ShinyCMS Documentation

Installation (local dev system)

Get the code from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/denny/ShinyCMS-ruby.git
cd ShinyCMS-ruby

Copy the example config file and edit it to suit your requirements (in particular, you might need to set your DATABASE_URL):
cp docs/env.sample .env.development.local

Install the required Ruby and JavaScript libraries:

bundle install
yarn install

Create your database:
rails db:setup

If you want to load the demo data:
rails shiny:demo:load

If you didn't load the demo data, create an admin account:
rails shiny:admin:create

Start the server:
rails s

You should now have a ShinyCMS site at http://localhost:3000, with an admin area at http://localhost:3000/admin

Job queues (for sending email)

If you want the system to send emails, you will need to run Sidekiq, which in turn requires you to run Redis:

sudo service start redis  # or whatever your OS prefers
sidekiq

Creating an admin account

When you load or reload the seed data (any of rails db:setup, rails db:reset, and rails db:seed will do this), the system checks that you have at least one 'super admin' user (an admin with the ability to add/remove admin users). If one does not already exist, you will be shown the command to create one: rails shiny:admin:create

When you run this command you will be prompted for a username, email address, and password for your new admin user, and then the account will be created with a full set of admin capabilities.

(The password will be checked against the PwnedPassword service, even for dev/demo sites, and simple or common passwords are very likely to fail this check. Use a good password to avoid frustration!)

If you are resetting your database or reloading the demo data a lot, you can save your chosen admin account details into your .env.development.local file and they will be picked up automatically during admin account creation, to save you typing them each time. This has obvious security implications, depending on who else might have (or gain) access to your filesystem.

Blazer database user (for charts and dashboards)

If you intend to use Blazer to generate charts and dashboards, you will need to create a read-only database user for Blazer (sample SQL) and add its details to your ENV/config as BLAZER_DATABASE_URL.

Configuration

Configuration is split between ENV vars (usually in .env* files), Feature Flags, and Site Settings. See configuration for more details of each.

Background tasks

You may wish to schedule one or more rake tasks to run on a regular basis (e.g. hourly/daily), depending on your requirements.

Themes

To build a site on top of ShinyCMS, you should start by creating a theme for it. This keeps your site layout and design tweaks separate from the default CMS templates, making future updates to the CMS easier to manage.