Getting Started¶
You have two options for running Zotonic: to get started quickly, start our Zotonic container. Or you can install Zotonic on your computer.
Docker¶
See also
Docker for more information on using Docker and how to find the password for the Zotonic status site.
First download and install Docker . Then build and start Zotonic with a single command:
$ ./start-docker.sh
Docker will download and boot the container. The container will start building Zotonic. After which Zotonic can be started with:
bash-4.4$ bin/zotonic debug
Zotonic will be available on port 8443 on your machine. Open your browser and go to https://localhost:8443/ to view the Zotonic Status page. If you wish to quit Zotonic, press twice Ctrl+C. If you wish to quite the container, press Ctrl+D at the bash prompt.
To see the configuration for the password (and other configurations) for the zotonic status site, type:
bash-4.4$ bin/zotonic config
The password is the password entry, the username is always wwwadmin
.
You can now move on to creating your first site.
Cloud-Init¶
A cloud-init file for Ubuntu is supplied, this has been tested with Ubuntu 20.04.
This file can be used to install a VPS by providers that support cloud-init. Hetzner, Microsoft Azure and TransIP are such providers.
After the cloud-init is done with its installation a new server is up and running on port 80 and 443.
It will be using a self-signed certificate, located in /home/zotonic/.config/zotonic/security/self-signed/
(on macOS the directory is $HOME/Library/Application Support/zotonic/security/
).
The wwwadmin
password for the zotonic status site can be found after logging in to your server:
root:~# sudo su - zotonic
zotonic:~$ cd zotonic
zotonic:~/zotonic$ bin/zotonic config
Zotonic config for 'zotonic@yourvps':
=================================
zotonic:
environment: production
zotonic_apps: /home/zotonic/zotonic/apps_user
security_dir: /home/zotonic/.config/zotonic/security
password: wXuqsZkC4qp8j1AZHyO3
timezone: UTC
...
The server can be stopped and started using the command line:
zotonic:~/zotonic$ bin/zotonic stop
Stopping zotonic 'zotonic@yourvps' .... OK
zotonic:~/zotonic$ bin/zotonic start
Waiting for zotonic: . OK
Installation¶
See also
a more extensive discussion of all requirements
If you don’t like Docker, or you like to do things yourself, you can always install Zotonic on your computer yourself.
Preparation¶
First prepare your system for running Zotonic. Zotonic needs:
- Erlang/OTP 23 or higher
- PostgreSQL 9.5 or higher
- ImageMagick 6.5 or higher for image resizing
- Git for pulling in external dependencies
- C++ compiler (gcc) for erl_exec and other dependencies
- FFmpeg if you want to use video
Ubuntu / Debian¶
We recommend you install Erlang from the Erlang solutions website:
https://www.erlang-solutions.com/downloads/
The other requirements are easily fetched with apt
:
sudo apt-get install gcc g++ build-essential git imagemagick postgresql ffmpeg
FreeBSD¶
Erlang and its dependencies can be installed with pkg
:
# pkg install sudo zip wget bash gmake curl git gcc erlang
Also install ImageMagick and PostgreSQL, at the time of writing the commands below can be used, they should be updated with the newest available version:
# pkg install ImageMagick7-nox11
# pkg install postgresql10-server
# pkg install ffmpeg
Windows¶
Currently, Zotonic is not officially supported on the Windows platform. However, the main dependencies Erlang, PostgreSQL and ImageMagick do work on Windows, so, if you’re adventurous, it should be possible to get it running.
It is advised to use Docker or the Linux subsystem for Windows.
Getting Zotonic¶
Download the latest Zotonic release ZIP file from the GitHub releases page. For instance:
$ wget \https://github.com/zotonic/zotonic/archive/|release|.zip
Then unzip the file and rename the directory:
$ unzip |release|.zip
$ mv zotonic-|release| zotonic
Alternatively, clone the latest development version using Git:
$ git clone https://github.com/zotonic/zotonic.git
You then need to compile the Zotonic sources:
$ cd zotonic
$ make
Then start Zotonic in debug mode:
$ bin/zotonic debug
Now point your browser to: https://localhost:8443/. You should see a welcome message, ‘Powered by Zotonic’. This is the so-called status website. So far, so good! Now it’s time to create your first site.
Next steps¶
- Create your first site.
- Log in to the status site.
- If something goes wrong, read the troubleshooting reference.
- Read more about Zotonic configuration.