How to Install Monica on Windows 11

Monica is a Personal Relationship Management (PRM) software that helps you keep track of your personal relationships. It allows you to store information about people, including birthdays, contact information, and conversations. In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install Monica on Windows 11.

Prerequisites

Before you start the installation process, you will need to make sure that your Windows 11 machine has the following:

• An internet connection
• A web browser (ideally Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox)
• A local web server (such as XAMPP or WAMP)
• PHP version 7.4 or higher
• MySQL version 5.7 or higher

Step 1: Download and extract Monica

The first step is to navigate to Monica's download page at https://monicahq.com/download/ and download the latest version of the monica-latest.zip package.

Once the download is complete, unzip the contents of the package in a directory where your local web server can access the files. For example, if you are using XAMPP on Windows 11, unzip the package in the htdocs directory of your XAMPP installation.

Step 2: Create a MySQL database

Next, you will need to create a new MySQL database for Monica. You can use a tool such as phpMyAdmin, which comes bundled with XAMPP or WAMP, to create the database.

To create a new database using phpMyAdmin, follow these steps:

1. Open a web browser and navigate to http://localhost/phpmyadmin.
2. Click on the "New" button on the left-hand side of the screen.
3. Enter a name for your new database (e.g., monica) in the "Database name" field.
4. Select "utf8_general_ci" as the collation.
5. Click on the "Create" button to create the database.

Step 3: Configure Monica

The next step is to configure Monica to use the MySQL database you just created. To do this, you will need to edit the .env file located in the root directory of your Monica installation.

1. Open the .env file in a text editor.
2. Locate the following section:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=homestead
DB_USERNAME=homestead
DB_PASSWORD=secret

3. Change the DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, and DB_PASSWORD values to match your MySQL database configuration:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=monica
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=your_mysql_password

4. Save the changes to the .env file.

Step 4: Install Dependencies

Before you can run Monica, you will need to install its dependencies. To do this, open a Command Prompt or PowerShell window and navigate to the root directory of your Monica installation using the cd command.

Once you are in the right directory, run the following command:

composer install

This command will download and install all of the dependencies that Monica needs to run.

Step 5: Run the Install Wizard

Now that you have configured Monica and installed its dependencies, you can run the install wizard.

To do this, navigate to http://localhost/ in your web browser. You should see the Monica install page. Follow the on-screen instructions, and enter the information requested.

When prompted for the MySQL database connection details, enter the following information:

• Database host: 127.0.0.1
• Database port: 3306
• Database username: root
• Database password: your_mysql_password
• Database name: monica

Once you have completed the install wizard, Monica is ready to use!

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install Monica on Windows 11. If you follow these steps carefully, you should have a working instance of Monica running on your Windows 11 machine in no time!

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