In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Agora Project on an Ubuntu 14.04 VPS with Apache, PHP and MySQL installed on it.
Agora Project is an open source and user friendly groupware based on PHP and MySQL which allow users to create their own private space and share it with the other team members. The Agora Project groupware software contains the following modules: file manager, bookmark manager, personal and resource calendars, task manager, Gantt charts, contacts, news, forum, instant messaging, etc.
This tutorial was tested and written for an Ubuntu VPS, but it should work on any Debian based Linux distribution.
This install guide assumes that Apache, MySQL and PHP are already installed and configured on your virtual server. At the time of writing this tutorial, the latest stable version of Agora Project is 3.0.6 and it requires:
- PHP with the GD graphics library version 2.0.x+ and ldap PHP extensions enabled;
- Apache web server compiled with mod_rewrite module and with the following directives allowed: RewriteEngine, RewriteBase, RewriteCond and RewriteRule;
- MySQL installed on your Linux VPS.
Let’s start with the installation. Make sure your server OS packages are fully up-to-date:
apt-get update apt-get upgrade
Download the latest version of Agora Project available at https://www.agora-project.net/ to the server and extract it using the following commands:
cd /opt wget -O agora-project.zip https://www.agora-project.net/divers/download.php?orig=agora-project.net mkdir -p /var/www/html/agora-project unzip -o agora-project.zip -d /var/www/html/agora-project/
Create a new MySQL database for Agora Project to use and assign a user to it with full permissions:
mysql -u root -p mysql> CREATE DATABASE agoradb; mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON agoradb.* TO 'agorauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your-password' WITH GRANT OPTION; mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES; mysql> quit
Do not forget to replace ‘your-password’ with a strong password.
Create a new virtual host directive in Apache. For example, create a new Apache configuration file named ‘agora-project.conf’ on your virtual server:
touch /etc/apache2/sites-available/agora-project.conf
Disable or delete the default Apache configuration file:
rm /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf
Then, run the following command:
ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/agora-project.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/agora-project.conf
Or, use the a2ensite to enable the ‘agora-project.conf’ configuration in Apache:
sudo a2ensite agora-project.conf
Edit the ‘agora-project.conf’ configuration file:
vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/agora-project.conf
and add the following lines to it:
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin admin@yourdomain.com DocumentRoot /var/www/html/agora-project/ ServerName yourdomain.com ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com <Directory /var/www/html/agora-project/> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All </Directory> ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/yourdomain.com-error_log CustomLog /var/log/apache2/yourdomain.com-access_log common </VirtualHost>
Set the proper file permissions for the Apache web server to write to the Agora Project document root (‘/var/www/html/agora-project’) directory:
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/agora-project/
Enable the Apache2 rewrite module if it is not already done so:
sudo a2enmod rewrite
In order to activate the new configuration, restart the Apache web server using the following command:
service apache2 restart
Open your favorite web browser, navigate to http://yourdomain.com , start the installation process and follow the easy instructions: select your language, hostname of the databases server (localhost), your MySQL database name, user name and password, then create an administrator account, set the timezone and space available for the storage of the files, then click ‘Validate’.
Log in to the administration back-end of the Agora Project groupware at http://yourdomain.com and configure it according to your needs, add users etc.
That is it. The Agora Project installation is now complete.
Of course you don’t have to do any of this if you use one of our Fast Ubuntu VPS Hosting services, in which case you can simply ask our expert Linux admins to install Agora Project groupware for you. They are available 24×7 and will take care of your request immediately.
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