How to Install Matomo (PIWIK) with Apache on Ubuntu Linux

Matomo, formally PIWIK, is an open-source analytics platform built on the LAMP or LEMP stack. It provides full website analytics for small and medium-sized businesses.

When you want to take complete control of your website analytics and data without using third-party solutions like Google Analytics, then Matomo is a great place to start.

Matomo is the only analytics platform that gives you complete control over your data and more:

• Free, open-source software
• 100% data ownership
• User privacy protection
• User-centric insights
• Customizable and extensible
• Easy to use
• No data limits

This brief tutorial will show students and new users how to install Matomo on Ubuntu 16.04 / 17.10 and 18.04.

For more on Matomo, please visit its home page

Install Apache2 HTTP Server on Ubuntu

Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use. Install it since Matomo 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. When you see that, then Apache2 is working as expected.

http://localhost

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 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 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): 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

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.

Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules

PHP 7.1 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-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 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 ideal 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.

Create Matomo Database

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

To log on to the 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 a 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;

Download and Install Matomo

Run the commands below to download Matomo content.

cd /tmp && wget https://builds.matomo.org/piwik.zip
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/

Configure Apache2 Matomo Site

Finally, configure the 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 domain name and directory root location.

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin admin@example.com
     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, please enable it by running the commands below.

Enable the Matomo Site and Rewrite Module

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

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

Next, open your browser, go to the URL., and continue with the installation.

http://example.com/

Click Next to start the installation wizard.

Type in the database connection info and create an administrator 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 must ensure extra code is added to each web page.

In most websites, blogs, CMS, etc., you can use a pre-made plugin to do the technical work. However, if no plugin exists, you can edit your website templates and add this code to the </head> tag, often defined in a ‘header.php,’ ‘header.temple, or similar template file.

JavaScript Tracking Code

Make sure this code is on every page of your website. We recommend pasting it immediately before the closing </head> tag.

You’ll find the private website configuration system at http://example.com/index.php.

Enjoy!

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