Installing a study site in one command #

This page takes you through the quick start of Installing Exponential 6.0 and Getting started: install Exponential, with notes for learners. It needs PHP and Composer and no database server. Allow fifteen minutes; the install itself takes about a minute on SQLite, according to the getting-started guide.

Contents #

1. Check your PHP
2. Get the files
3. Install
4. Serve the site
5. Sign in and change the password
6. If a step fails

Check your PHP #

php -v

Expected: a line beginning PHP 8.. Exponential 6.0 runs on PHP 8.0 to 8.5 (PHP 7.4 usable without support) (Requirements). Set memory_limit (at least 64M) and date.timezone in php.ini before you go on.

Get the files #

For a site you only want to try and study, the Composer project is the quickest path:

composer create-project se7enxweb/exponential exponential
cd exponential
php bin/php/console --version

Expected: the first line reads console (Exponential) 6.0.15stable (or the version you installed). Write it in your study journal.

The console is bin/php/console. Many installations add a shortcut in the root (ln -s bin/php/console console), so that ./console and php bin/php/console are the same program (Installing Exponential 6.0). This folder writes php bin/php/console, which works everywhere. For the developer path, get the files as Git clones instead: Installing from Git clones for study.

Install #

php bin/php/console exp:install --apply --random-password --url=http://localhost:8087

What this does, as the getting-started guide describes it:

• installs the multisite site package on SQLite, in eng-US;
• creates the siteaccesses, with the public site and the administration told apart by the first part of the address;
• generates a 24-character administrator password, shows it once at the end, and writes it to var/log/initial-admin-password;
• refuses to run over an existing installation unless you add --force.

At the end you see a box with the site address, the admin login address, the username admin and the password. Copy the password into a password manager now. Do not put it in your journal or in a commit.

If you work as root (on a training virtual machine, for example), scripts that need it ask for --allow-root-user.

Serve the site #

php bin/php/console exp:velocity start --engine=php
php bin/php/console exp:velocity status --engine=php

The php engine is PHP's own server, for development; it listens on port 8087 by default, which is why the install used --url=http://localhost:8087 (Getting started).

Open http://localhost:8087/site/ in a browser. You see the front page of your study site. Stop the server with php bin/php/console exp:velocity stop --engine=php when you are done for the day.

Sign in and change the password #

1. Open http://localhost:8087/admin/user/login.
2. Sign in as admin with the printed password.
3. Use Change password in the user menu and choose your own.
4. Delete var/log/initial-admin-password afterwards, as the guide asks (Getting started).

You are now on the dashboard of the administration. Continue with Your first hour in the administration.

If a step fails #

Still stuck? Reading logs and errors and Asking for help and study groups.

Related pages #

• Your first site: three ways
• Resetting and rebuilding your study site
• Install in one command
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.