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Installing CrafterCMS on WSL 2

This section describes in detail how to install/setup CrafterCMS on Windows via WSL 2.

First, we need to install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) by following the instructions here which will enable the required optional components, download the latest Linux kernel, set WSL 2 as your default, and install Ubuntu Linux for you.

All the commands/scripts in this section should be executed in your Ubuntu (or Linux distribution of choice) terminal.

To open your Ubuntu terminal, click on the Ubuntu icon from the Start menu, or, from a command prompt, type ubuntu or ubuntu1604 or ubuntu2004 depending on the version you’ve downloaded.

Setting up CrafterCMS in Windows - Open the Ubuntu terminal

It is recommended we store all files in the WSL file system for better performance speed.

See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/ for more information on WSL.

Installing CrafterCMS from the Prebuilt Binaries

Here are the steps to start using CrafterCMS for development or evaluation by installing CrafterCMS from the prebuilt binaries:

  1. Download and install Java 11

    Download and install Java JDK 11 (either Oracle or OpenJDK).

    Make sure that you have a JAVA_HOME environment variable that points to the root of the JDK install directory. See here for more information on the JAVA_HOME environment variable

    Here’s an example of installing Java JDK 11 using apt then setup JAVA_HOME

    Install Java JDK 11 and setup JAVA_HOME
    sudo apt install openjdk-11-jdk
    export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64
    export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
    

  2. Download CrafterCMS binaries

    Download the CrafterCMS install prebuilt binaries from https://craftercms.org/downloads

    Select crafter-cms-authoring-VERSION.tar.gz. The .tar.gz file will install a fully functional authoring instance. Out of the box, the authoring instance uses a local directory as the repository and an embedded database, which allows a quick and easy set up for local development.

    You can download the CrafterCMS prebuilt binaries directly onto the WSL file system from the Ubuntu terminal using wget or curl, or, you can copy/move the prebuilt binaries in the Windows file system to the WSL file system via the Ubuntu terminal or the Windows File Explorer.

    The Linux (WSL) file system root directory is : \\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\home\<user name>\path\to\project

    The Windows file system root directory is : /mnt/c/Users/<user name>/path/to/project$ or C:\Users\<user name>\path\to\project

    Setting up CrafterCMS in Windows - Accessing the WSL file system

  3. Extract the CrafterCMS binaries

    Extract the contents in any directory.

    Extract the contents of the CrafterCMS binary archive file to a directory
    tar -zxvf crafter-cms-authoring-VERSION.tar.gz -C /tmp/extract_to_some_directory/
    

    The extracted files should look like this:

    CrafterCMS extracted files directory structure
    {Crafter-CMS-unzip-directory}
    |--crafter/
       |--LICENSE
       |--README.txt
       |--bin/
       |--data/
          |--ssh/
             |--config
             |--known-hosts
    

  4. Start CrafterCMS

    To start CrafterCMS:

    From the command line, navigate to the {Crafter-CMS-unzip-directory}/crafter/bin/ directory, and execute the startup script:

    Start CrafterCMS
    ./startup.sh
    

    Note

    It takes a few seconds for CrafterCMS to startup and takes longer to startup the very first time you startup CrafterCMS.


    Setting up CrafterCMS in Windows - Start CrafterCMS in WSL

    To stop CrafterCMS:

    From the command line, navigate to the {Crafter-CMS-unzip-directory}/crafter/bin/ directory, and execute the shutdown script:

    Stop CrafterCMS
    ./shutdown.sh
    

  5. Access Crafter Studio

    In your browser, go to

    http://localhost:8080/studio
    

    • Login with the following:

      • username: admin

      • password: admin

    After logging in, you should be redirected to the Sites screen, and you’re now ready to create your first experience!