Dotclear is an open-source web publishing software published in 2003 by Olivier Meunier. The project’s purpose is to provide a user-friendly tool allowing anyone to publish on the web, regardless of their technical skills. Dotclear possesses a rich functionality that makes it a high-quality publishing tool, equaling and even outperforming other similar tools in some aspects. For example:

• Easy publication.
• Fully customizable theme.
• User-friendly administration.
• Media management.
• Naturally optimized for search engine.
• Complete trackback support.

As you can see, there are many features that make it a serious alternative to our website.

So, let us start.

Getting Dotclear on Ubuntu

1) Install LAMP

The first step is to have a functional LAMP server. Because Dotclear is a web application that requires a database manager.

So you can read our post about how to install LAMP on Ubuntu 18.04.

I will just point out that it’s necessary to install some extra PHP modules. They are:

libapache2-mod-php7.2 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-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip

To install them, just type:

:~$ sudo apt install libapache2-mod-php7.2 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-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip

2) Configure PHP

In order for Dotclear to work without any problems, it is necessary to modify some parameters of the PHP configuration. So you have to edit the configuration file:

:~$ sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Now, edit the following parameters.

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
short_open_tag = On
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 200M
max_execution_time = 360

I’ll give you a little trick, use in nano the key combination CTRL + W to find the exact term and not waste time.

Next, restart Apache.

:~$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

3) Creating the database for Dotclear

Once we have all the components installed, it’s time to create the database dedicated to Dotclear.

So run the following command:

:~$ sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE dotclear;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON dotclear.* TO 'dotclearuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'dotpss';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;

4) Install Dotclear on Ubuntu 18.04

Now you have to download Dotclear to install it. To do this, run the following commands:

:~$ cd /tmp/
:~$ wget http://download.dotclear.org/latest.tar.gz

Next, decompress it and move it to the Apache root folder.

:~$ tar xvf latest.tar.gz
:~$ sudo mv dotclear /var/www/html/dotclear

After that, it is necessary to set the proper permissions to the folder.

:~$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/dotclear/
:~$ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/dotclear/

Now you have to make a virtual host for Dotclear run correctly.

:~$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/dotclear.conf

And add the following:

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin admin@your-server.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/dotclear
     ServerName your-server.com
     ServerAlias www.your-server.com

     <Directory /var/www/html/dotclear/>
          Options FollowSymlinks
          AllowOverride All
          Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Save the changes and close the file.

Next, enable the new virtual host and the rewrite module. After that, restart Apache.

:~$ sudo a2ensite dotclear.conf
:~$ sudo a2enmod rewrite
:~$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

5) Complete the installation

Finally, open the web browser and go to the server to run Dotclear. You will see the following:

Then, type your MariaDB credentials and press Continue.

Now, create the admin account.

If everything went right, you’ll see the following message.

Now, you will see the admin panel.

And that’s it.

Conclusion

As you can see, the installation of Dotclear is not complicated, but it opens a new possibility to manage our blog or website. So, this is a very competitive alternative in a market dominated by WordPress.

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