Install Magnolia

This page provides instructions on how to do a basic installation of Magnolia using the Magnolia CLI v4. You should do this before starting the Hello Magnolia for front-end developers tutorial.

Get Java

Magnolia needs at least a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to run. Check if there’s a version of Java already installed on your computer by opening the terminal or command prompt and typing java -version. If the system reports a version number, Java is installed on your computer.

See Certified stack to confirm that the version installed is supported.

For local development, use 17.0.12-zulu. Example installation using SDKMAN:

sdk install java 17.0.12-zulu

Windows
Mac
Linux

On Windows, you need a Java SE Development Kit (JDK). The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is not enough because the Tomcat application server does not recognize it.

JRE is for users who run Java programs on their computers.
JDK is for developers who write Java-based applications.

Download and install JDK. By default, JDK is installed at C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-<version>\.

Instructions

Check for JAVA_HOME

Open the command prompt.
Type set and press ENTER.
Find JAVA_HOME in the command output and verify that the path points to your JDK installation directory, for example, C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-<version>>.xx.
If JAVA_HOME is missing or it points to the wrong directory, see Set JAVA_HOME.

Set JAVA_HOME

Open the Command Prompt as an administrator.
Set the path for JAVA_HOME.
```
setx /m JAVA_HOME "path\to\Java\jdk" (1)
```
1 Where path\to\Java\jdk is where your Java Development Kit is saved.

The set command creates the JAVA_HOME environment variable and sets its value to the JDK directory. The command is executed when Magnolia starts.

For Mac, you need to download or update to Java 17 or higher. After reviewing and agreeing to the terms of the license agreement, download the file, then double-click it to launch the installation wizard and follow the installation instructions.

The installation directory varies from one Linux system to another. On Debian-based distributions, JREs or JDKs are usually installed in /usr/lib/jvm/.

Get node.js

Magnolia CLI is an npm package providing a command line interface (CLI) tool to set up and facilitate light development with Magnolia. The Magnolia CLI tool runs on Node.js. If you do not have Node.js installed, go to Node.js and download and install the latest LTS version.

To check the version of your node installation, run the following command in a shell:

node -v

Get Magnolia CLI

Run the following command in a shell to install Magnolia CLI:

Mac or Linux
Windows

sudo npm install @magnolia/cli -g

npm install @magnolia/cli -g (1)

1	Depending on your permissions and the location where you have installed Node.js, you may have to execute the command above with root permissions. Without installation permissions you will notice messages such as `npm ERR!` in the shell.

Once you have installed Magnolia CLI, test the installation by running the following command in the shell:

mgnl help

The command should display the following:

[mgnl 5]
Usage:   [options] [command]

CLI for light development of Magnolia projects

Options:
  -V, --Version              output the version number
  -h, --help                 display help for command

Commands:
  generate-plugin [options]  generate a basic structure for a new CLI plugin
  jumpstart [options]        download and set up a new headless or freemarker-based project with
                             Magnolia webapp
  help [command]             display help for command

Installing Magnolia with CLI only

Use the jumpstart command to install Magnolia. This command downloads, unpacks and pre-configures a Magnolia bundle of your choice.

To install a specific Magnolia version, use the -m flag, for example:

npx @magnolia/cli@latest jumpstart --magnolia "6.3.0"

To see a list of options available for any Magnolia CLI command, use the command together with the -h flag, for example:

npm run mgnl -- create-page -h

Windows users using PowerShell must enclose the two consecutive hyphens (--) in quotes:

npm run mgnl "--" ...

To install Magnolia:

Change to the directory to where you want to install the Magnolia bundle. For example:
```
cd /Users/<username>/dev/
```
Execute the Magnolia CLI jumpstart plugin command:
```
mgnl jumpstart
```

Choose the demo-webapps template, followed by the magnolia-community-demo-webapp template containing Magnolia Community Edition bundled with the Travel Demo and a Tomcat server. It creates folders for the Tomcat server and for the light modules according to the CLI configuration.

Once the setup operation is complete, you should see a message similar to this one:

info: Project successfully downloaded
info: Run "npm run mgnl" to see the list of registered commands
info: Start the project using: "npm run mgnl -- start"
info: If the "StartPlugin" is not available, install it using: "npm run mgnl -- add-plugin @magnolia/cli-start-plugin"
info: For additional plugins and features, refer to the Magnolia CLI documentation: https://docs.magnolia-cms.com/magnolia-cli

Start Magnolia with CLI

Go to the parent directory of the apache-tomcat directory and execute the Magnolia CLI start command:

mgnl start

When starting for the first time, Magnolia runs a web update and automatically installs all its modules.

Login

Go to http://localhost:8080/magnoliaAuthor and sign in as a superuser :

Username: superuser
Password: superuser

Magnolia is ready to use and gives you a list of suggestions to get started.

superuser is a system administrator account that has permissions to do everything. It is useful for testing.

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