How to Setup Tiki Wiki CMS with Nginx on Ubuntu Linux

This article describes installing Tiki Wiki CMS on Ubuntu Linux with Nginx support.

Tiki Wiki is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) built on the LAMP or LEMP stack that allows you to create wiki-based websites for any purpose (Wikis, Blogs, Forums).

Whether building a personal or business wiki site, Tiki Wiki CMS can help you create and manage your content on every device with its easy-to-use and powerful admin dashboard.

If you want to run a wiki-based or forum website and these features are unavailable in your current CMS systems, you may want to try Tiki Wiki CMS. It’s a great alternative to other PHP-based content management systems.

For more on Tiki Wiki, please visit its home page.

How to install Tiki Wiki CMS on Ubuntu Linux with Nginx support

As described above, Tiki Wiki is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) built on the LAMP or LEMP stack that allows you to create wiki-based websites for any purpose (Wikis, Blogs, Forums).

Below is how to install it on Ubuntu Linux with Nginx support.

Install Nginx HTTP Server on Ubuntu

Nginx HTTP Server is the second most popular web server in use. So, install it since Tiki Wiki needs it.

To install Nginx HTTP on the Ubuntu 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

To test the Nginx setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address, and you should see the Nginx default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Nginx 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): 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 on to 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 7.1-FPM 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 7.1-FPM

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.1-FPM

sudo apt update

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

sudo apt install php7.1-fpm php7.1-common php7.1-sqlite3 php7.1-curl php7.1-mcrypt php7.1-intl php7.1-mbstring php7.1-xmlrpc php7.1-mysql php7.1-gd php7.1-xml php7.1-cli php7.1-zip

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

sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/fpm/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
cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0
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 Nginx to reload PHP configurations.

To restart Nginx, run the commands below

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Create Tiki Wiki Database

Once you’ve installed all the packages required for Tiki Wiki CMS to function, continue below to start configuring the servers.

First, run the commands below to create a blank Tiki Wiki database.

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

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called tikiwiki

CREATE DATABASE tikiwiki;

Create a database user called tikiuser with a new password

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

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON tikiwiki.* TO 'tikiuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download and Install Tiki Wiki

Run the commands below to download Tiki Wiki content.

cd /tmp && wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/tikiwiki/files/latest/download --no-check-certificate
unzip download
sudo mv tiki-18.1 /var/www/html/tikiwiki

Next, run the commands below to change the root folder permissions.

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

Configure Nginx Tiki Wiki Site

Finally, configure the Nginx configuration file for Tiki Wiki. This file will control how users access Tiki Wiki content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called tikiwiki

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

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/tikiwiki;
    index  index.php index.html index.htm;
    server_name  example.com www.example.com;

    client_max_body_size 100M;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
       }

    location ~ \.php$ {
    include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
    fastcgi_pass           unix:/var/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_param   SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
     }

}

Save the file and exit.

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

Enable the Tiki Wiki Site

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

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

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

http://example.com/install.php

Click Next to continue the installation wizard. One of the most remarkable features of Tiki Wiki CMS is the built-in multilingual support. In step 2, the languages are chosen for both the front and back end. The default language you select in this step is shown if the locale module can’t determine the browser’s language.

Type in the database connection info you created above. Tiki requires an active database connection. Therefore, you must make the database and user before completing this page unless your database user has permission to create new databases and not just use them.

After installing, continue to the configuration page. This is where you set common and general settings for the site. For example, you will want to turn off HTTPS log in for the admin user if you don’t have it set up.

It is recommended to choose the “Require secure (HTTPS) login” option for better security. A security certificate and dedicated IP address are required to implement a secure login.

Enjoy!