Prerequisites

See the Requirements page for a list of server requirements.

We recommend using Composer, the PHP dependency manager, as the best way to install Elefant. If you don't have Composer, you can install it by running the following commands:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

You will also need the following information to complete the installation process:

• The address of your website. For the examples below, we will refer to www.example.com. If you are using localhost, please see setting up a hostname alias.
• The root folder of your website, called the document root. For the examples below, we will refer to the folder /var/www.
• The name of the web server software you're using, usually Apache or Nginx.
• The connection info to your MySQL or PostgreSQL database (SQLite users don't need this).

Getting started

Step 1. Grab the latest copy of Elefant using the following command:

composer create-project elefant/cms /var/www

Be sure to adjust the path (/var/www) to point to the correct folder. This should be your website's document root.

Note: If you don't want to use Composer, you can always download the latest release here.

Step 2. Configure your web server according to the examples provided.

For Apache users, make sure the mod_rewrite extension and htaccess are enabled, and make sure the .htaccess file is included in your document root folder.

For Nginx users, see the included nginx.conf for an example configuration.

Step 3. Set the file permissions using the following command:

./elefant permissions

If you're using FTP and not SSH to connect to your site, right-click each folder listed above to set its permissions. Make sure to click the option that says something to the effect of "Also change permissions on files inside this folder."

For example in Transmit for Mac, right-click and choose "Get Info" then under "Permissions" check all of the boxes then click "Apply to enclosed items."

Using FlashFXP on Windows, you would right-click the folders and choose "Attributes (CHMOD)", check off all the boxes, then click "Apply changes recursively to sub-folders and files".

Sub-folder installations

To run Elefant in a sub-folder instead of the root folder of a website, you need two additional files not included in the default install. You can download these here.

The .htaccess file replaces the default one, and the subfolder.php should be placed in your document root folder. Once these files are in place, skip to the alternate command line installer steps below.

Elefant always assumes its running in the document root of a website, which provides two benefits: 1) No URL prefixes to add to templates, and 2) helps Elefant optimize for greater speed. The sub-folder script is a small proxy that enables Elefant to run transparently in sub-folders too, but requires this extra step during the installation process.

Web installer

Step 4. Go to http://www.example.com/install on your website to run the web-based installer.

This will guide you through the rest of the setup process.

Alternate command-line installer

Step 4. Edit conf/config.php and add your database connection information.

Step 5. Run the following command to complete the installation:

./elefant install

This will generate a username and password for you to log into the admin area.

You should now have a working Elefant-powered website!

Prerequisites

See the Requirements page for a list of server requirements.

We recommend using Composer, the PHP dependency manager, as the best way to install Elefant. If you don't have Composer, you can install it by running the following commands:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

You will also need the following information to complete the installation process:

• The address of your website. For the examples below, we will refer to www.example.com. If you are using localhost, please see setting up a hostname alias.
• The root folder of your website, called the document root. For the examples below, we will refer to the folder /var/www.
• The name of the web server software you're using, usually Apache or Nginx.
• The connection info to your MySQL or PostgreSQL database (SQLite users don't need this).

Getting started

Step 1. Brab the latest copy of Elefant using the following command:

composer create-project elefant/cms --stability=dev /var/www

Note: The --stability=dev option is required until Elefant 2 is out of beta.

Be sure to adjust the path (/var/www) to point to the correct folder. This should be your website's document root.

Note: If you don't want to use Composer, you can always download the latest release here.

Step 2. Configure your web server according to the examples provided.

For Apache users, make sure the mod_rewrite extension and htaccess are enabled, and make sure the .htaccess file is included in your document root folder.

For Nginx users, see the included nginx.conf for an example configuration.

Step 3. Set the file permissions using the following command:

./elefant permissions

Sub-folder installations

To run Elefant in a sub-folder instead of the root folder of a website, you need two additional files not included in the default install. You can download these here.

The .htaccess file replaces the default one, and the subfolder.php should be placed in your document root folder. Once these files are in place, skip to the alternate command line installer steps below.

Elefant always assumes its running in the document root of a website, which provides two benefits: 1) No URL prefixes to add to templates, and 2) helps Elefant optimize for greater speed. The sub-folder script is a small proxy that enables Elefant to run transparently in sub-folders too, but requires this extra step during the installation process.

Web installer

Step 4. Go to http://www.example.com/install on your website to run the web-based installer.

This will guide you through the rest of the setup process.

Alternate command-line installer

Step 4. Edit conf/config.php and add your database connection information.

Step 5. Run the following command to complete the installation:

./elefant install

This will generate a username and password for you to log into the admin area.

You should now have a working Elefant-powered website!

Prerequisites

See the Requirements page for a list of server requirements.

We recommend using Composer, the PHP dependency manager, as the best way to install Elefant. If you don't have Composer, here are the steps to install Composer on Windows.

You will also need the following information to complete the installation process:

• The address of your website. For the examples below, we will refer to www.example.com. If you are using localhost, please see setting up a hostname alias.
• The root folder of your website, called the document root. For the examples below, we will refer to the folder C:\wamp\www.
• The name of the web server software you're using, usually Apache or Nginx.
• The connection info to your MySQL or PostgreSQL database (SQLite users don't need this).

Getting started

Step 1. Brab the latest copy of Elefant using the following command:

composer create-project elefant/cms --stability=dev C:\wamp\www

Note: The --stability=dev option is required until Elefant 2 is out of beta.

Be sure to adjust the path (C:\wamp\www) to point to the correct folder. This should be your website's document root.

Note: If you don't want to use Composer, you can always download the latest release here.

Step 2. Configure your web server according to the examples provided.

For Apache users, make sure the mod_rewrite extension and htaccess are enabled, and make sure the .htaccess file is included in your document root folder.

For Nginx users, see the included nginx.conf for an example configuration.

Sub-folder installations

To run Elefant in a sub-folder instead of the root folder of a website, you need two additional files not included in the default install. You can download these here.

The .htaccess file replaces the default one, and the subfolder.php should be placed in your document root folder. Once these files are in place, skip to the alternate command line installer steps below.

Elefant always assumes its running in the document root of a website, which provides two benefits: 1) No URL prefixes to add to templates, and 2) helps Elefant optimize for greater speed. The sub-folder script is a small proxy that enables Elefant to run transparently in sub-folders too, but requires this extra step during the installation process.

Web installer

Step 3. Go to http://www.example.com/install on your website to run the web-based installer.

This will guide you through the rest of the setup process.

Alternate command-line installer

Step 3. For Windows users installing in a sub-folder instead of a vhost, instead of running the ./elefant install command, follow these steps:

1. Open the file conf/install_mysql.sql in a text editor.
2. Search & replace #prefix# with elefant_ which is the default database prefix.
3. Paste the edited database schema into phpMyAdmin from your WAMP install.

The default admin username will be the email address from the from_email setting in conf/config.php and the default admin password will be elefantrocks. Be sure to change this under Tools > Users once you log into your new site.

You should now have a working Elefant-powered website!