Sites

Create a site

First, prepare the database. In your terminal, connect to PostgreSQL:

$ sudo -u postgres psql (enter your OS password)

And create a database user for Zotonic. You may want to change the password:

postgres=# CREATE USER zotonic WITH PASSWORD 'zotonic';

Now, either give this user create rights to have Zotonic automatically create the database for you (recommended):

postgres=# ALTER USER zotonic CREATEDB;

Or create the site database manually:

postgres=# CREATE DATABASE zotonic WITH OWNER = zotonic ENCODING = 'UTF8';
postgres=# GRANT ALL ON DATABASE zotonic TO zotonic;

And quit postgres:

postgres=# \q

Now that there is a database Zotonic can be started. We do this in debug mode so that all console output is visible:

$ bin/zotonic debug

In a new terminal window, edit your /etc/hosts file, adding an entry for yoursite.test (the site hostname) to point at your local host:

127.0.0.1   yoursite.test

Create a new Zotonic site, based on the ‘blog’ skeleton site:

$ bin/zotonic addsite -s blog yoursite

Finally, point your browser to https://yoursite.test:8443 to see your new site. The browser will ask to accept a self-signed certificate. Zotonic generates a self-signed certificate for every site. These are stored in ~/.config/zotonic/security (on macOS ~/Library/Application Support/zotonic/security).

You can log into the admin at https://yoursite.test:8443/admin using the username admin with the password that you can find in your site’s configuration. Use for this the command:

$ bin/zotonic siteconfig yoursite

The configuration is stored in the file apps_user/yoursite/priv/zotonic_site.config in the zotonic user directory.

You can stop Zotonic by typing twice Ctrl-C at the Erlang command prompt.

If you want to start Zotonic in the background then use:

$ bin/zotonic start

This can be stopped with:

$ bin/zotonic stop

Anatomy of a site

A Zotonic site is a folder which lives in the zotonic user directory and contains at least:

• a priv/zotonic_site.config file: sets the site’s hostname and other parameters
• a src/sitename.erl file: initialises the site.
• a src/sitename.app.src file: an OTP app source file

In fact, a site is a special type of module. Like modules, sites usually contain additional resources such as templates, dispatch rules and data . Unlike modules, however, sites have their own hostname and database connection.

Next steps

• Consult the reference for all site configuration parameters.
• If something goes wrong, consult the troubleshooting reference.