In this tutorial, we are going to provide you with step by step instructions on how to install Composr CMS on an Ubuntu 16.04 Virtual Server.
Composr CMS is an open-source content management system for next-generation websites written in PHP with advanced social, interactive and dynamic functionality. The installation process is fairly easy and it takes only a couple of minutes. At the time of writing this tutorial, Composr requires:

• PHP 5.3 or higher (preferably the latest), with cURL, FTP, iconv, FreeType, mbstring, mysqli, OpenSSL, pSpell or Enchant, XML, ZIP and GD2 graphics library enabled. PHP Safe Mode option should be disabled, open_basedir enabled, and memory_limit PHP variable set to 64 MB or higher;
• MySQL 5.x or higher, or MariaDB as a drop-in MySQL replacement;
• Apache Web Server 2.0 or higher compiled with mod_rewrite module.

This install guide assumes that Apache is already installed and configured on your virtual Server.

Let’s start with the installation.

Update OS packages:

Make sure your server OS packages are fully up-to-date:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Enable Apache rewrite module if it is not already done so:

a2enmod rewrite

Install wget package using the following command:

apt-get install wget

Download Composr:

Run the following commands in order to download and extract the Composr auto installer to the document root directory of the web server (i.e. /var/www/html/):

cd /opt
wget http://compo.sr/site/dload.php?id=203 -O composr.zip
unzip composr.zip -d /var/www/html/composr/

Create new MySQL user and database:

Disable MySQL strict mode and create a new MySQL database for Composr on your server:

mysql -u root -p
mysql> CREATE DATABASE composrdb;
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON composrdb.* TO 'composr'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password' WITH GRANT OPTION;
mysql> SET @@global.sql_mode= '';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
mysql> quit

Do not forget to replace ‘your_password’ with a strong password.

Install PHP and required PHP dependencies:

apt-get install php7.0 php7.0-common php7.0-cli php7.0-curl php7.0-enchant php7.0-gd php7.0-imap php7.0-mycrypt php7.0-mysqlnd php7.0-pspell

Enable mcrypt extension and restart Apache:

php5enmod mcrypt
service apache2 restart

All files have to be readable by the web server, so set a proper ownership:

chown www-data:www-data -R /var/www/html/composr/

Open the php.ini configuration file with the following command:

vi /etc/php/7.0/cli/php.ini

Modify the following settings:

memory_limit = 128M
post_max_size = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 256M

Create a new virtual host directive in Apache

For example, create a new Apache configuration file named ‘composr.conf’ on your virtual server:

touch /etc/apache2/sites-available/composr.conf
ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/composr.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/composr.conf
vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/composr.conf

Then, add the following lines:

ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/composr/
ServerName your-domain.com
ServerAlias www.your-domain.com

Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all

ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/your-domain.com-error_log
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/your-domain.com-access_log common

Remove the 000-default.conf file:

rm /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

Restart the Apache web server for the changes to take effect:

service apache2 restart

Install Composr:

Open your favorite web browser, navigate to http://your-domain.com/install.php and if you configured everything correctly the Composr installer should be starting. You should follow the easy instructions on the install screen inserting the necessary information as requested: select ‘No forums or members’ if you do not need a forum section on your website. Select ‘Composr’s own forum (Conversr, recommended)’ or an external forum such as MyBB, phpBB etc. if you need a forum section. Then, select mysqli driver and click ‘Proceed’. On the next page, enter the domain name of your website, URL, set a master password, create an administrator user account and enter the following database settings:

• Database name: composr
• Database hostname: localhost
• Database name: composrdb
• Database password:

Click ‘Install Composr’ to automatically complete the installation.
After everything is completed, delete the installation script:

rm -rf /var/www/html/composr/install.php

Once Composr is installed, click the ‘Configure my Composr first’ and run the setup wizard to configure the layout, colour scheme, logo, remove unnecessary bundled addons etc.

That is it. Composr CMS has been installed on your server.

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