PolitePol is an open-source self-hosted web analytics software. This tutorial will guide you through the process of installing PolitePol on Debian Latest.
Before we begin, make sure you have the following:
Before we start installing PolitePol, let's update the system using the following command:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
PolitePol requires the following dependencies to be installed on your system:
Use the following command to install the Apache web server, MySQL/Mariadb, and PHP with the required extensions:
sudo apt install apache2 mysql-server php7.4 php7.4-mysqli php7.4-gd php7.4-zip php7.4-mbstring
During the MySQL/Mariadb installation process, you will be prompted to set a root password. Make sure you remember this password as you will need it later.
We need to configure the Apache web server to serve PolitePol. To do this, you need to create an Apache Virtual Host entry for PolitePol.
Create a new file called politepol.conf in the Apache sites-available directory using the following command:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/politepol.conf
Add the following configuration to the file:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME
DocumentRoot /path/to/politepol/
<Directory /path/to/politepol/>
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/politepol_error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/politepol_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Replace YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME with your actual domain name and /path/to/politepol/ with the actual path to your PolitePol installation directory.
Save the file and exit.
Enable the new Virtual Host configuration using the following command:
sudo a2ensite politepol.conf
Reload the Apache web server using the following command:
sudo systemctl reload apache2
Now we need to download and extract PolitePol onto your server. You can download the latest release from the PolitePol GitHub repository using the following command:
wget https://github.com/taroved/pol/archive/master.zip
Extract the downloaded zip file using the following command:
unzip master.zip
Move the extracted directory to /path/to/politepol/ defined in the Apache Virtual Host we created earlier.
sudo mv pol-master/ /path/to/politepol/
Change the ownership of the PolitePol directory to the Apache user using the following command:
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /path/to/politepol/
We need to create a MySQL/Mariadb database for PolitePol. Use the following command to log in to the MySQL/Mariadb server as root:
sudo mysql -u root -p
Enter the root password you set during the MySQL/Mariadb installation process.
Create a database for PolitePol using the following command:
CREATE DATABASE politepol;
Create a new user for PolitePol and grant it permission to access the database using the following command:
CREATE USER 'politepoluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password_here';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON politepol.* TO 'politepoluser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Replace your_password_here with a strong password of your choice.
Exit MySQL/Mariadb prompt using the following command:
exit
Rename the sample configuration file using the following command:
sudo mv /path/to/politepol/config-sample.php /path/to/politepol/config.php
Edit the configuration file using the following command:
sudo nano /path/to/politepol/config.php
Update the database configuration to reflect the database you created earlier. Change the following fields:
$db['hostname'] = 'localhost';
$db['username'] = 'politepoluser';
$db['password'] = 'your_password_here';
$db['database'] = 'politepol';
Change the 'your_password_here' field to the password you created for the politepoluser during the database creation process.
Save the file and exit.
You can now complete the PolitePol installation process by visiting http://YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME/install.php in your web browser.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process.
Once the installation is complete, make sure you remove the install.php file from the PolitePol directory using the following command:
sudo rm /path/to/politepol/install.php
Congratulations! You have successfully installed PolitePol on your Debian Latest server. You can now begin using it to analyze your web traffic.
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