Installing ImpressCMS 3

Warning

ImpressCMS 3.0 is still heavily under development, so things can change a lot on a weekly basis. Because of that, we do not recommend you use this version on a production website as we offer no upgrade path for pre-release versions.

That being said, ImpressCMS 3 is where all the exciting new stuff is happening, so we do encourage you to install it, get a feel of the new version and share your experience with us.

Installation - the short version

Pre-install steps

1. Make sure your PHP is at least PHP 8.0, and your MySQL is at least 5.6. ImpressCMS will verify versions required as part of the installation routine
2. Install composer. Attention : the restriction to only use composer 1 is no longer there, we recommend you use the latest version

Install Steps

1. We recommend using composer.
2. In the root folder of your web server, execute the following command:

   composer create-project -s dev impresscms/impresscms

3. This will create a new ImpressCMS installation in a subfolder 'impresscms'. The entry point of your ImpressCMS installation will then be 'localhost/impresscms/htdocs'. A way to make that cleaner is on our planning.
4. Go to http://localhost/impresscms/htdocs/. You should be forwarded directly to the initial installation page
5. Finalize the installer steps

Installation Steps, the long version

1. Download the the latest Alpha release

Download the zip file from this page and unzip the contents from that zip file in a local folder on your computer

2. Install Composer

The de facto package handler for PHP is now composer. ImpressCMS 2 uses composer to manage the different library dependencies. 

Install composer following the steps described here : Get Composer (getcomposer.org)

3.Execute composer install

In the folder where you unzipped your downloaded ImpressCMS 3 archive, execute the command 'composer install'.

4.Upload files

Upload all the files, including the ones composer created in the /vendor folder, to your webhost. Make sure you upload them to a folder one level higher than the root folder of your webserver. That way, your files will not be easily accessible directly in a browser from the internet.

5. Go to your hosting URL address

This should look something like 'https://my-address.com'. ImpressCMS will detect that you have not yet configured it, and will redirect you automatically to the installation walkthrough.

6. Finalise the installer steps

Finish the installer steps.