Live Helper Chat is a free and open-source online chat application that allows businesses to communicate with their customers in real-time. This tutorial will guide you through the process of installing Live Helper Chat on OpenBSD.
Before you begin, make sure you have the following:
Live Helper Chat is written in PHP, so the first step is to install PHP and its dependencies. Open the terminal and run the following command:
$ doas pkg_add -i php php-curl php-mysql php-pgsql php-gd php-bcmath
This command will install PHP and some commonly used extensions.
Live Helper Chat requires a database to store data. You can use either PostgreSQL or MySQL. In this tutorial, we will be using PostgreSQL. To install it, run the following command:
$ doas pkg_add -i postgresql-server postgresql-client
Next, initialize the PostgreSQL database by running:
$ doas su _postgres -c initdb
Start the PostgreSQL server:
$ doas rcctl enable postgresql && doas rcctl start postgresql
Create a new PostgreSQL user and database:
$ doas su - _postgresql
$ psql
postgres=# CREATE USER lhc_user WITH PASSWORD 'password';
postgres=# CREATE DATABASE lhc OWNER=lhc_user;
Replace "lhc_user" and "password" with your desired username and password.
Download the latest version of Live Helper Chat from their website (https://livehelperchat.com/) and extract it to your web server's document root directory (e.g. /var/www/htdocs)
$ cd /var/www/htdocs
$ wget https://livehelperchat.com/dl/files/lhc_stable_release.tgz
$ tar -xzvf lhc_stable_release.tgz
Next, change the ownership of the Live Helper Chat files to the user that your web server runs as (e.g. www):
$ doas chown -R www:www /var/www/htdocs/livehelperchat
To configure Live Helper Chat, create a new configuration file in the Live Helper Chat directory:
$ cd /var/www/htdocs/livehelperchat
$ cp settings/settings.ini.default.php settings/settings.ini.php
Edit the configuration file and replace the default database configuration with your own:
$ nano settings/settings.ini.php
Find the following lines:
'host' => 'localhost',
'port' => '5432',
'user' => 'lhc_user',
'password' => 'password',
'database' => 'lhc'
Replace the values with your own database configuration.
Live Helper Chat requires write access to certain directories. Make sure the directories have the correct permissions:
$ doas chown -R www:www cache/ var/storage/
$ doas chmod -R 777 cache/ var/storage/
Live Helper Chat requires some cron jobs to be set up. Create a new crontab for the user that your web server runs as (e.g. www):
$ doas -u www crontab -e
Add the following lines:
*/10 * * * * cd /var/www/htdocs/livehelperchat && php cron.php -s site_admin -c cron/update_geo_names
*/10 * * * * cd /var/www/htdocs/livehelperchat && php cron.php -s site_admin -c cron/send_mail
*/10 * * * * cd /var/www/htdocs/livehelperchat && php cron.php -s site_admin -c cron/callback_periodic
*/1 * * * * cd /var/www/htdocs/livehelperchat && php cron.php -s site_admin -c cron/queue_monitor
Save and exit the crontab editor.
Finally, open a web browser and go to the URL of your Live Helper Chat installation (e.g. http://example.com/livehelperchat). Follow the installation wizard and complete the installation.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Live Helper Chat on OpenBSD.
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