Flarum Forum

Flarum is a delightfully simple discussion platform for your website. It’s fast and easy to use, with all the features you need to run a successful community.

Flarum is the combined successor of esoTalk (opens new window)and FluxBB (opens new window). It is designed to be:

• Fast and simple. No clutter, no bloat, no complex dependencies. Flarum is built with PHP so it’s quick and easy to deploy. The interface is powered by Mithril (opens new window), a performant JavaScript framework with a tiny footprint.
• Beautiful and responsive. This is forum software for humans. Flarum is carefully designed to be consistent and intuitive across platforms, out-of-the-box.
• Powerful and extensible. Customize, extend, and integrate Flarum to suit your community. Flarum’s architecture is amazingly flexible, with a powerful Extension API.
• Free and open. Flarum is released under the MIT license (opens new window).

All this information is taken from the official Flarum documentation.

So let’s install it and have a look at it.

Install Flarum Forum on Ubuntu 20.04

Note: Flarum Forum is still in beta. This indicates that it is not ready for production even though it is quite usable. So use it for testing or to collaborate with development.

Getting LAMP on Ubuntu 20.04

Before starting with the installation, it is advisable to make some minor adjustments and installations on the system.

First, update the distribution completely from the terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

After that, it is necessary to install LAMP on Ubuntu 20.04 because Flarum Forum requires a web environment.

To install Flarum Forum you also need to install these necessary PHP modules and packages.

php libapache2-mod-php php-cli php-fpm php-common php-common php-mbstring php-gd php-xml php-mysql php-curl zip unzip curl wget git

Now we can continue.

Creating the database for Flarum Forum

Now it is necessary to create a new database and a user so that Flarum Forum can handle the data that is created.

sudo mysql -u root -p

And now create the database and the new user:

CREATE DATABASE flarum;
GRANT ALL ON flarum.* TO 'flarumuser' IDENTIFIED BY 'flarumpss';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;

Installing Composer

Now it’s time to install Composer which is necessary to perform the installation. To install Composer run each of these commands:

php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php composer-setup.php
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

And test it by running:

composer -V

We can continue.

Download Flarum Forum

Before downloading the application, let’s create a folder where we will do the download and make the current user the owner. This is to avoid using Composer as the root user.

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/flarum
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/flarum

Access the folder you created and install Flarum Forum by running

cd /var/www/flarum
composer create-project flarum/flarum . --stability=beta

Then, make Apache the owner of the folder:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/flarum

The next step is to create a new VirtualHost to manage our site:

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

And add the following content:

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin admin@your_domain.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/flarum/public
     ServerName your-server
  
     <Directory /var/www/flarum/public>
              Options FollowSymlinks
              AllowOverride All
              Require all granted
     </Directory>

 ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/your-domain.com_error.log
 CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/your-domain.com_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Replace ServerName with your domain name. Save the changes and close the editor.

Now, enable the new VirtualHost, the Apache rewrite module, and apply the changes by restarting the service.

sudo a2ensite flarum
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Install Flarum Forum on Ubuntu 20.04

So, now you can open a web browser and access Flarum Forum to complete the installation. In short, you can access it via http://your-domain

In this screen, you will have to complete the installation and define a name for the Forum as well as the database parameters.

Below you will be able to create the administrator account needed for access.

Then, you will then be able to see the dashboard.

Conclusion

In summary, Flarum is a project that looks great and that we can already enjoy in beta status. Setting it up is quite easy and that’s what you have learned in this post.

The post How to Install Flarum Forum on Ubuntu 20.04 appeared first on Linux Windows and android Tutorials.

MyBB is an open source application that is developed in PHP that supports multiple database handlers such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. Its main objective is to deploy forums and blog content. That is to say, it is a CMS with more advantages.

There are many features that make MyBB so special. For example, it is very extensible, thanks to its large community and plugins. Besides, the language will not be a problem because it supports more than 30. That is, it is a powerful tool but with good community support.

So, let us start.

Installing MyBB on Ubuntu 20.04

1.- Install LAMP on Ubuntu 20.04

MyBB is deployed using a web server. In this case, we will use the LAMP stack because it is easy and affordable for most people.

How to install LAMP on Ubuntu 20.04?

When installing the web server, you must also install these PHP modules:

php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php7.4-gmp php7.4-curl php7.4-intl php7.4-mbstring php7.4-xmlrpc php7.4-gd php7.4-soap php7.4-xml php7.4-cli php7.4-zip php-imagick

2.- Create the database for MyBB

Now that the whole server is ready, we have to create a new database and user for MyBB. Remember that MyBB needs a relational database manager to store all the data required.

This is a good practice since it prevents the root user from being used by third-party applications.

So, access the MariaDB console.

:~$ sudo mysql -u root -p

And create the database, the new user, and assign permissions.

CREATE DATABASE mybbdb;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mybbdb.* TO 'mybbuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'mybbPSS123';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;

These credentials will be used later when we have to install MyBB. Remember that they are test values, you can choose another name for the database, as well as the username and of course, the password.

3.- Download MyBB on Ubuntu 20.04

Now we can start downloading MyBB. First, visit the project website to know which is the latest version available and then with the help of the wget command perform the download.

:~$ wget -c https://resources.mybb.com/downloads/mybb_1823.zip
--2020-07-25 01:44:32-- https://resources.mybb.com/downloads/mybb_1823.zip
Resolving resources.mybb.com (resources.mybb.com)… 104.24.30.89, 104.24.31.89, 172.67.67.178, …
Connecting to resources.mybb.com (resources.mybb.com)|104.24.30.89|:443… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 200 OK
Length: 2239204 (2.1M) [application/zip]
Saving to: ‘mybb_1823.zip’
mybb_1823.zip 100%[=====================================================================================>] 2.13M 274KB/s in 8.3s
2020-07-25 01:44:42 (262 KB/s) - ‘mybb_1823.zip’ saved [2239204/2239204]

At the time of writing, the latest version of MyBB is 1.8.23

Next, decompress it using the unzip command. If you don’t have it installed, you can do it via APT.

:~$ unzip mybb_1823.zip -d mybb

The above command generates a folder called mybb where all the contents of the application will be stored.

Then move it to the Apache root directory.

:~$ sudo mv mybb /var/www/html/

Make the Apache user the owner of the folder.

:~$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/mybb/

And assign the right permissions to the folder.

:~$ sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/mybb/

Now it is necessary to create a new VirtualHost so that Apache can process it better.

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

So, add the following content:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@your-domain.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/mybb/Upload/
ServerName forum.osradar.test
ServerAlias forum.osradar.test

     <Directory /var/www/html/mybb/Upload/>
         Options FollowSymLinks
         AllowOverride All
         Order allow,deny
         allow from all
     </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Save the changes and close the file. Remember that the values of ServerName and ServerAlias have to be your own.

Enable the new VirtualHost with the following command:

:~$ sudo a2ensite mybb.conf

Also, enable PHP’s rewrite module and restart Apache.

:~$ sudo a2enmod rewrite
:~$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

4.- Install MyBB on Ubuntu 20.04

Now you have to complete the installation, open a web browser, and go to http://your-server and you will see the welcome screen.

Then, you will have to accept the license terms.

On the next screen, the installer will verify if the requirements for installation on the server are met.

Then, you have to configure the MyBB database. To do this, you will need to enter the MariaDB credentials we created earlier.

Now the installer will create the whole database structure.

Then he will fill it with data.

Then it will start the default theme.

Now, you will have to configure the site name and other things.

Then, create the administrator user account.

In the end, you will be shown a message indicating that MyBB is successfully installed.

On that same screen, you will get the links for your site and the dashboard.

So, go to the administration panel, and first, you will see the log in.

After logging in, you will finally see the administration panel.

Please note that the direct link to your site is http://your-server/index.php and for the administration panel http://your-server/admin/index.php

So, enjoy it

Conclusion

MyBB is a great application to deploy forums. It is open source and very well supported by the community.

To install MyBB on Ubuntu 20.04 does not require great technical knowledge because it is simple to do.

Please share this post with your friends and join our Telegram Channel.

The post Deploy your custom forum by installing MyBB on Ubuntu 20.04 appeared first on Linux Windows and android Tutorials.

MyBB is an open source application that is developed in PHP that supports multiple database handlers such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. Its main objective is to deploy forums and blog content. That is to say, it is a CMS with more advantages.

There are many features that make MyBB so special. For example, it is very extensible, thanks to its large community and plugins. Besides, the language will not be a problem because it supports more than 30. That is, it is a powerful tool but with good community support.

So, let us start.

1.- Install Apache web server and PHP

As you can imagine, MyBB requires a functional web server. So the first step is to install the Apache web server. Note that it is also possible to use Nginx.

:~$ sudo apt install apache2

Ubuntu starts and enables the service automatically. Now, we have to install PHP. The basic requirements indicate that it supports PHP 5.2 onwards, but its developers recommend at least PHP 7.2. Let us install it.

:~$ sudo apt install php php-xml php-mbstring libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-mbstring php-gd php-zip php-json

Finally, restart Apache.

:~$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

2. Install MySQL

It is not necessary to have an SQL database manager to enjoy MyBB. However, we will. So we will install MySQL.

:~$ sudo apt install mysql-server

After that, you need to define the root password and other settings. So run the mysql_secure_installation script.

:~$ sudo mysql_secure_installation

After defining a password for the root user, you will be asked other configuration questions. We recommend that you read them carefully and give your answers. We have answered like this, Y, N, Y, Y.

The, create the database and the new user for MyBB.

:~$ sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE mybbdb;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mybbdb.* TO 'mybbuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'mybbPSS123';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;

So, that is all with MySQL.

3. Download and install MyBB

Now we can download it from the project website. Currently, the last stable version is 1.8.19.

:~$ cd /tmp/
:~$ wget https://resources.mybb.com/downloads/mybb_1819.zip

After that, decompress it on /var/www/html.

:~$ unzip mybb_1819.zip -d mybb

Then, move it to the Apache web root and set the proper permissions to the folder.

:~$ sudo mv mybb /var/www/html/
:~$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/mybb/
:~$ sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/mybb/

Finally, create a new virtualhost for MyBB.

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

And add the following.

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

<Directory /var/www/html/mybb/Upload/>
      Options FollowSymLinks
      AllowOverride All
      Order allow,deny
      allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Enable the new configuration and the rewrite module. Next, restart apache.

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

4. Complete the installation on the web browser

Finally, open your web browser and access your server to complete the installation. First, the welcome screen. Click on the next button.

Now, you have to accept the license. Click on the next button.

Then, the installer will check for the requirements.

Next, you have to configure the database. Just type the credentials.

In the next screen, you will see the database tables creation. Scroll down and click on the next button if everything went OK.

Next, the installer will populate the tables.

After that, the installer will installer the default theme.

Next, the board configuration. Type your data.

After that, you have to create the admin account.

Finally, you will see a message that MyBB is installed.

Next, you can log in to acces to the Admin control panel.

And finally, you will see the control panel.

And that’s it.

Conclusion

MyBB is a great application to deploy forums. It is open source and very well supported by the community.

To install MyBB on Ubuntu 18.04 does not require great technical knowledge because it is simple to do.

Please share this post with your friends.

The post How to install MyBB on Ubuntu 18.04? appeared first on Linux Windows and android Tutorials.