Installing Vanilla Forums on macOS

This tutorial will guide you through the steps to install Vanilla Forums on macOS.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that you have the following:

• A macOS machine
• Apache or Nginx web server installed
• PHP installed (version 7.1 or later)
• MySQL or MariaDB database server installed

Step 1: Download Vanilla Forums

Visit the Vanilla Forums download page and select the latest stable version of the software.

Step 2: Extract the Archive File

Extract the downloaded archive to a directory that is served by your web server. You can use the Terminal app to do this.

cd /path/to/webserver/directory
unzip /path/to/downloaded/vanilla-forums.zip

Step 3: Configure the Database

Create a new MySQL or MariaDB database and user for Vanilla Forums.

mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE vanilla_db;
CREATE USER 'vanilla_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL ON vanilla_db.* TO 'vanilla_user'@'localhost';

Replace vanilla_db, vanilla_user and password with your own values.

Step 4: Configure Vanilla Forums

Copy the conf/config-defaults.php file to conf/config.php.

cp conf/config-defaults.php conf/config.php

Edit the conf/config.php file with your favorite text editor.

$Configuration['Database']['Name'] = 'vanilla_db';
$Configuration['Database']['User'] = 'vanilla_user';
$Configuration['Database']['Password'] = 'password';

Replace vanilla_db, vanilla_user and password with your own values.

Step 5: Set File Permissions

Set the file and directory permissions for Vanilla Forums.

chmod -R 755 /path/to/webserver/directory/vanilla
chown -R www-data:www-data /path/to/webserver/directory/vanilla

Replace www-data with the appropriate username for your web server.

Step 6: Access Vanilla Forums

Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost/vanilla.

You should be able to access Vanilla Forums and start customizing it according to your needs.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Vanilla Forums on macOS.

If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!

Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!