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Guide to Installing eZ Platform on Ubuntu

Richard

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The eZ Platform is a robust Content Management System designed for diverse applications, from secure extranet portals to e-commerce and multilingual sites. It’s built on an open-source core and supports open standards, offering scalability, high performance, and ease of use. Due to its functionalities, enterprises and business owners can efficiently manage and automate user experiences…

eZ Platform helps you design and develop content-driven websites and applications. It’s excellent for secure extranet portals, online databases, e-commerce, and multilingual sites.

If you want a Content Management System (CMS) with enterprise-class features is scalable, and performs at a high level, then the eZ Platform is an excellent place to start. eZ Platform is built on an open-source core with support for open standards, which might be very useful in helping you run your digital content.

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

For more about the eZ Platform, please check their Homepage

This brief tutorial will show students and new users how to install the eZ Platform on Ubuntu 16.04 / 18.10 and 18.04 LTS.

To get started with installing the eZ Platform, follow the steps below:

Install Apache2 HTTP Server on Ubuntu

Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server. Install it since the eZ Platform needs it.

To install Apache2 HTTP on the 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 the 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 the Apache2 setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address, and you should see the Apache2 default test page as shown below.

http://localhost
apache2 ubuntu install

Install MariaDB Database Server

MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open-source database servers for Magento. To install MariaDB, run the commands below.

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing MariaDB, the commands below can stop, start, and enable the MariaDB service to 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 the 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): Press the Enter
  • Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
  • New password: Enter the 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

Type the commands below to log into the MariaDB server to test if MariaDB is installed.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then type the password you created above to sign on. If successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message.

mariadb welcome

Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules

PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. 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 the PHP default config file for Apache2.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Then save the changes on the following lines below in the file. The value below is an excellent setting to apply in your environment.

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, please save the file and close it.

After installing PHP and related modules, you must 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 the 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

http://localhost/phpinfo.php

You should see the PHP default test page.

PHP 7.2 ubuntu nginx

Create eZ Platform Database

Once you’ve installed all the packages required for the eZ Platform to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create a blank eZ Platform database.

To log on to the MariaDB database server, run the commands below.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called ezplatform

CREATE DATABASE ezplatform;

Create a database user called ezplatformuser with a new password

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

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON ezplatform.* TO 'ezplatformuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download the eZ Platform’s Latest Release.

To get the eZ Platform’s latest Release, you may use the e GitHub repository. Install Composer, Curl, and other dependencies to get started.

sudo apt install curl git
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

After installing curl and Composer above, change into the Apache2 root directory and download the eZ Platform packages from Github. Always replace the version number with the latest branch.

sudo mkdir /var/www/html/ezplatform
cd /var/www/html/ezplatform
sudo composer create-project --no-dev --keep-vcs ezsystems/ezplatform . v2.3.0

After a moment, the installer will ask you to provide a few parameters:

  1. First, choose a secret; it should be a random string of up to 32 characters, numbers, and symbols. This is used by Symfony when generating CSRF tokens, encrypting cookies, and creating signed URIs when using ESI (Edge Side Includes).
  2. You can accept the default options for database_driver, database_host and database_port.
  3. Select a database_name or accept the default one.
  4. Provide your database_user and database_password.

After that, run the commands below to install the eZ Platform.

sudo composer require sensio/generator-bundle
sudo composer ezplatform-install

Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for the eZ Platform to function.

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

Configure Apache

Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for the eZ Platform by copying a vhost template file.

This file will control how users access eZ Platform content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called ezplatform. conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/ezplatform.conf

Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it.

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin admin@example.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/ezplatform/web
     ServerName example.com
     ServerAlias www.example.com

     <Directory /var/www/html/ezplatform/web/>
          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 eZ Platform and Rewrite Module

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

sudo a2ensite ezplatform.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite

Restart Apache2 by running the commands below to load all the settings above.

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see the eZ Platform setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.

http://example.com/

Open your project in the browser and see the welcome page.

eZ Platform CMS Ubuntu

To login to the admin portal, go to the URL below:

http://example.com/admin
eZ Platform ubuntu

Login with:

Username: admin
Password: Publish

Congratulation! You have successfully installed the eZ Platform on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 and may work on the upcoming 18.10.

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Richard Avatar
Richard
Richard, the owner and lead writer at Geek Rewind, is a tech enthusiast passionate about simplifying complex IT topics. His years of hands-on experience in system administration and enterprise IT operations have honed his ability to provide practical insights and solutions. Richard aims to make technology more accessible and actionable. He’s deeply committed to the Geek Rewind community, always ready to answer questions and engage in discussions. He enjoys watching football, cheering for the Minnesota Vikings, and spending time with his family when he’s not writing or managing Geek Rewind.
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Comments

  1. Kai Avatar
    Kai

    Thanks for your great post!

    Helped me a lot.

    But it throws an composer error after

    sudo composer create-project –no-dev –keep-vcs ezsystems/ezplatform . v2.3.0

    After searching a while I found this post:

    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39948522/symfony-composer-install-uncaught-symfony-component-debug-exception-classnotfo

    Says ” In Prod environnment, the SensioGeneratorBundle is not registred.”

    I don´t use the fixes decribed in the post, but alter your command to

    sudo composer create-project —keep-vcs ezsystems/ezplatform . v2.3.0

    (I just deleted the “–no-dev” parameter).

    Now it works.

    It´s not a final solution, but for my first peak install it´s enough.

    Best regards,
    Kai

    Reply

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