WonderCMS is a free, open-source, lightweight content management system. It is written in PHP, jQuery, and HTML/CSS. WonderCMS is an extremely small flat-file CMS, so you don’t need to install any databases on your system. It provides an easier way to build a website without any programming knowledge. WonderCMS is fast, responsive, and doesn’t require any configuration. It offers a rich set of features, including SEO-friendliness, friendly URLs, themes, custom login URLs, and more.

In this post, we will explain how to install WonderCMS on Oracle Linux 8.

Step 1 – Install Apache and PHP

Before starting, you will need to install Apache, PHP, and other necessary PHP extensions on your server. You can install all of them using the following command:

dnf install httpd php php-mysqlnd php-curl php-opcache php-xml php-xmlrpc php-gd php-mbstring php-zip php-json wget unzip git -y

Once all the packages are installed, edit the php.ini file and change some default settings:

nano /etc/php.ini

Change the following settings per your requirements:

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
memory_limit = 256M
post_max_size 32M
upload_max_filesize = 64M
max_execution_time = 300
date.timezone = "America/Chicago"

Save and close the file, then start the Apache service and enable it to start at system reboot:

systemctl start httpd
systemctl enable httpd

Step 2 – Download and Install WonderCMS

Next, you will need to download the latest version of WonderCMS from the GitHub repository. You can download it using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/robiso/wondercms.git /var/www/html/wondercms

Once the download is completed, set proper permissions and ownership to the WonderCMS directory:

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/wondercms
chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/wondercms/

chmod -R 777 /var/lib/php/session/

Once you are done, you can proceed to the next step.

Step 3 – Configure for WonderCMS

Next, you will need to create an Apache virtual host configuration file for WonderCMS. You can create it using the following command:

nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/wondercms.conf

Add the following configurations:

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName wonder.example.com
  DirectoryIndex index.php
  DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wondercms


  ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/error.log
  CustomLog /var/log/httpd/access.log combined

  <Directory /var/www/html/wondercms>
      Options FollowSymLinks
      AllowOverride All
      Require all granted
  </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

Save and close the file, then restart the Apache service to apply the changes:

systemctl restart httpd

You can check the Apache status using the following command:

systemctl status httpd

You will get the following output:

● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
  Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service.d
           └─php-fpm.conf
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2022-06-28 13:29:03 EDT; 6s ago
     Docs: man:httpd.service(8)
 Main PID: 77315 (/usr/sbin/httpd)
   Status: "Started, listening on: port 80"
    Tasks: 213 (limit: 11409)
   Memory: 178.2M
   CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
           ├─77315 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─77320 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─77321 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─77322 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           └─77323 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND

Jun 28 13:29:02 oraclelinux8 systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...

Step 4 – Access WonderCMS Web Interface

Now, open your web browser and access WonderCMS using the URL http://wonder.example.com. You should see the following page containing your login password:
WonderCMS welcome page
Click on the “Click to login.” button. You should see the WonderCMS login screen:
WonderCMS login page
Provide the WonderCMS password and click on the Login button. You should see the following screen:
WonderCMS dashboard page
Click on Open security settings to change the default password and login URL as shown below:
WonderCMS change password and url page
Define your new login URL and password and click on the CHANGE PASSWORD button to update the password.

Conclusion

in this guide, we explained how to install WonderCMS with Apache on Oracle Linux 8. You can now install themes and plugins and start creating your first website. Try it on dedicated hosting from Atlantic.Net!