How to Setup webEdition CMS with Nginx on Ubuntu Linux

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The webEdition CMS, a PHP and MySQL-based content management system, supports easy website and blog management and offers customizable features. The platform is free, lightweight, and has a user-friendly interface. This article provides a tutorial on installing webEdition on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 LTS, which involves setting up the Nginx HTTP Server, MariaDB Database Server,…

This brief tutorial will show students and new users how to install webEdition on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 LTS.

The webEdition CMS (content management system) is based on PHP and MySQL and is excellent for users who wish to manage their websites and blogs quickly. This CMS has a significant function spectrum and can be customized easily.

webEdition is free to download and use and comes with an intuitive user interface, granularly administered users and groups, and a responsive design that supports all modern devices.

This fast and lightweight platform gives web admins modular and extensible features via plugins to collaborate and automate engaging experiences with users across multiple devices, including mobile.

For more about webEdition, please check their Homepage

To get started with installing webEdition, follow the steps below:

Install Nginx HTTP Server

webEdition 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

webEdition 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 be used to stop, start, and enable the 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 18.10 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

webEdition 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 commands 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-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 nginx.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 webEdition CMS Database.

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

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

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then, create a database called Webedition

CREATE DATABASE webedition;

Create a database user called webeditionuser with a new password

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

Then, grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON webedition.* TO 'webeditionuser'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download webEdition Latest Release.

To get the latest web edition release, you may want to download it from its download page. Or use the commands below to use wget and get it downloaded.

Once downloaded, extract the downloaded content into the newly created webEdition directory.

cd /tmp
wget http://download.webedition.org/releases/OnlineInstaller.zip
unzip OnlineInstaller.zip
sudo mkdir /var/www/webedition
sudo cp OnlineInstaller.php /var/www/webedition

Next, run the commands below to set the correct permissions for the webEdition root directory and give Nginx control.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/webedition/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/webedition/

Configure Nginx

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

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

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;

    server_name  example.com www.example.com;
    root   /var/www/webedition;
    index  index.php;
    
    access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.error.log;

    client_max_body_size 100M;
  
    autoindex off;

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

    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 webEdition

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

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

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

http://example.com/OnlineInstaller.php

Then, follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup. Select the installation language, then continue.

Here, you can select the stable or pre-release version. For production sites, the stable version is best.

On the next page, validate that all requirements are met and continue.

Select a DocumentRoot path for the installation. If the current setting is correct, then leave it blank and continue.

Next, type in the database connection info created above. The database name, username, and password. then continue

Next, accept the default and continue.

After that, create an admin account that will be used to manage the backend portal.

Next, wait for all packages to be downloaded, installed, and configured.

After that, webEdition should be ready to use.

Log in and begin setting up your environment!

Congratulation! You have successfully installed webEdition CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04.

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2 responses to “How to Setup webEdition CMS with Nginx on Ubuntu Linux”

  1. KK2MG Avatar
    KK2MG

    Excellent and very detailed article!!. Being a non-technical(at least to tomcat stuff), I’m able to install and configure the Tomcat successfully.

  2. kk Avatar
    kk

    Excellent Article!!. it made my life easy. Being a novice , I could fallow all the steps myself and installed,configured the Tomcat successfully.
    Thanks a ton 🙂

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