Vanilla Forums is an open source, flexible, customizable community forum solutions that powers discussions on thousands of sites.
When looking for a next generation forum platform, you might want to take a look at Vanilla Forums software… It’s simple, efficient and makes online discussion easy and fun… To get Vanilla Forums software installed with Apache2, PHP 7.2 support, this post should be a great place to start…
Individuals and webmasters can use Vanilla Forums software to set up communities in minutes to stay in touch with group of people or ideas.
This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users an easy way to get Vanilla Forums working on Ubuntu 16.04 / 18.10 and 18.04 with Apache2, MariaDB and PHP 7.2 support.
To get started with installing Vanilla Forums, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Install Apache2 HTTP Server on Ubuntu
Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use. so install it since Vanilla Forums 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 Vanilla Forums. 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 18.04 and 18.10 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 7.2 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-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 Vanilla Forums Database
Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for Vanilla Forums to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create a blank Vanilla Forums database.
To logon to MariaDB database server, run the commands below.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called vanilla
CREATE DATABASE vanilla;
Create a database user called vanillauser with new password
CREATE USER 'vanillauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON vanilla.* TO 'vanillauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Step 5: Download Vanilla Forums Latest Release
To get Vanilla Forums latest release you may want to use Github repository. Install git and Composer packages by running the commands below.
sudo apt install curl git curl -sS | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
After installing git above, change into the Apache2 root directory and downaload Vanilla Forums packages from Github. Always replace the branch number with the latest branch.
cd /var/www/html
sudo git clone --branch release/2.7
cd /var/www/html/vanilla
sudo composer install
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Vanilla Forums to function.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/vanilla/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/vanilla/
Step 6: Configure Apache2
Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for Vanilla Forums. This file will control how users access Vanilla Forums content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called vanilla.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/vanilla.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/vanilla
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/vanilla/>
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.
Step 7: Enable the Vanilla Forums and Rewrite Module
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo a2ensite vanilla.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite
Step 8 : Restart Apache2
To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see Vanilla Forums setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.
Type the database name and database user password.. You should also create an admin portal account and complete the installation.
That should install Vanilla Forums software.
Congratulation! You have successfully installed Vanilla Forums on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 and may work on upcoming 18.10.
That’s it!
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