How to Install CollectiveAccess – Providence on Linux Mint

CollectiveAccess is an open-source software platform for managing and publishing digital collections. Providence is the Collections Management System part of CollectiveAccess. It is a web-based platform that provides a flexible data model that can handle almost any type of collection. This tutorial will show you how to install CollectiveAccess – Providence on Linux Mint.

Prerequisites

Before we start with the installation, ensure that you have met the following prerequisites:

• A Linux Mint computer
• An internet connection
• Root access

Step 1: Install LAMP Stack

CollectiveAccess – Providence is a web application written in PHP, which means we need to install the LAMP stack to run it. LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Here is how to install this stack on your Linux Mint system:

1. Open the terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T or searching in the applications menu.

2. Type the following command to update the system packages:

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
   

3. Install the Apache web server with the following command:

   sudo apt-get install apache2
   

4. Install MySQL server with the following command:

   sudo apt-get install mysql-server
   

5. Install PHP and its dependencies with the following command:

   sudo apt-get install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql
   

6. Restart the Apache server with the following command:

   sudo systemctl restart apache2
   

Step 2: Install CollectiveAccess – Providence

With the LAMP stack installed, we can now install CollectiveAccess – Providence. Here are the steps you can follow:

1. Download CollectiveAccess – Providence from the official website by running the following command:

   wget https://github.com/collectiveaccess/providence/archive/master.zip
   

2. Install the unzip tool with the following command:

   sudo apt-get install unzip
   

3. Unzip the downloaded file with the following command:

   unzip master.zip
   

4. Move the unzipped file to the Apache web server document root directory with the following command:

   sudo mv providence-master /var/www/html/providence
   

Step 3: Configure MySQL

Next, we need to configure MySQL with the following steps:

1. Log in to MySQL in the terminal with the following command:

   sudo mysql -u root -p
   

2. Create a new database for CollectiveAccess – Providence by running the following command:

   CREATE DATABASE providence;
   

3. Create a new MySQL user and grant privileges to the newly created database with the following command:

   GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON providence.* TO 'providenceuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
   

   Replace providenceuser and password with your own username and password. You can also use a different name for the database and user if you like, just make sure to replace all references to it in the configuration files later on.

4. Exit MySQL with the following command:

   exit;
   

Step 4: Configure CollectiveAccess – Providence

Now that we have installed and configured all the necessary components, we can now configure CollectiveAccess – Providence with the following steps:

1. Go to the /var/www/html/providence/app/conf/ directory:

   cd /var/www/html/providence/app/conf/
   

2. Rename the app.conf.sample file to app.conf with the following command:

   sudo mv app.conf.sample app.conf
   

3. Edit the app.conf file with your preferred text editor:

   sudo nano app.conf
   

4. Update the values of the following settings to match the MySQL configuration settings you created earlier:

   /**********************************
    ** Database Configuration
    **********************************/
   app_db_dbname = 'providence'
   app_db_username = 'providenceuser'
   app_db_password = 'password'
   

5. Save and close the file by pressing Ctrl+X, then Y, then Enter.

6. Go back to the parent directory:

   cd ../..
   

7. Set the correct file permissions with the following command:

   sudo chmod -R 777 sessions media
   

Step 5: Access CollectiveAccess – Providence

Now that we have everything ready, you can access CollectiveAccess – Providence by opening a web browser and typing in your server’s IP address or domain name followed by /providence/install/index.php. For example, if your server’s IP address is 192.168.0.100, you would type http://192.168.0.100/providence/install/index.php in the address bar.

You should see the installation wizard, and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Once the installation is complete, you can access CollectiveAccess – Providence by typing in your server’s IP address or domain name followed by /providence/index.php.

Conclusion

You have successfully installed and configured CollectiveAccess – Providence on your Linux Mint system. You can now use it to manage and publish your digital collections.

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