How to Install SeedDMS on Ubuntu

SeedDMS is an open source document management system. In my opinion, its features are quite powerful, easy to use, but unfortunately lack of documentation. I guess the developers are too busy focusing on coding and forgetting how good documentation will help the others to install and use the application. After some trial and error, I’m finally able to install SeedDMS on my Ubuntu.

In this tutorial, I use latest Ubuntu server 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) which can be downloaded via Ubuntu official website here and latest SeedDMS (version 4.3.13 ) which can be downloaded via sourceforge here. I assume you already installed Ubuntu and are familiar with Ubuntu environment.


SeedDMS is written in PHP, and uses MySQL or sqlite3 to manage the documents that were uploaded into the application. So, basically you will need:

• A web server which support PHP at least PHP 5.3
• MySQL or sqlite database
• PHP packages such as PHP GD and PHP sqlite
• Several packages to convert document into text (optional, for fulltext search purpose)
• ImageMagic to create preview image
• Zend Framework (optional, for fulltext search purpose)
• Pear framework
• Pear Log package
• Pear HTTP_WebDAV package (optional)

I assume at least you have already installed Web server + PHP + MySQL on your Ubuntu installation. If you are using Ubuntu Server and intend to install it from the scratch, don’t forget to pick LAMP  server packages on the installation process. In this article, I use Apache2 + PHP + sqlite combination.

Here we go:

1. On your Ubuntu installation, create directory /home/www-data:
   

   sudo mkdir /home/www-data



2. Download following SeedDMS files from sourceforge:
   

   SeedDMS_Lucene-1.1.5.tgz 
   SeedDMS_Preview-1.1.2.tgz 
   SeedDMS_Core-4.3.13.tgz 
   seeddms-quickstart-4.3.13.tar.gz

   
   Put these file on /home/www-data directory


3. Extract seeddms-quickstart-4.3.13.tar.gz using following command:
   

   sudo tar -xvzf seeddms-quickstart-4.3.13.tar.gz

   After this operation you will see new folder named seeddms43x inside /home/www-data/.
   


4. Install Pear packages:
   

   sudo apt-get install php-pear



5. Install additional package:
   PHP GD and sqlite
   

   sudo apt-get install php5-gd php5-sqlite

   
   PDF and Doc conversion tool to text
   

   sudo apt-get install poppler-utils catdoc



6. Install SeedDMS Pear packages:
   

   sudo pear install SeedDMS_Core-4.3.13.tgz
   sudo pear install SeedDMS_Lucene-1.1.5.tgz
   sudo pear install SeedDMS_Preview-1.1.2.tgz



7. Install additional Pear packages:
   Log
   

   sudo pear install Log

   
   Zend
   

   sudo pear channel-discover zend.googlecode.com/svn
   sudo pear install zend/zend



8. Change /home/www-data ownership
   

   sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /home/www-data

9. Create an alias for Seed DMS web application using following command:
   Open apache configuration file:
   

   sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

   
   Add following lines after <virtualhost> tag and before </virtualhost> tag
   

   <Directory />
       Require all granted
   </Directory>
   
   Alias /seeddms “/home/www-data/seeddms43x/www/“
   <Directory "/home/www-data/seeddms43x/www/">
       DirectoryIndex index.php
       AllowOverride All
       Order deny,allow
       Deny from all
       Allow from all
   </Directory>

   
   So it would be looked like this:
   

   <VirtualHost *:80>
       ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
       DocumentRoot /var/www/html
   
       ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
       CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
       <Directory />
           Require all granted
       </Directory>
   
       Alias /seeddms “/home/www-data/seeddms43x/www/"
       <Directory "/home/www-data/seeddms43x/www/">
           DirectoryIndex index.php
           AllowOverride All
           Order deny,allow
           Deny from all
           Allow from all
       </Directory>
   </VirtualHost>

   
   You can change /seeddms variable with anything you want.


10. Enable mod_rewrite module by running following command:
    

    sudo a2enmod rewrite



11. Restart apache2 service:
    

    sudo service apache2 restart



12. Enable web based installation tool for seed DMS by running following command:
    

    sudo touch /home/www-data/seeddms43x/seeddms-4.3.13/conf/ENABLE_INSTALL_TOOL



13. Open your browser, and point it to http://[Ubuntu IP Address]/seeddms/install and follow instruction on the screen.
    
    Fill required information as below:
    Root directory -> /home/www-data/seeddms43x/www/
    Http Root -> /seeddms/
    Content directory -> /home/www-data/seeddms43x/data/
    Directory for full text index -> /home/www-data/seeddms43x/data/lucene/
    Directory for partial uploads -> /home/www-data/seeddms43x/data/staging/
    Extra PHP include Path -> /home/www-data/seeddms43x/pear/
    
    Leave Database settings configuration. I assume you will use sqlite database. If you intend to use mysql instead, fill mysql on Database Type text box, and fill the remaining Database settings text box according to your MySQL database configuration.
    
    Check Create database table check box and click Apply button to create database file for the first time. Click Apply button again to continue.
    


14. Disable web based installation tool for seed DMS by running following command:
    

    sudo rm /home/www-data/seeddms43x/seeddms-4.3.13/conf/ENABLE_INSTALL_TOOL



15. Tada.. now your SeedDMS is already installed on your Ubuntu Installation. To begin using it, enter your SeedDMS web address on your browser: http://[Ubuntu IP Address]/seeddms
    


16. Login using following credential:
    username: admin
    password: admin