Introduction
Akeneo is an open-source Product Information Management (PIM) platform for conducting business. This free platform is based on the Symfony2 framework and can be easily customized.
Akeneo also features an easy to use interface that allows for easier collaboration and automation to improve customer and partners engagement experiences across multiple devices. With this tool, you can easily edit your data, complete product sheets, define the key attributes you need, add media files, translate information into different languages, and track any modifications made in a product.
In this tutorial, we are going to take you through the process of installing Akeneo product management system (PIM) on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
Prerequisites
- A server running on Ubuntu 18.04
- A non-root user with sudo privileges
Step 1- Installing Apache Server
Before you begin, you need to install Apache, MariaDB, and PHP to your system.
We shall start with Apache and MariaDB.
Run the command below to update your system:
$ sudo apt update
To install Apache2 on Ubuntu, run the following command:
$ sudo apt install apache2
Once Apache is installed, disable the directory listing by running the command below:
$ sudo sed -i "s/Options Indexes FollowSymLinks/Options FollowSymLinks/" /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
Next, you should start and enable Apache2 service to ensure it always starts when the server boots.
$ sudo systemctl start apache2.service $ sudo systemctl enable apache2.service
Step 2 – Installing MariaDB Database
Akeneo requires a database server to work properly and MariaDB is a good database server to start with. Run the command below to install it.
$ sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
Once you have installed MariaDB, use the command below to start and enable the newly installed MariaDB service and ensure it start every time the server boots.
$ sudo systemctl start mariadb.service $ sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
Once you’re done, run the command below to secure the MariaDB service.
$ sudo mysql_secure_installation
You will be prompted to answer a few questions as shown below:
Enter current password for root (enter for none): Since you just installed MariaDB and no password is set, Press Enter.
Set root password? [Y/n]: Press Y
New password: Enter password
Re-enter new password: Repeat the password
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Now restart the MariaDB server
$ sudo systemctl restart mysql.service
Step 3 – Installing PHP Modules
You may not find PHP 7.1 on default repositories on Ubuntu 18.04. So, to install this service, you have to download it from third-party repositories.
To add a third party repository (Ondrej PHP repository), run the following commands:
$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
Now, update the settings and upgrade the service to PHP 7.1.
$ sudo apt update
To install PHP 7.1 and it’s related modules, run the following commands:
$ sudo apt install php7.1 libapache2-mod-php7.1 php7.1-apcu php7.1-bcmath php7.1-common php7.1-mbstring php7.1-xmlrpc php7.1-soap php7.1-gd php7.1-xml php7.1-intl php7.1-mysql php7.1-cli php7.1-mcrypt php7.1-ldap php7.1-zip php7.1-curl
Once PHP is installed, open the default file for Apache2 PHP using the following commands:
$ sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/apache2/php.ini
Now, make the following changes by editing the lines in the file then save.
file_uploads = On allow_url_fopen = On memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 100M max_execution_time = 30 max_input_vars = 1500 date.timezone = America/Chicago
Step 4 – Creating Akeneo Database
After installing all the necessary packages, go ahead and configure the servers. Start by creating a blank database for Akeneo.
Run the following command to login to the database server in MariaDB.
$ sudo mysql -u root -p
Next, create a new database known as akeneo.
CREATEDATABASE akeneo;
Also, create another database by the name akeneouser and a new password.
CREATEUSER'akeneouser'@'localhost'IDENTIFIEDBY'new_password_here';
Make sure you grant the user complete database access access.
GRANT ALL ON akeneo.* TO'akeneouser'@'localhost'IDENTIFIEDBY'user_password_here'WITHGRANTOPTION;
Now save the changes then exit.
FLUSHPRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Step 5 – Downloading AkeneoLatest
By now, the stage is set and its should be easy to install and configure Akeneo PIM. Go to Akeneo official site and search for the latest version.
Here, you will find two options:
Options 1: Community Edition- Make sure you replace the line pim-community-standard-v2.2-latest-icecat.tar.gz with the actual location and name of the file you have download from the sitehttps://www.akeneo.com/download
Option 2: Enterprise Edition -For this version, make sure you replace the line pim-community-standard-v2.2-latest-icecat.tar.gz with the actual location and name of the file you have already downloaded from Partner portal.
Alternatively, you can download and extract these files into Akeneo root file by running the following commands:
$cd /tmp && wget wget http://download.akeneo.com/pim-community-standard-v2.2-latest-icecat.tar.gz $ sudo tar -xvzf pim-community-standard-v2.2-latest-icecat.tar.gz -C /var/www/html/akeneo
Now, let’s try if Akeneo is working.
Step 6 – Initializing Akeneo
Once you have extracted your files, change them in the Akeneo directory then run the following command:
$cd /var/www/html/akeneo/pim-community-standard $ sudo php -d memory_limit=3G ../composer.phar install --optimize-autoloader --prefer-dist $ sudo php bin/console cache:clear --no-warmup --env=prod $ sudo php bin/console pim:installer:assets --symlink --clean --env=prod
Now, set the right permissions to ensure Akeneo is functioning properly using the commands below:
$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/akeneo/ $ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/akeneo/
Next, let’s configure Apache2.
Step 7 – Configuring Apache2 for Akeneo
The last step is to create an Apache2 virtual host file for Akeneo. Run the following commands:
$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/akeneo.conf
Now, add the following lines to your file then save it. Enter your domain name and root location for your directory in the highlighted line.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/akeneo/pim-community-standard/web
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/akeneo/pim-community-standard/web/>
Options +FollowSymlinks
AllowOverrideAll
Requireall granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>Then, save and exit once you’re done.
Then enable Akeneo virtual host file and rewrite module using the following commands:
$ sudo a2ensite akeneo.conf $ sudo a2enmod rewrite
Now restart Apache service to apply these changes:
$ sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
The next step is to go to your browser and type your server domain name with the URL http://example.com then complete the necessary steps to install Akeneo.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Akeneo PIM on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Now try it out. If you run into problems during the installation process, contact us for further help.
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