Matomo, formally PIWIK is an opensource analytics platform built on the LAMP or LEMP stack. It provides full website analytics for small and medium size businesses. When you want to take full control of your own website analytics and data without using thirdparty solutions, like Google Analytics, then Matomo is a great place to start.
Matomo is the only analytics platform that gives you full control over your data and more:
- Free open-source software
- 100% data ownership
- User privacy protection
- User-centric insights
- Customisable and extensible
- Easy to use
- No data limits
This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Matomo on Ubuntu 16.04 / 17.10 and 18.04.
For more on Matomo, please vist its home page
Step 1: Install Apache2 HTTP Server on Ubuntu
Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use. so install it, since Matomo 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 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.
Step 2: Install MariaDB Database Server
MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open source database servers to use with Magento. 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
Step 3: Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules
PHP 7.1 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-sqlite 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.
Step 3: Restart Apache2
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.
Step 4: Create Matomo Database
Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for Matomo to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create a blank Matomo database.
To logon to MariaDB database server, run the commands below.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called matomo
CREATE DATABASE matomo;
Create a database user called matomouser with new password
CREATE USER 'matomouser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON matomo.* TO 'matomouser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Step 5: Download and Install Matomo
Run the commands below to download Matomo content.
cd /tmp && wget unzip piwik.zip sudo mv piwik /var/www/html/matomo
Next, run the commands below to change the root folder permissions.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/matomo/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/matomo/
Step 6: Configure Apache2 Matomo Site
Finally, configure Apache2 configuration file for Matomo. This file will control how users access Matomo content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called matomo.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/matomo.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/matomo
ServerName example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/matomo/>
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
Step 7: Enable the Matomo Site and Rewrite Module
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below, then restart Apache2 server.
sudo a2ensite matomo.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Next, open your brwoser and go to the URL. and continue with the installation.
Click Next to start the installation wizard.
Type in the database connection info and create an administor account to manage the platform in the backend. and continue
After entering the info above, click Next to create a superuser account to manage the platform.
You’ll then be given the tracking code to add to the website you want to track.
To track your web traffic with Matomo you need to make sure some extra code is added to each of your webpages.
In most websites, blogs, CMS, etc. you can use a pre-made plugin to do the technical work for you. If no plugin exists you can edit your website templates and add this code to the </head> tag which is often defined in a ‘header.php’, ‘header.tpl’ or similar template file.
JavaScript Tracking Code
Make sure this code is on every page of your website. We recommend to paste it immediately before the closing </head> tag.
You’ll find the private website configuration system in index.php
Enjoy!
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