dotCMS - Open Source Content Management System, Ondemand CMS, and Professional Support

Installing from Release

Installing from a release is the easiest way to get started with dotCMS. Simply download the latest distribution, and unzip in a location with enough free space. The folder name where dotCMS is installed must not contain spaces.

dotCMS ships with SQL files for 4 types of databases, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL and Oracle.  dotCMS will autocreate all schema and data when you first start it for the first time. Create a database and a user for dotCMS use.  Make sure that the user has create privledges on the db. 

See here configuring the datasource/connection

Installing dotCMS from Release

In the following document you will find the steps needed to create a
new CMS project based on the core dotCMS project. You will find a sequence
of steps descriptions and example commands to execute in the server
that you will use to create the project.  All the example commands need
to be adapted to the database and operating system that you are creating using.

1.- Installing Java
    a) Download and install Java JDK 1.5 or higher.
       IMPORTANT: Currently Java 1.6 on Linux 64 bits doesn't work, you have to use 1.5
    b) Make sure that you have a JAVA_HOME environmental variable
       that points to the root of the jdk install directory. 
      
       IMPORTANT: On windows boxes it is important that your
       JAVA_HOME environmental variable uses 8.3 names and does
       not contain a space, i.e. JAVA_HOME=C:\Progra~1\Java\jre-1.5.1_02\

2.- Download and install the dotcms
    a) download the latest dotcms zip file from the dotCMS website.
    b) unzip the dotCMS into its own folder. The folder name must NOT contain spaces.


3.- Creating the database
    dotCMS ssupports 4 types of databases,
    PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL and Oracle. Regardless of which database
    you choose to use, we recommend you create a new database.
   
    a) Create a new database called dotcms (with UTF-8 encoding for the character set, if i18n support is needed.
       Please, refer to the document entitled "i18ned databases for dotCMS.txt" for further details).      

    c) MySQL users - remember to set the db variable lower_case_table_names before creating your db and starting the server.  This setting is 0, 1, or 2 depending on your implementation (see mySQL documentation).

    b) The dotCMS will create the schema and initial data it needs when it first starts.

4.- Set the server IP address. [Optional]
    The dotCMS will automatically run on localhost. If you need
    the dotCMS to run on a particular IP address, you can specify it in the
    ./conf/server.xml file.     Edit the ./conf/server.xml file and search
    the connector and server tags and add the address property on both. E.G.
   
    <Server address="208.250.1.102" port="8005" shutdown="SHUTDOWN" debug="0">
    ...
     <Connector address="208.250.1.102" port="80"
                   URIEncoding="UTF-8"
                   maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" maxSpareThreads="75"
                   enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100"
                   debug="0" connectionTimeout="20000"
                   disableUploadTimeout="true" />
    ...

5.- Set the database connection info in the conf/Catalina/localhost/ROOT.xml file. 
    Uncomment the database you are using in the config.   
   
    You will need to update the last part of the URL to your database name along with username:password.
    The following is an example of a postgres config pointing to a database named dotcms
   
    Make sure your users have create privledges

    <!-- POSTGRESQL -->
    <Resource name="jdbc/dotCMSPool" auth="Container"
          type="javax.sql.DataSource" driverClassName="org.postgresql.Driver"
          url="jdbc:postgresql://127.0.0.1/dotcms"
          username="postgres" password="xxxxx" maxActive="50" maxIdle="10" maxWait="-1"
          removeAbandoned="true" removeAbandonedTimeout="60" logAbandoned="true"/>

6.- If you are on a UNIX box, change the /bin scripts permissions,
    add execution permission to *.sh in the bin dir.
    > cd /wwwroot/test.dotcms.org/bin
    > chmod 755 *.sh

7.- Start the server using the bin/startup.sh or bin/startup.bat script
    and check the logs/catalina.out output.  Try tail -f ./logs/dotcms.log. On windows
    we suggest that you download the execllent tool baretail.exe and use it to monitor
    the logs.

8.- When dotCMS initally starts up, it will automatically import the starter site,
     using the dotCMS/starter.zip file.
     
9.- Try to login in the backend
    http://localhost/c (or the ip address catalina is running on)
    user: test@dotcms.org
    password: test

10.- Enjoy!

Note: If you need to set up the dotCMS as a windows service follow the document
        'Setting Up dotCMS As Windows Service.txt'