Zikula installation instructions

First please check requirements.

This guide assumes you are going to install Zikula on a webserver which is fully operational. If you want to do the setup on a fresh root server there are additional steps to consider though. In this case maybe this guide can help: Installation of Zikula on Ubuntu Server.

Install by uploading package

Upload

If you obtained Zikula Core from the CI server, then you can upload the entire archive (.zip or .tgz file) to your server and then unzip them there. (This is faster and much more reliable than uploading many small files via FTP). Make sure to include the -p flag if you extract from .tgz to keep the correct permissions (for example: tar -xpzvf Zikula_Core-3.0.0.build27.tar.gz) change the filename to match the current download. Copy all the files and directories to your server.

Another option can be to download the tar.gz directly from the github: e.g. wget https://github.com/zikula/core/releases/download/3.0.0/3.0.tar.gz. Again, change the filename/url to match the correct filename from the ci server.

Windows/FTP users: Take care about copying all files. If there are some files you are not able to transfer to the server check if your longest path length is longer than Windows/FTP-Software allows (more than 256 characters).

Set file permissions (Critical)

If you installed from a .zip archive or uploaded the files via FTP, the permissions for some folders must be changed prior to installing so that your webserver's user has write access:

config
config/dynamic
var/cache
var/log
public

You normally do so using chmod 777 var/cache and so on. (.tgz archives maintain the permission settings as they were set correctly by the development team, if you unpacked it using the -p flag).

Installing using Composer (for developers)

Zikula makes use of Composer to manage and download all dependencies. If cloning via GitHub, Composer must be run prior to installation. Run:

composer self-update
composer install
yarn install
yarn encore dev

If you store Composer in the root of the Zikula Core checkout, please rename it from composer.phar to composer to avoid your IDE reading the package contents.

Vagrant installation

You can use vagrant to easily setup a complete Zikula development environment. All you need to do is install Vagrant and VirtualBox. Then run vagrant up inside the cloned repository and wait for the machine to boot (first time booting might take several minutes). Then head over to localhost:8080 and install Zikula. Database user, password and table are all set to zikula. PHPMyAdmin is accessible from localhost:8081.

Webroot Setup

Your host has set up a webroot. This is typically public_html or httpdocs. You must "point" this directory to the public/ directory in the Zikula directory structure. Using symlinks or modifying the .htaccess file can accomplish this. (see https://symfony.com/doc/current/setup/web_server_configuration.html for more information).

Finish Installation

Note 1: One common issue when installing is that the var/cache and var/log directories must be writable both by the web server and the command line user. See Symfony's Setting up or Fixing File Permissions to see potential solutions to this problem when installing from the CLI.

Note 2: If you have mod_suexec installed for Apache the CLI will run into permission problems. (If you are not sure check your phpinfo.) mod_suexec often is used in shared hosting environments. In this case, the CLI installer is not recommended, please use the Web Installer.

Create the Database

Create a database on your server. Take note of the database name as well as the database username and password which are possibly given by your provider. These will be needed during install. You can use an existing database, but this is not recommended unless Zikula will be the only application using that database. In this case, remove all existing tables from the existing database.

Install by the Web installer or Command Line (not both!)

Web Installer

To begin the installer, simply visit the webroot directory with your browser, e.g. http://www.example.com/. If you installed Zikula into a subdirectory 'foo' the URL would be http://www.example.com/foo/. You will be automatically redirected to the installer.

Command Line Installer

Via CLI, access your main zikula directory and run this command:

php bin/console zikula:install:start

Follow the prompts and complete that step. When you are finished, you are directed to run the next command:

php bin/console zikula:install:finish

Open your browser and login!