How to Install CMS Made Simple on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

CMS Made Simple is a free and open source content management system written in PHP and uses MySQL to store their data. CMS Made Simple is a popular and high performance content management system to manage your websites or blogs. CMS Made Simple provides beautiful and easy to use admin section for theme, template, and stylesheet development. You can easily maintain and update your site quickly and easily from anywhere with a web connection. If you are looking for WordPress alternative, then CMS Made Simple is best choice for you.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to install CMS Made Simple on Ubuntu 18.04.

Requirements

• A server running Ubuntu 18.04.
• A non-root user with sudo privileges.

Install LAMP Server

CMS Made Simple is runs on web server, written in PHP and uses MySQL as a database, so you will need to install LAMP server to your server. First, install Apache and MariaDB server by running the following command:

sudo apt-get install apache2 mariadb-server -y

By default, the latest version of the PHP is not available in Ubuntu 18.04, so you will need to add the repository for that. You can add it with the following command:<?p>

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

Once the repository is updated, you can install PHP and other libraries with the following command:

sudo apt-get install apache2 mariadb-server libapache2-mod-php7.1 php7.1-common php7.1-mbstring php7.1-xmlrpc php7.1-soap php7.1-gd php7.1-xml php7.1-intl php7.1-mysql php7.1-cli php7.1-mcrypt php7.1-zip php7.1-curl -y

Once all the packages are installed, start Apache and MariaDB service and enable them to start on boot with the following command:

sudo systemctl start apache2
sudo systemctl start mysql
sudo systemctl enable apache2
sudo systemctl enable mysql

Next, you will need to make some changes in php.ini file. You can do this with the following command:

sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/apache2/php.ini

Make the following changes:

max_execution_time = 180
memory_limit = 256M
post_max_size = 25M
upload_max_file_size = 150M

Save and close the file, when you are finished.

Configure Database

By default, MariaDB installation is not secured. So you will need to secure it first. You can do this by running the mysql_secure_installation script.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Answer all the questions as shown below:

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Enter
Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
New password: 
Re-enter new 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

Next, log into MariaDB shell with the following command:

mysql -u root -p

Enter your root password, then create a database and user for CMSMS:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE cmsms_db;
MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON cmsms_db.* TO ‘cmsms’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘password’;

Next, flush the privileges with the following command:

MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Finally, exit from the MariaDB shell:

MariaDB [(none)]> exit;

Install CMSMS

Next, you will need to download the latest version of the CMSMS from their official website. You can also download it with the following command:

wget http://s3.amazonaws.com/cmsms/downloads/14144/cmsms-2.2.7-install.zip

Once the download is completed, extract the downloaded file to the Apache root directory:

sudo unzip cmsms-2.2.7-install.zip -d /var/www/html/cmsms

Next, give proper permission to the cmsms directory:

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

Next, create an apache virtual host directive for CMSMS:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/cmsms.conf

Add the following lines:

<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerAdmin [email protected]
 DocumentRoot /var/www/html/cmsms
 ServerName yourdomain.com
 <Directory /var/www/html/cmsms/>
Options +FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
 </Directory>
 ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/cmsms-error_log
 CustomLog /var/log/apache2/cmsms-access_log common
</VirtualHost>

Save and close the file, then enable virtual host file and apache rewrite module with the following command:

sudo a2ensite cmsms
sudo a2enmod rewrite

Finally, restart apache service to apply all the changes:

systemctl restart apache2

Access CMSMS

Open your web browser and type the URL http://yourdomain.com/cmsms-2.2.7-install.php, you will be redirected to the following page:

Now, choose the English language and click on the Next button, you should see the following page:

Here, analyze destination directory to find existing software, then click on the Install button, you should see the following page:

Here, provide your database details, select your Timezone and click on the Next button, you should see the following page:

Here, provide your admin account credential and click on the Next button, you should see the following page:

Here, provide your website name, add additional language and click on the Next button, you should see the following page:

Now, click on the Next button to install the application file, you should see the following page:

Now, click on the Next button to create and update the database schema, set initial events, user accounts, stylesheets and content, you should see the following page:

Now, click on the CMSMS admin panel, you should see the following page:

Here, provide your admin username and password, then click on the Submit button, you should see the CMSMS dashboard in the following image:

Congratulations! you have successfully installed CMS Made Simple on Ubuntu 18.04 server.