Installing Exponential 6.0 #

This guide installs Exponential 6.0 from nothing to a working site: what you need, how to get the code, the three ways to install (the browser setup wizard, the kickstarter, the one-command console install), how to serve the site and what to do afterwards. For what Exponential is and how it is served, read the project README first. For a guided first hour after the install, read Getting started.

Every command is run from the installation root: the directory that holds index.php, autoload.php, bin/ and settings/. The command console is bin/php/console. Many installations add a shortcut to it in the root (ln -s bin/php/console console), so ./console and php bin/php/console are the same program. When you run a script as root, add --allow-root-user; the script says so when it is needed.

The full book. This page is the short guide. Each section below has a chapter in the installation book with the complete detail, annotated examples and references: the setup wizard page by page, every kickstart.ini key, Exponential Velocity serving HTTPS without a separate web server, SQLite 3 under heavy production load, the operations handbook, troubleshooting and security hardening.

Contents #

1. What you get, and the quick start
2. Requirements
3. Get the code
4. Choose an install method
5. Install with the setup wizard
6. Install with the kickstarter
7. Install with one console command
8. Serve the site: web server, HTTPS and permissions
9. SQLite in production
10. After installing
11. Upgrading from an older version
12. Troubleshooting

1. What you get, and the quick start #

Full chapter: 01-introduction

An installation is the Exponential kernel, the extensions listed in composer.json (which ones it has and activates: Extensions of a new installation), a site package with its content and design, and three siteaccesses. Their names are always site, admin and editor; what you choose during the install is the URL path, port or host name that leads to each (the match value):

The shortest path that works needs only PHP and Composer. It installs on SQLite (no database server) and serves the site with the PHP server that Exponential can start for you:

composer create-project se7enxweb/exponential exponential
cd exponential
php bin/php/console exp:install --apply --random-password --url=http://localhost:8087
php bin/php/console exp:velocity start --engine=php

Open http://localhost:8087/site/ for the site and http://localhost:8087/admin/user/login for the administration. The user is admin; the password is printed once at the end of the install and written to var/log/initial-admin-password (readable by the owner only). Change it after the first login and delete that file. Stop the server with php bin/php/console exp:velocity stop --engine=php.

The php engine is PHP's own server, for development. For a real site use Exponential Velocity's qbix engine or Apache/nginx with PHP-FPM (section 8).

Building a website rather than trying one? Get the code as Git clones with their full history instead: the same two install commands work in a clone, and section 3 shows the commands that make the kernel and every extension a clone you can follow, change and contribute back from.

2. Requirements #

Full chapter: 02-requirements

PHP #

PHP extensions:

The setup wizard's system check tests all of these and tells you what is missing. On a running installation, php bin/php/console exp:velocity ext check lists every extension the installation wants, marks what is missing and prints the install command for your system.

Composer #

Composer 2.x. It installs the kernel's libraries, the expcomponents (se7enxweb/expcomponents-*, Exponential's fork of the Zeta Components, since 6.0.15), and the Exponential extensions that composer.json lists.

Database #

Supported databases (Exponential 6.0.x), in order of preference: 1. SQLite 3 (the default) · 2. PostgreSQL · 3. MongoDB · 4. MariaDB · 5. Oracle · 6. MySQL. Microsoft SQL Server is known to be possible with additional work at this time. Details: Database support.

The names are the aliases in settings/site.ini, block [DatabaseSettings], ImplementationAlias[]. The minimum server versions the wizard checks are in kernel/setup/ezsetupcommon.php (MySQL 4.1.1, PostgreSQL 8.0, SQLite 3.0.1, MongoDB 4.0, Oracle 19); the practical minimums the current drivers need are higher (SQLite 3.33, PostgreSQL 13, MongoDB 6.0), see Database support. Exponential runs on almost any operating system with PHP 8.0 or later (PHP 7.4 usable without support): see Operating system support.

Web server #

One of these, chosen in section 8:

• Exponential Velocity, the recommended application server: it serves HTTP and HTTPS itself, with its own certificates, and needs no other web server.
• Apache with mod_rewrite and PHP-FPM (or mod_php). The rewrite rules ship in .htaccess_root.
• Any other server that can rewrite a URL to index.php (nginx, LiteSpeed, Caddy and others, listed in the README). This guide gives no configuration for them.

3. Get the code #

Full chapter: 03-getting-the-code

Pick one. All give the same installation. This installs Exponential 6; the Symfony based distributions (Exponential Platform Legacy, Nexus and DXP) and the site packages to choose from are compared in Distributions of Exponential.

Git clones with history (recommended for anyone who builds websites): the kernel and every se7enxweb extension arrive as Git clones, so you can see what changed, follow development, keep your own changes on a branch and send fixes back as pull requests. Develop with Git explains it step by step.

composer config --global 'preferred-install.se7enxweb/*' source
git clone https://github.com/se7enxweb/exponential.git
cd exponential
git switch -c my-site
composer install

The first line is needed once per user account: it makes Composer clone every se7enxweb/* package instead of downloading its release archive.

Composer project (quickest for a site you only run; release archives without history):

cd www_root_directory
composer create-project se7enxweb/exponential exponential
cd exponential

Add a version to pin a release, for example composer create-project se7enxweb/exponential:v6.0.14 exponential. Add --prefer-source --keep-vcs to get Git clones from create-project too.

Composer require into an empty directory (the package from Packagist):

mkdir exponential
cd exponential
composer require se7enxweb/exponential

Then check that the console runs:

php bin/php/console --version

The first line names the version, for example console (Exponential) 6.0.15stable.

Exponential Velocity. composer.json requires it at ~0.0.4.57, so composer install installs it on every supported PHP, 8.0 included. Until its release 0.0.4.54 it needed PHP 8.1 and was only suggested; an installation made in that time adds it with:

composer require se7enxweb/exponential-velocity:~0.0.4.57

Why this matters, and what it brings: Velocity is part of Exponential 6.0.15.

4. Choose an install method #

Full chapter: 04-choosing-an-install-method

All three methods run the same setup steps (kernel/setup/steps/) and produce the same kind of installation.

How the site is served is chosen separately (section 8):

5. Install with the setup wizard #

Full chapter: 05-setup-wizard

How it starts #

settings/site.ini ships with [SiteAccessSettings] CheckValidity=true. While it is true, every request is sent to the setup wizard (module setup, function init) instead of the site. The last step writes CheckValidity=false into settings/override/site.ini.append.php, and from then on the site is served.

1. Serve the installation with a web server (section 8), for example php bin/php/console exp:velocity start --engine=php.
2. Open the site address in a browser. The wizard's first page appears.

While the wizard runs, only the browser that started it gets through (it carries the cookie exp_setup_wizard); every other visitor sees a "The site is being set up" page (HTTP 503). The hold ends with the wizard's last page, or 30 minutes after the wizard's last request (expMaintenance::WIZARD_LEASE).

If a kickstart.ini is in the installation root, the wizard reads it: steps whose section has Continue=true are skipped, the others are pre-filled (section 6). Remove or move kickstart.ini if you want to answer every page yourself.

The steps #

The order is the step table in kernel/setup/steps/ezstep_data.php.

The wizard logs its progress to var/log/setup.log. More: setup wizard and editor siteaccess, clean install defaults, installer logs and seed data.

6. Install with the kickstarter #

Full chapter: 06-kickstarter

The kickstarter (bin/php/kickstarter.php, console exp:kickstarter) runs the setup wizard's steps without a browser and reads every answer from kickstart.ini in the installation root. The commented template is kickstart.ini-dist.

The commands #

php bin/php/console exp:kickstarter ini            # write kickstart.ini in an interactive editor
php bin/php/console exp:kickstarter ini --yes      # write it with the built-in defaults, no questions
php bin/php/console exp:kickstarter run --dry-run  # check kickstart.ini, the database and the packages
php bin/php/console exp:kickstarter run --apply --force    # install

php bin/php/kickstarter.php takes the same subcommands and options.

While run --apply rebuilds the database, the site answers every visitor with the maintenance page; a maintenance window that was already open is kept, and after a failed step the page stays until you run again or php bin/php/maintenance.php off. Every run is logged to var/log/kickstart.log with passwords masked (earlier runs are kept as kickstart.log.1 to .9; EXP_KICKSTART_LOG=0 turns the log off). The site package is taken from var/storage/packages/ when it is already imported there; otherwise it is downloaded, with the packages it requires, from the package index configured in settings/package.ini.

kickstart.ini #

One section per wizard step. Leave no whitespace before a section or a key. Continue=true skips the step and uses the values; Continue=false (or no Continue) shows the step pre-filled. A complete example for MySQL:

[email_settings]
Continue=true
Type=mta

[database_choice]
Continue=true
Type=mysqli

[database_init]
Continue=true
Server=localhost
Port=
Database=exponential
User=exponential
Password=CHANGE_ME
Socket=

[language_options]
Continue=true
Primary=eng-GB
Languages[]=eng-US

[site_types]
Continue=true
Site_package=sevenx_multisite

[site_access]
Continue=true
Access=url

[site_details]
Continue=true
Title=My Exponential site
URL=https://www.example.com
Access=site
AdminAccess=admin
EditorAccess=editor
Database=exponential
DatabaseAction=remove

[site_admin]
Continue=true
FirstName=Site
LastName=Administrator
Email=[email protected]
Password=

[security]
Continue=true

[registration]
Continue=true
Send=false

Every language must have a locale in share/locale, or the run stops in LanguageOptions and names the language. Languages of the site package that you did not list are created as languages of their own, so their content stays reachable.

DatabaseAction: read this before you run #

Warning. DatabaseAction=remove empties the named database and installs into it. Everything in that database is lost. Point Database at a database that holds nothing you need, and take a backup first.

Re-running #

• Run again with the same kickstart.ini for an identical install. With DatabaseAction=remove this replaces the database again.
• After a failure, fix the cause (the failing step and its message are in the output and in var/log/setup.log) and run the whole sequence again; with DatabaseAction=remove the second run replaces what the first left.
• ini and run delete the cached var/cache/ini/kickstart-*.php themselves. If you edit kickstart.ini by hand and see old values, delete those files.
• When you install onto a different database engine than the one the installation used before, first set DatabaseImplementation in settings/override/site.ini.append.php to the new engine: the installer keeps the value it finds there.
• kickstart.ini holds the database password. Keep it out of version control, and remove or move it after the install if the web wizard must not read it.

Full reference: Kickstarter CLI, Kickstarter.

7. Install with one console command #

Full chapter: 07-console-install

exp:install (bin/php/install.php) builds the kickstart configuration from its options, runs the same steps in the same process, and puts back any kickstart.ini that was there. Everything has a default, so this alone installs the sevenx_multisite package on SQLite with the user admin and a generated password:

php bin/php/console exp:install --apply

Other databases (keep the password out of the shell history with EXP_INSTALL_DB_PASSWORD):

EXP_INSTALL_DB_PASSWORD='secret' php bin/php/console exp:install --apply --db=mysql --db-host=127.0.0.1 \
    --db-name=mysite --db-user=mysite --url=https://www.example.com --random-password

The summary at the end lists the site, admin login and editor addresses, the user and the password. The configuration used is kept in var/log/exp-install-<date>.ini with passwords masked. More: Install in one command.

8. Serve the site: web server, HTTPS and permissions #

Full chapters: 08-serving-the-site and 13-security-hardening

The document root is always the installation root.

Option A: Exponential Velocity (recommended) #

Velocity is an application server that ships for Exponential. It loads the application once, keeps it in persistent workers and has its own response cache. It serves HTTP and HTTPS itself, with its own certificates, so no Apache, nginx or PHP-FPM is needed. Install it with Composer (section 3), then:

php bin/php/console exp:velocity config set --apply ServerSettings Engine qbix
php bin/php/console exp:velocity start
php bin/php/console exp:velocity status

config set writes settings/override/velocity.ini.append.php; the shipped defaults stay in settings/velocity.ini. The shipped default engine is php (development); set qbix for every real site. The qbix engine serves plain HTTP on [ServerSettings] Port (8088) and HTTPS on HTTPSPort (8080), bound to Host (127.0.0.1). To serve the network:

php bin/php/console exp:velocity config set --apply ServerSettings Host 0.0.0.0
php bin/php/console exp:velocity config set --apply ServerSettings Port 80
php bin/php/console exp:velocity config set --apply ServerSettings HTTPSPort 443
php bin/php/console exp:velocity restart

Ports below 1024 need root. Started as root, the server process keeps root to bind the ports and read the certificate, and the workers run as [ServerSettings] User and Group (when empty: VC_RUN_USER and VC_RUN_GROUP from the environment or /etc/vc/envvars, else the owner of the document root). Workers never run as root unless AllowRootWorkers=enabled.

HTTPS with a certificate you have (one PEM file may hold both):

php bin/php/console exp:velocity config set --apply HTTPSSettings Certificate /etc/ssl/example.com/fullchain.pem
php bin/php/console exp:velocity config set --apply HTTPSSettings Key /etc/ssl/example.com/privkey.pem
php bin/php/console exp:velocity config set --apply HTTPSSettings Enabled true
php bin/php/console exp:velocity restart
php bin/php/console exp:velocity ssl show

HTTPS is on when Enabled is true and both files exist. The certificate is checked before use (parses, not expired, key matches); a self-signed certificate stands in while the real one is unusable (fallback, default self-signed), and a renewed certificate is swapped in without a restart. The engine's certificate subsystem also obtains and renews Let's Encrypt (or any ACME CA) certificates and reads archives and PKCS#12 bundles; it is configured under Q.web.https and described in Velocity HTTPS and certificates. [HTTPSSettings] HSTSMaxAge (shipped as 0, off; 300 to start) sets Strict-Transport-Security; raise it only when every name of the site is on HTTPS for good.

Configuration layout. Velocity's configuration follows Debian's /etc/apache2: /etc/vc/vc.conf, ports.conf, envvars, and sites-available/sites-enabled, conf-available/conf-enabled, mods-available/mods-enabled (an overlay on the engine's /etc/qbix, which is read too). The site file sites-available/<site>.conf is generated from velocity.ini on every start and restart, or with exp:velocity layout migrate. Switch sites, snippets and modules like a2ensite:

php bin/php/console exp:velocity layout                 # show every file the server uses
php bin/php/console exp:velocity site enable --apply <name>
php bin/php/console exp:velocity site disable --apply <name>

Day to day:

Workers keep the application in memory: after changing a class or a setting, restart (or deploy); clearing caches alone does not reach them. Velocity has no command to install a boot service; the engine package ships an example systemd unit in vendor/se7enxweb/exponential-velocity/service/. When Velocity serves the site alone, set [DeploySettings] PhpFpmService to disabled.

More: Velocity engines, on-disk layout, persistent workers, Deploying.

FrankenPHP is the production-ready alternative engine driven by the same commands: exp:velocity config set ServerSettings Engine frankenphp, exp:velocity install (downloads and checks the binary), exp:velocity start. It serves HTTPS by default ([FrankenPHPSettings] HTTPS=enabled, port 8444), with your [HTTPSSettings] Certificate and Key, or a self-signed certificate it makes and renews itself.

Option B: Apache with PHP-FPM #

Enable the shipped rewrite rules:

./console exp:setup:htaccess --apply      # or by hand: cp .htaccess_root .htaccess

The command copies .htaccess_root to .htaccess with the template's mode (and, run as root with --allow-root-user, its owner), shows a diff and refuses when a .htaccess that differs is already there, and backs up the old file before --force --apply replaces it. --static copies .htaccess_root_static instead. The same way, ./console exp:setup:config --apply puts config.php-RECOMMENDED into place as config.php; see Setting up .htaccess and config.php from the console.

They turn on .htaccess based virtual host mode: dot files, .git and scripts below the front controllers answer 404, /api/ goes to index_rest.php, static design files are served directly and everything else goes to index.php. Do not remove security rules from it to make something work. A minimal virtual host:

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

    <Directory /var/www/example.com>
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    <FilesMatch \.php$>
        SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php-fpm/www.sock|fcgi://localhost"
    </FilesMatch>
</VirtualHost>

mod_rewrite, mod_proxy and mod_proxy_fcgi must be loaded. Check with apachectl configtest and reload Apache. For HTTPS add a *:443 virtual host with SSLEngine on, SSLCertificateFile and SSLCertificateKeyFile, and a certificate from your usual tool. After a PHP change reload the PHP-FPM that serves the site; on servers with several PHP versions that is not always the one called php-fpm ([DeploySettings] PhpFpmService=auto lets exp:velocity deploy find it). Details: Deploying.

Permissions #

The user the web server or Velocity workers run as must be able to write these directories (the setup check directory_permissions in settings/setup.ini): design, extension, settings, settings/override, settings/siteaccess, var and everything below it that Exponential writes (var/cache, var/log, var/storage, var/autoload). The system check prints the commands for your machine, of this form:

sudo chmod -R ug+rwx design extension settings var
sudo chown -R <web user>:<web group> design extension settings var

When command-line scripts and cronjobs run as a different user from the web server, give them a common group that can write the same files.

Behind a reverse proxy or load balancer #

Forwarded headers (X-Forwarded-For, X-Forwarded-Proto, X-Forwarded-Host) are believed only from the addresses in site.ini [HTTPHeaderSettings] TrustedProxies[], by default 127.0.0.1 and ::1. A proxy on another machine must be added there (for example TrustedProxies[]=10.0.0.0/8 in settings/override/site.ini.append.php), or the site builds http:// links behind an HTTPS proxy and, with ClientIpByCustomHTTPHeader=X-Forwarded-For, sees the proxy's address instead of the visitor's. Details: chapter 8 and Forwarded headers are trusted only from configured proxies.

9. SQLite in production #

Full chapter: 09-databases

SQLite is not only for trying Exponential. The kernel driver (lib/ezdb/classes/ezsqlite3db.php, class eZSQLite3DB) is built for a site under load.

What the driver does:

Settings (settings/site.ini, block [DatabaseSettings]; override in settings/override/site.ini.append.php):

[DatabaseSettings]
DatabaseImplementation=sqlite3
# a name under var/storage/sqlite3/, or an absolute path
Database=exponential.db
# seconds a transaction waits for the writers ahead of it (default 25);
# keep it below the request timeout: Velocity's Q.webserver.requestTimeout
# (30 s unless changed), or PHP-FPM's request_terminate_timeout
SQLiteTransactionWait=25
# the same on the command line (cronjobs, imports), seconds
SQLiteCLITransactionWait=300
# ms a single statement waits for another write: web requests, command line
SQLiteBusyTimeout=5000
SQLiteCLIBusyTimeout=30000
# PRAGMAs over the driver's defaults, one per line as name=value
SQLitePragmas[]
#SQLitePragmas[]=cache_size=-131072

Clear the INI cache after a change: php bin/php/ezcache.php --clear-tag=ini.

What carries the load. Most requests never reach the database: the content view cache, the template-block cache and, with Velocity, the response cache, which answers a repeat request without starting the application. Under Velocity's persistent workers every worker keeps the application loaded and shares the one database file; reads run side by side and writes queue on the writer lock (the driver reopens the lock in each forked worker). In load tests of this driver, concurrent readers scaled with the number of processes, short writes stayed error-free at 16 concurrent writers at the serial rate, and long transactions that failed with the earlier driver's 5-second limit completed without errors, only waiting longer. A team where many editors publish large changes at the same moment is still better served by MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL.

Ownership and permissions. SQLite needs to write the database file, the -wal and -shm files beside it and the directory that holds them; the driver creates var/storage/sqlite3/ with mode 0775 but does not set the mode or owner of the files, so they get the creating process's umask. When Apache/PHP-FPM, Velocity workers and cronjobs run as different users, give them one group that can read and write var/storage/sqlite3/ and every file in it. A .writer-lock created by another user still works: the driver opens it read-only when it cannot open it for writing. Never serve the database file over HTTP; check with curl -sI https://www.example.com/var/storage/sqlite3/exponential.db (anything but 200 is right).

Backups. Use SQLite's online backup, never a plain copy of a busy file:

sqlite3 var/storage/sqlite3/exponential.db ".backup backup.db"

Restore by copying backup.db back with the site in maintenance mode (php bin/php/maintenance.php on, then off). Run ANALYZE once after an install or a big import so the query planner has statistics (sqlite3 var/storage/sqlite3/exponential.db ANALYZE).

More: SQLite database support, SQLite 3 driver, SQLite transactions.

10. After installing #

Full chapter: 10-after-installing

1. Log in at the admin address the installer printed (for example /admin/user/login) as admin. Change the password (Change password in the user menu) and delete var/log/initial-admin-password. A lost password is reset as root with php bin/php/resetuserpassword.php --allow-root-user -u admin -g (without root, authorize with another administrator: -a <login> -ap <password>).

2. Check the front page and the logs. Open the site address. On an error read var/log/error.log and Repairing an installation.

3. Set up the cronjobs. They publish scheduled content, send notifications and newsletters and clean up. List the parts, then add them to the crontab of the site user:

   php runcronjobs.php --list

   */5 * * * * cd /path/to/installation && php runcronjobs.php --siteaccess=site frequent >> var/log/cron-frequent.log 2>&1
   17 * * * *  cd /path/to/installation && php runcronjobs.php --siteaccess=site infrequent >> var/log/cron-infrequent.log 2>&1

   Use your public siteaccess name. The same parts are in the admin under Setup > Cronjobs, and Velocity's scheduler can run them without the system cron.

4. Know the cache commands. Clear the smallest thing that fixes the problem:

   You changed	Command
   a setting (.ini)	php bin/php/ezcache.php --clear-tag=ini
   a template (.tpl)	php bin/php/ezcache.php --clear-tag=template
   content looks stale	php bin/php/ezcache.php --clear-tag=content
   added a template or an extension	php bin/php/ezcache.php --clear-id=template-override
   unsure	php bin/php/ezcache.php --clear-all

   With Velocity, also php bin/php/console exp:velocity cache clear --apply; after a class or INI change, exp:velocity deploy does all of it in order.

5. Regenerate autoloads after adding or renaming a class in an extension: php bin/php/ezpgenerateautoloads.php -e (-k for the kernel).

6. Back up the database and var/storage, settings/override, settings/siteaccess (Operating a site).

7. The help's manuals. The kickstarter and exp:install have queued the build of the help's manuals from the Markdown help (the last lines of their output): a background job makes them over the next 20 to 30 minutes, and ./console exp:help:content report -s admin says "Manuals are being built (n of 52)" until it is done. After the setup wizard, or when queueing reported a problem, run ./console exp:help:content build-manuals --apply -s admin --queue. Run ./console exp:help:content build-manuals --apply -s admin --release after each upgrade (Manuals from the Markdown help).

8. Optional: the job queue and Exponential Intelligence. composer.json brings the job queue expqueue and the writing assistant expai into extension/, both inactive. To use them:

   # settings/override/site.ini.append.php: the job queue, for every siteaccess
   [ExtensionSettings]
   ActiveExtensions[]=expqueue

   # settings/siteaccess/<each admin siteaccess>/site.ini.append.php: the assistant, for the administration only
   [ExtensionSettings]
   ActiveAccessExtensions[]=expai

   ./console ext:expqueue:install-schema
   php extension/expai/bin/php/expaischema.php --install -s admin
   php bin/php/ezpgenerateautoloads.php -e
   php bin/php/console exp:velocity deploy --packer    # or clear the caches and reload PHP-FPM

   Put the provider key into settings/override/expai.ini.append.php ([AISettings] Enabled=true, ApiKey=...; never into version control), give editors the policy expai/write, and add two cron lines, both with the admin siteaccess because expai is active there only:

   * * * * *   cd /path/to/installation && php runcronjobs.php -q -s admin expqueue
   */5 * * * * cd /path/to/installation && php runcronjobs.php -q -s admin expai

   What they do and every further step: Exponential Intelligence and the job queue.

Then continue with the guides:

• Configuring Exponential 6.0: where settings live and which file wins, siteaccesses, languages, mail, caches, security, extensions and logs.
• Extending Exponential 6.0: extensions, modules and views, templates, datatypes, workflow events, cronjob parts, commands, tests and releases.
• Integrating With Exponential 6.0: the APIs, machine sign-in, content and events in and out, single sign-on, front ends and security for integrations.
• Distributions of Exponential: every distribution of Exponential, its PHP versions and databases, and which one to choose.
• Getting started: first login, first content, first template change.
• The content model and editing content: classes, objects, the online editor, the trash and content jobs.
• Templates and design: find the template that wrote a page, override it, switch the admin design.
• Extensions: find, install, configure, build and release an extension.
• Remote services and apps: call Exponential from the shell, from Python and with an API token.
• Deploying: serve the site with Apache and PHP-FPM, Velocity or FrankenPHP, over HTTPS.
• Operating a site: caches, cronjobs, backups, logs and repairs.
• Security and audit: check the hardening, roles and policies, the audit trail.
• Every guide: the learning path.

11. Upgrading from an older version #

Full chapter: 11-upgrading

Do not run the installer over an existing site. Follow Upgrading: from 4.x, 5.x or an earlier 6.0.x to the current line, with the database update and the checklists per release. A 6.0 installation is brought up to date with the short procedure of Updating Exponential 6.0. After any upgrade, compare .htaccess and config.php with the new templates: ./console exp:setup:status, ./console exp:setup:htaccess (the diff) and ./console exp:config:list (settings new in config.php-RECOMMENDED show up as (not set)). To move a site elsewhere or remove it, export everything first with Uninstalling Exponential 6.0.

The online manual has further installation notes: https://exponential.doc.exponential.earth/Exponential/Technical-manual/6.x/Installation.html

12. Troubleshooting #

Full chapter: 12-troubleshooting

When the table does not help, Getting Support shows where to ask, from the communities of PHP and the database to the Exponential community and 7x.

More: Repairing an installation, Maintenance mode.

Public demos: demo mode #

A public demo whose administrator sign-in is published runs with the environment variable EXP_DEMO_MODE=1. Every installer (setup wizard, kickstarter, exp:install) then installs the published administrator password as given, also a well-known or short one such as publish or publishing (never an empty one), and afterwards nobody can change or reset an administrator password while the variable is set. Never set it for a real site. See Demo mode and the demo mode examples.