Installing Liferay DXP

Now that you’ve performed the steps needed to prepare for your installation, you’re ready to install Liferay DXP! Since bundles are the easiest way to complete an installation, all the installation steps below assume a bundle has been installed. If you plan to install Liferay DXP manually, please refer to the article for your app server of choice, and then come back here to complete the configuration steps.

Now you’re ready. You’ve created a blank database for Liferay DXP and have gathered the credentials you need for your mail server. The next step is to install Liferay DXP.

Liferay Home

Liferay DXP bundles contain the same folder structure regardless of application server. The top-level folder is named for the release of Liferay DXP. This folder is called Liferay Home. This folder is usually the parent folder of the application server’s folder. This is why Liferay DXP bundles place the application server inside the bundle’s root folder. On a manual installation, the location of this folder varies by application server. In a bundle, it’s part of the bundle. If you’re doing a manual installation, please refer to the article covering that app server for its location.

In the Liferay Home folder there are folders for various purposes:

• [Liferay Home]
  • data
  • deploy
  • license
  • logs
  • osgi
  • patching-tool (Liferay Digital Enterprise 7.0 only)
  • [Application Server]
  • tools
  • work

data: This folder is used to store an embedded HSQL database, Liferay DXP’s file repository, and Liferay DXP’s search indexes. Liferay DXP is initially configured to use the embedded HSQL database but the HSQL database is primarily intended for demonstration and trial purposes. Portal property jdbc.default.url sets the Hypersonic embedded HSQL database location.

deploy: To auto-deploy Liferay DXP plugins, copy them to this folder. Legacy style .war files, Liferay DXP 7.0 style .jar files, and .lpkg files from Liferay Marketplace are supported. Portal property auto.deploy.deploy.dir sets the auto-deploy location.

license: Liferay DXP’s copyright and version files are here.

logs: This folder contains Liferay DXP’s log files. The information in Liferay DXP’s log files can be quite valuable for system administrators, especially when trying to diagnose a problem. portal-impl.jar’s portal-impl/src/META-INF/portal-log4j.xml file sets the location for the log files. To override the log file location, you must use an ext-impl/src/META-INF/portal-log4j-ext.xml file in an Ext plugin.

osgi: All the JAR files and a few configuration files for Liferay DXP’s OSGi runtime belong in this folder. Portal property module.framework.base.dir sets the OSGi folder location. Here are its subfolders:

• configs: Component configuration files go here
• core: Liferay DXP’s core modules
• marketplace: Marketplace applications and application suites
• modules: Modules you’ve deployed
• portal: Liferay DXP’s non-core modules
• state: Contains OSGi internal state files for such things as OSGi bundle installation, bundle storage, and more
• target-platform: Target platform index
• test: Modules that support test integration
• war: WAR plugins you’ve deployed

patching-tool: This folder contains patches for Liferay DXP and files for installing the patches (Digital Enterprise 7.0 only).

tools: For portal upgrade and target platform indexer.

work: Module Jasper work files.

[Application Server]: The name of this folder is different depending on the bundle you’re using. This folder contains the application server in which Liferay DXP has been installed.

If Liferay DXP is unable to create the resources it needs in the Liferay Home folder or if it finds itself running on certain application servers, it creates a folder called liferay in the home folder of the operating system user that is running Liferay DXP. In this case, the liferay folder becomes Liferay Home. For example, if the operating system user’s name was jbloggs, the Liferay Home folder could be /home/bloggs/liferay or C:\Users\jbloggs\liferay.

Extracting a Liferay DXP Bundle

Getting a Liferay DXP bundle up and running is as easy as uncompressing the archive, possibly copying a JDBC driver, and then starting the application server. Let’s use the Liferay DXP Tomcat bundle as an example.

1. Unzip your Liferay DXP bundle.

2. If you’re setting up Liferay DXP to be an actual server, copy your database’s JDBC driver .jar file to [Tomcat]/lib/ext. If you’re using a supported open source database or if you’re setting up Liferay DXP for demo purposes, you can skip this step.

That’s it! You’ve extracted Liferay DXP, and it’s ready for use. This is much easier than doing a manual installation on an app server. If, however, that’s what you need to do, please at this point click the link on the left and go through the installation procedure for your app server of choice. When you’re finished with the installation (and before you’ve started Liferay DXP for the first time), come back to this spot, because you need to hook it up to your database.

Connecting Liferay DXP to Your Database

You can connect Liferay DXP through either your app server’s data source or the one that ships with Liferay DXP. Because of its suitability for tuning, it is recommended that you use the data source that ships with Liferay DXP. To do this, you’ll create a configuration file called portal-ext.properties, and you’ll place that file in your Liferay Home folder.

The configuration varies by database, of course, so templates for each one are provided in the reference section. To connect your database, therefore, create a text file called portal-ext.properties in your Liferay Home folder. Copy the relevant template for your database and paste it into this file.

Now all you have to do is customize it. Enter the proper host name and user and password credentials for your database, and then save the file.

Running Liferay DXP for the First Time

Next, start your app server, or start the Liferay DXP app in your app server. For example, if you’re using the Liferay DXP-Tomcat bundle, start Tomcat as if you had downloaded it manually. Tomcat is launched by invoking a script which is found in its bin folder. If you open a command prompt or terminal and go to this folder, you can launch Tomcat via the following command on Windows:

startup

or the following command on Linux/Mac/Unix:

./startup.sh

The Liferay DXP Tomcat bundle then starts. If you are on Windows, another command prompt window appears with Tomcat’s console in it. If you are on Linux, you can see the Tomcat console by issuing the following command:

tail -f ../logs/catalina.out

Liferay DXP writes log files to folder [Liferay Home]/logs.

The first time Liferay DXP starts, it’ll take a while to create all of its database tables. Once it has successfully started, it automatically launches a web browser that displays Liferay DXP’s Basic Configuration page. If for some reason your browser doesn’t load the Basic Configuration page, launch your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080.

Using Liferay DXP’s Setup Wizard

Liferay DXP’s Setup Wizard runs when you start Liferay DXP for the first time. To make it easy to configure Liferay DXP, the first thing you see when browsing to your newly installed Liferay DXP bundle is a setup wizard. The title of the setup wizard page is Basic Configuration. This page provides a convenient way to make an initial Liferay DXP configuration.

There are two sections of the wizard: the portal and the administrator. For the portal, you need to supply the following information:

Portal Name: the name of the portal you’re powering with Liferay DXP.

Default Language: choose the default locale of your portal.

Time Zone: select your Liferay DXP instance’s default time zone.

For the administrator, you need to supply the following information:

First Name: the first name of the default administrator user

Last Name: the last name of the default administrator user

Email: the email address of the default administrator user

Note: the administrator user’s email domain is used as the Liferay DXP instance’s default domain (i.e., the company.default.web.id portal property).

Figure 1: Supply the information for your portal and your portal's default administrator user on the Basic Configuration page.

The Basic Configuration page also includes a checkbox labeled Add Sample Data. If you check this box, sample data is added to Liferay DXP’s database. This data includes users, sites, and organizations. The sample data allows many Liferay DXP features to be showcased. If you’re installing Liferay DXP on your own machine to explore its features, the sample data will probably be useful. If, however, you’re installing Liferay DXP on a real server, you should start with a clean system.

Once you’ve filled out the form, click Finish Configuration. The setup wizard creates a portal-setup-wizard.properties file which stores the settings that you entered. When you begin customizing your portal’s configuration, however, you should use the portal-ext.properties file you created earlier. All the possible properties that can be placed in this file are documented in our reference documentation.

Tip: The wizard is an extremely helpful tool, especially if you’re setting up Liferay DXP for the first time. If you’re a Liferay DXP veteran and you already have your various properties set up, you can disable the setup wizard. If you disable the setup wizard, you must configure everything manually from the portal-ext.properties file. To disable the setup wizard, enter setup.wizard.enabled=false in your portal-ext.properties file. Note that property values in portal-setup-wizard.properties (the file created in Liferay Home by the setup wizard) override property values in portal-ext.properties.

After you’ve entered the information requested by the Basic Configuration page, Liferay DXP should bring you to its home page. You should set up your mail configuration next.

Configuring Mail

Now that Liferay DXP is up and running, log in as the administrative user you created in the setup wizard. Click the menu icon and then go to Control Panel → Server Administration → Mail, and have your mail credentials ready.

Fill out the form. You’re asked for the following information:

Incoming POP Server: The hostname for a server running the Post Office Protocol. Liferay DXP checks this mailbox for incoming messages, such as message board replies.

Incoming Port: The port on which the POP server is listening.

Use a Secure Network Connection: Use an encrypted connection when connecting to the POP server.

User Name: The user ID Liferay DXP should use to log into the POP server.

Password: The password Liferay DXP should use to log into the POP server.

Outgoing SMTP Server: The hostname for a server running the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Liferay DXP uses this server to send emails, such as password change emails and other notifications.

Outgoing Port: The port on which the SMTP server is listening.

Use a Secure Network Connection: Use an encrypted connection when connecting to the SMTP server.

User Name: The user ID Liferay DXP should use to log into the SMTP server.

Password: The password Liferay DXP should use to log into the SMTP server.

Manually specify additional JavaMail properties to override the above configuration: If there are additional properties you need to specify, supply them here.

When you’re finished setting up your mail configuration, click Save.

Your next step for basic Liferay DXP configuration is to convert the search implementation from its default demo mode into a production-ready mode.