS setup page. create an admin account and save.

After that, Cockpit should be installed and ready to use.

Cockpit is a headless and api-driven content management system (CMS). It’s structure allowed you to have just the amount of functionality you needed in a flat file CMS solution, adding extensions (blade packs) for further functionality, whilst allowing setup on simple servers with no database.

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