How to Install Bludit CMS on CentOS 7

Bludit is a simple, fast and flexible blogging CMS written in PHP. Bludit uses files in JSON format to store content, so you don’t need to install or configure a database. Bludit source code is hosted on Github. This guide will show you how to install Bludit CMS on a fresh CentOS 7 Vultr instance.

Requirements

• PHP version 5.3 or greater with the following extensions:
  • mbstring
  • gd
  • dom
  • json
• Web server with PHP support like Nginx, Apache, Lighttpd, H2O. This guide will use Nginx.

Before you begin

Check the CentOS version.

cat /etc/centos-release
# CentOS Linux release 7.5.1804 (Core)

Create a new non-root user account with sudo access and switch to it.

useradd -c "John Doe" johndoe && passwd johndoe
usermod -aG wheel johndoe
su - johndoe

NOTE: Replace johndoe with your username.

Set up the timezone.

timedatectl list-timezones
sudo timedatectl set-timezone 'Region/City'

Ensure that your system is up to date.

sudo yum update -y

Install necessary packages.

sudo yum install -y wget curl vim unzip

For simplicity, disable SELinux and Firewall.

sudo setenforce 0 ; sudo systemctl stop firewalld ; sudo systemctl disable firewalld

Install PHP

Setup the Webtatic YUM repo.

sudo rpm -Uvh https://mirror.webtatic.com/yum/el7/webtatic-release.rpm

Install PHP and required PHP extensions.

sudo yum install -y php72w php72w-cli php72w-fpm php72w-common php72w-mbstring php72w-gd php72w-xml php72w-json

Check the version.

php --version
# PHP 7.2.7 (cli) (built: Jul  1 2018 08:22:47) ( NTS )
# Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
# Zend Engine v3.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies

Start and enable the PHP-FPM service.

sudo systemctl start php-fpm.service
sudo systemctl enable php-fpm.service

Install Nginx

Bludit can work with many web servers with PHP support. In this guide we will use Nginx.

Install Nginx.

sudo yum install -y nginx

Check the version.

nginx -v
# nginx version: nginx/1.12.2

Start and enable Nginx.

sudo systemctl start nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

Run sudo vim /etc/nginx/conf.d/bludit.conf and configure Nginx for Bludit.

server {

  listen 80;

  server_name example.com;
  root /var/www/bludit;

  index index.php;

  location ~ /.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    include fastcgi.conf;
  }

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
  }

  location ^~ /bl-content/tmp/ { deny all; } 
  location ^~ /bl-content/pages/ { deny all; } 
  location ^~ /bl-content/databases/ { deny all; } 
}

Save the file and exit.

Test the configuration.

sudo nginx -t

Reload Nginx.

sudo systemctl reload nginx.service

Install Bludit

Create a document root directory.

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/bludit

Change ownership of the /var/www/bludit directory to johndoe.

sudo chown -R johndoe:johndoe /var/www/bludit

Download the latest version from the official page and extract the zip file.

cd /var/www/bludit
wget https://df6m0u2ovo2fu.cloudfront.net/builds/bludit-2-3-4.zip
unzip bludit-2-3-4.zip
rm bludit-2-3-4.zip
mv bludit-2-3-4/* . && mv bludit-2-3-4/.* .
rmdir bludit-2-3-4

NOTE: Update the download URL if there is a newer release.

Change ownership of the /var/www/bludit directory to nginx.

sudo chown -R nginx:nginx /var/www/bludit

Run sudo vim /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf and set user and group to nginx. Initially, it will be set to apache.

sudo vim /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf
# user = nginx
# group = nginx

Restart PHP-FPM.

sudo systemctl restart php-fpm.service

Create the /var/lib/php/session/ directory and change ownership to nginx.

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/php/session/ && sudo chown -R nginx:nginx /var/lib/php/session/

Open your site in a web browser. The Bludit installer page will appear.

Follow the Bludit installer to configure your website. To access the Bludit admin area, append /admin to your site URL.