Getting Started

Docker

First download and install Docker . Then build and start Zotonic with a single command:

$ ./start-docker.sh

Docker will download and boot the container. The container will start building Zotonic. After which Zotonic can be started with:

bash-4.4$ bin/zotonic debug

Zotonic will be available on port 8443 on your machine. Open your browser and go to https://localhost:8443/ to view the Zotonic Status page. If you wish to quit Zotonic, press twice Ctrl+C. If you wish to quite the container, press Ctrl+D at the bash prompt.

To see the configuration for the password (and other configurations) for the zotonic status site, type:

bash-4.4$ bin/zotonic config

The password is the password entry, the username is always wwwadmin.

You can now move on to creating your first site.

Nix

Download the Zotonic source code using Git or from the GitHub releases page.
The repo includes a shell.nix file that defines a development shell with all dependencies in scope.
You can enter the shell with

nix-shell

There you should run `make` to compile Zotonic.
You can then start Zotonic with

bin/zotonic debug

Now point your browser to: https://localhost:8443/. You should see a welcome message, ‘Powered by Zotonic’. This is the so-called status website. So far, so good! Now it’s time to create your first site.

Cloud-Init

A cloud-init file for Ubuntu is supplied, this has been tested with Ubuntu 20.04.

This file can be used to install a VPS by providers that support cloud-init. Hetzner, Microsoft Azure and TransIP are such providers.

After the cloud-init is done with its installation a new server is up and running on port 80 and 443. It will be using a self-signed certificate, located in /home/zotonic/.config/zotonic/security/self-signed/ (on macOS the directory is $HOME/Library/Application Support/zotonic/security/).

The wwwadmin password for the zotonic status site can be found after logging in to your server:

root:~# sudo su - zotonic
zotonic:~$ cd zotonic
zotonic:~/zotonic$ bin/zotonic config

Zotonic config for 'zotonic@yourvps':
=================================

zotonic:
    environment: production
    zotonic_apps: /home/zotonic/zotonic/apps_user
    security_dir: /home/zotonic/.config/zotonic/security
    password: wXuqsZkC4qp8j1AZHyO3
    timezone: UTC
    ...

The server can be stopped and started using the command line:

zotonic:~/zotonic$ bin/zotonic stop
Stopping zotonic 'zotonic@yourvps' .... OK
zotonic:~/zotonic$ bin/zotonic start
Waiting for zotonic: . OK

Manual installation

If you don’t like Docker or Nix, or you like to do things yourself, you can always install Zotonic on your computer yourself.

sudo apt-get install gcc g++ build-essential git imagemagick postgresql ffmpeg

$ brew install erlang git imagemagick postgresql ffmpeg

# pkg install sudo zip wget bash gmake curl git gcc erlang

# pkg install ImageMagick7-nox11
# pkg install postgresql10-server
# pkg install ffmpeg

$ wget https://github.com/zotonic/zotonic/archive/|release|.zip

$ unzip |release|.zip
$ mv zotonic-|release| zotonic

$ git clone https://github.com/zotonic/zotonic.git

$ cd zotonic
$ make

$ bin/zotonic debug

Next steps

• Create your first site.
• Log in to the status site.
• If something goes wrong, read the troubleshooting reference.
• Read more about Zotonic configuration.