How to Setup Yclas (Open Classifieds) with Nginx on Ubuntu Linux

Yclas (formally known as Open Classifieds) is a free, open-source PHP-based platform allowing webmasters and anyone to easily create and build classified websites and listings on their self-hosted servers.

The Open Source version is free to download and use and comes with an intuitive user interface, granularly administer users and groups, and a responsive design that supports all modern devices.

Yclas can create the perfect marketplace for you.

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

For more about Yclas, please check their Homepage

This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Yclas on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 LTS.

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

Install Nginx HTTP Server

Yclas 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 is installed, open your browser and browse to the URL below to test whether the web server is working.

http://localhost
nginx default home page test

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

Install MariaDB Database Server

Yclas also requires a database server to store its content. MariaDB is a great place to start if you’re looking for a truly 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 successfully installed.

sudo mysql -u root -p

type the root password when prompted.

mariadb welcome

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

Install PHP 7.2-FPM and Related Modules

Yclas 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-FPM 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

You should restart the Nginx web server whenever you make changes to the PHP configuration file. 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.

PHP Test Page

Create Yclas CMS Database

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

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

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called class

CREATE DATABASE yclas;

Create a database user called yclasuser with a new password

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

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON yclas.* TO 'yclasuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'repeat_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download Yclas Latest Release

To get Yclas latest release you may want to go and download 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 Yclas directory.

cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/yclas/yclas/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip
sudo mv yclas-master /var/www/html/yclas

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

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

Configure Nginx

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

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

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/yclas;
    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 $uri/ /index.php?$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 Yclas

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

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

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

http://example.com

Then follow the on-screen instruction to complete the setup. Select the installation language and validate that all requirements are met. then continue.

Yclass Ubuntu Install

Next, enter your database name, username, and password, and continue.

Yclass Ubuntu Setup

After that, create a root password to manage the backend and complete the installation.

Yclass Ubuntu install

Log on to the backend with the username root and the password you created above.

Yclass Ubuntu Install

Once the installation is completed, removing the ‘install’ directory is recommended for security reasons.

sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/yclas/install/

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

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