In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Bludit CMS on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Bludit is a powerful, lightweight, and user-friendly flat-file Content Management System (CMS) that allows you to create beautiful websites or blogs in seconds. It’s completely free, open-source, and doesn’t require any database setup or configuration. Bludit uses files in JSON format to store content, making it highly portable and easy to migrate between servers. With its intuitive interface, extensive plugin and theme support, and built-in Markdown and HTML editor, Bludit is an excellent choice for both beginners and experienced users looking to create stunning websites quickly and efficiently.
This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of the Bludit Content Management System (CMS) on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
Prerequisites
- A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint or elementary OS.
- It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
- A domain name pointed to your server (optional, you can use your server’s IP address for testing purposes).
- A
non-root sudo useror access to theroot user. We recommend acting as anon-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.
Install Bludit CMS on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa
Step 1. It’s crucial to keep your system up-to-date to ensure optimal performance and security. To update your Ubuntu 20.04 LTS server, run the following commands:
sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade
These commands will update the package lists and upgrade any outdated packages to their latest versions. This process may take a few minutes, depending on the number of updates available.
Step 2. Installing the LAMP stack.
A Ubuntu 20.04 LAMP server is required. If you do not have LAMP installed, you can follow our guide here.
Step 3. Installing Bludit CMS on Ubuntu 20.04.
Now we download the current Bludit version from the official Bludit website:
wget https://www.bludit.com/releases/bludit-3-15-0.zip unzip bludit-*.zip mv bludit-3-15-0 /var/www/html/bludit
We will need to change some folder permissions:
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/bludit/
Step 4. Configuring Apache for Bludit CMS.
Now we create a new virtual host directive in Apache. For example, create a new Apache configuration file named ‘bludit.conf’ on your virtual server:
touch /etc/apache2/sites-available/bludit.conf ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/bludit.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/bludit.conf nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/bludit.conf
Add the following lines:
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin admin@yourdomain.com DocumentRoot /var/www/html/bludit/ ServerName your-domain.com ServerAlias www.your-domain.com <Directory /var/www/html/bludit/> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory> ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/your-domain.com-error_log CustomLog /var/log/apache2/your-domain.com-access_log common </VirtualHost>
Now, we can restart the Apache webserver so that the changes take place:
sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo a2ensite bludit.conf sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Step 5. Set up HTTPS.
We should enable a secure HTTPS connection on PrestaShop. We can obtain a free TLS certificate from Let’s Encrypt. Install Let’s Encrypt client (Certbot) from Ubuntu 20.04 repository:
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache
Next, run the following command to obtain a free TLS certificate using the Apache plugin:
sudo certbot --apache --agree-tos --redirect --staple-ocsp --email you@example.com -d example.com
If the test is successful, reload Apache for the change to take effect:
sudo apache2ctl -t sudo systemctl reload apache2
Step 6. Configure Firewall.
In case, you enabled firewall and firewall block requests of the Apache web server, open a port in the firewall:
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp sudo ufw allow 443/tcp sudo ufw reload
Step 7. Accessing Bludit CMS Web Interface.
PrestaShop will be available on HTTP port 80 by default. Open your favorite browser and navigate to https://your-domain.com/install.php
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Bludit. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the Bludit Content Management System (CMS) on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Bludit website.
