How to install Vanilla Forums on OpenSUSE latest version?

Introduction

Vanilla Forums is free, open-source forum software, written in PHP language. This tutorial will guide you through the installation process of Vanilla Forums application, which can run on the OpenSUSE latest version.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding with the installation, you should have the following requirements in place:

• A running instance of OpenSUSE latest version.
• A webserver (Apache or Nginx) and PHP installed on OpenSUSE.
• MySQL database server version 5.6 or greater.
• Basic knowledge of Linux commands and access to the command-line terminal.

Step-by-step guide to Install Vanilla on OpenSUSE

Step 1: Download Source Code

To get started with the installation, we can download the latest version of Vanilla Forums from the website. Using the following command to download and extract the Vanilla Forums source code to the /var/www/html directory.

cd /var/www/html/
sudo wget https://open.vanillaforums.com/get/vanilla-core.zip
sudo unzip vanilla-core.zip
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/

Step 2: Install Dependencies

You need to install some dependencies necessary for Vanilla Forums like "git, php-curl, and php-intl" on OpenSUSE. This can be done by running the following command.

sudo zypper update && sudo zypper install php-gd php-mbstring php-zip php-curl php-intl git

Step 3: Create a MySQL Database and User

Now, create a new MySQL database and user for Vanilla Forums. Run the following command to access the MySQL command-line terminal.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Create a new database and user with the following SQL query:

CREATE DATABASE dbname;
CREATE USER 'username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON dbname.* TO 'username'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Replace dbname, username, and password with your desired database name, username, and password, respectively.

Step 4: Configure Apache Webserver

Configure Apache to serve Vanilla Forums by creating a new virtual host.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/vhosts.d/vanilla.conf

Add the following configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerAdmin admin@example.com
   DocumentRoot /var/www/html/Vanilla
   ServerName forum.example.com
   
   <Directory /var/www/html/Vanilla/>
      Options FollowSymLinks
      AllowOverride All
      Order allow,deny
      allow from all
   </Directory>

   ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/vanilla_error.log
   LogLevel warn
   CustomLog /var/log/apache2/vanilla_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Step 5: Install Vanilla Forum

In your web browser, navigate to the installed forum directory to finalize the installation procedure.

http://forum.example.com/

The installation page asks for the database settings, and you need to select the database you have created earlier.

That’s it. Congratulations! You have successfully installed Vanilla Forums on OpenSUSE Latest.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned how to install Vanilla Forums on OpenSUSE step by step. You can now use it to create an amazing online forum for your business or community. It is a good idea to secure your installation by updating the software regularly and implementing appropriate security measures.

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