How to set up OXID CMS with Nginx on Ubuntu Linux

This article explains setting up OXID CMS with Nginx support on Ubuntu Linux.

OXID eShop is a powerful open-source eCommerce platform with everything you need to build an eCommerce website to sell your products online. It allows web admins and online retailers to create great eCommerce portals with multilingual sites.

The reason to set up OXID CMS with Nginx on Ubuntu Linux is that OXID eShop is a powerful open-source eCommerce platform that requires a web server and a database server to function. Nginx is a highly popular open-source web server that can be used to serve OXID eShop content, while Ubuntu Linux is a more secure and stable operating system that can be used to host OXID eShop.

Additionally, Nginx is known for its high performance, low memory usage, and ability to handle large amounts of traffic, which makes it an excellent choice for serving eCommerce sites like OXID eShop.

For more about OXID eShop, please check their Homepage

To get started with installing OXID eShop, follow the steps below:

Install Nginx HTTP Server

OXID eShop requires a web server, and the Nginx HTTP server is probably the second most popular open-source web server available today. To install the Nginx server, run the commands below:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

After installing Nginx, the commands below can be used to stop, start, and enable the Nginx service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop nginx.service
sudo systemctl start nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

Now that Nginx has been installed browse your browser to the URL below to test whether the web server works.

http://localhost

If you see the page above, then Nginx is successfully installed.

Install MariaDB Database Server

OXID eShop also requires a database server to store its content. MariaDB is a great place to start if you want a genuinely open-source database server. To install MariaDB, run the commands below:

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing MariaDB, the commands below can stop and start the service and enable it to start 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 18.10 and 18.04 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

Next, run the commands below to secure the database server with a root password if you were not prompted to do so during the installation.

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

Once MariaDB is installed, run the commands below to test whether the database server was installed.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Type the root password when prompted.

The server was successfully installed if you see a similar screen.

Install PHP 7.2-FPM and Related Modules

OXID eShop is a PHP-based CMS, and PHP is required. However, PHP 7.2-FPM may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. To run PHP 7.2-FPM 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-FPM

sudo apt update

Next, run the controls below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules.

sudo apt install php7.2-fpm php7.2-common php7.2-mysql php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-gd php7.2-bcmath php7.2-json php7.2-soap php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip

After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open Nginx’s PHP default configuration file.

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

The lines below are a good setting 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
cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
date.timezone = America/Chicago

Restarting the Nginx web server whenever you change the PHP configuration file would be best. To do so, run the commands below:

sudo systemctl restart php7.2-fpm.service

Once PHP is installed, create a test file called phpinfo.php in the Nginx 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

http://localhost/phpinfo.php

You should see the PHP default test page.

Create OXID eShop Database

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

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

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then, create a database called oxide shop

CREATE DATABASE oxideshop;

Create a database user called oxideshopuser with a new password

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

Then, grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON oxideshop.* TO 'oxideshopuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download OXID eShop Latest Release

To get OXID eShop’s latest release, you may want to use the 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 Nginx root directory and download OXID eShop packages from Github. Always replace the branch number with the latest branch.

cd /var/www/html
sudo composer create-project --no-dev oxid-esales/oxideshop-project oxideshop dev-b-6.1-ce

Then, run the commands below to set the correct permissions for the OXID eShop root directory and give Nginx control.

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

Configure Nginx

Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for OXID eShop. This file will control how users access OXID eShop content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called oxideshop

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/oxideshop

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.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    root /var/www/html/oxideshop;
    index  index.php index.html index.htm;
    server_name  example.com www.example.com;

     client_max_body_size 100M;

     autoindex off;
    
     location / {
         try_files $uri $uri/ /oxseo.php?$args;
        }

     location = /oxseo.php {
        if ($args ~ "mod_rewrite_module_is=off") {
            rewrite /oxseo.php /oxseo.php?mod_rewrite_module_is=on? break;
           }
        include fastcgi_params;
      }

    location ~ \.php$ {
         include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
         fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
         fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
         include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Save the file and exit.

Enable the OXID eShop

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

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/oxideshop /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

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

http://example.com/

Then, follow the on-screen instructions. Verify that all requirements are met before continuing.

Next, select your location and language and continue.

Then type in the database info you created above and continue.

Validate the directory structure and continue. Also, create an admin account.

After that, OXID eShop should be installed and ready to use.

That’s it!

Congratulation! You have successfully installed OXID eShop CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 and 18.10.