You can install Acquia CMS through either of the following:
You can use your local system to create an Acquia-recommended Drupal project or add a starter kit to your existing Drupal project.
Create an Acquia-recommended Drupal project by running the following command:
composer create-project acquia/drupal-recommended-project project && cd project
By default, the starter kit is already available in this project.
Add a starter kit to your existing Drupal project by running the following command:
composer require acquia/acquia-cms-starterkit
After you create an Acquia-recommended Drupal project or add a starter kit to an existing Drupal project, you can install Acquia CMS by leveraging one of the available starter kits. Acquia recommends that you use the Acquia CMS starter kit wizard for downloading and building Drupal sites with Acquia CMS modules. With this wizard, you can set up your Drupal site using one of the three starter kits. You can install Acquia CMS by using one of the following starter kits:
This starter kit installs the following to your Drupal site:
Acquia CMS with Site Studio
A UIKit
It provides drag-and-drop content authoring and low-code site building. An optional add-on content model is available during the installation process. For more information, see Enterprise low-code starter kit.
To install Acquia CMS through the Acquia CMS Enterprise low-code starter kit:
Access your Drupal project and run the following command:
./vendor/bin/acms acms:install
Note
Existing users who want to prevent rebuilding Composer dependencies repeatedly can leverage separate build and install commands. For more information, see Using separate build and install commands.
In Please choose bundle from one of the above use case, select acquia_cms_enterprise_low_code and press Enter.
For selection, you can use the Up and Down arrow keys.
Note
The default value for this query is
acquia_cms_enterprise_low_code. Therefore, the system considers
the value to be acquia_cms_enterprise_low_code even if you do
not specify any value.
In Do you want to enable demo content?, type yes to see the operation of Acquia CMS with a content model with demo content and Site Studio components with demo content. Otherwise, type the default value, no.
If you type no:
In Do you want to enable the content model?, type yes or no and press Enter.
This question includes all content types in the site.
In Would you like to enable the Acquia DAM modules?, type yes to leverage Acquia DAM modules. Otherwise, type no.
In Would you like to add GDPR functionality to the site?, type yes to leverage community-contributed GDPR modules with Acquia CMS. Otherwise, type no. For more information about these modules, see General Data Protection Regulation and EU Cookie Compliance (GDPR Compliance).
In Please provide the Google Maps API Key, type the Google Maps API key and press Enter.
The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have
already configured the environment variable with the
export GMAPS_KEY="<your_key>" command. Also, you can skip
this step if you do not have the key.
In Please provide the Site Studio API Key, type the Site Studio API key and press Enter.
The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have
already configured the environment variable with the
export SITESTUDIO_API_KEY="<your_key>" command. Also, you can
skip this step if you do not have the key.
In Please provide the Site Studio Organization Key, type the Site Studio Organization key and press Enter.
The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have
already configured the environment variable with the
export SITESTUDIO_ORG_KEY="<your_key>" command. Also, you can
skip this step if you do not have the key.
Specify the database information, such as name, driver, username, password, host, and port.
Note
To prevent failed installation, ensure that you:
Run a MySQL server on the system or use the correct host name or port number when trying to connect to the server.
Check that the TCP/IP port you are using is not blocked by a firewall or port blocking service.
Check that the database server is running.
Check that the database exists or the database users have sufficient privileges to create the database.
Enter the correct database name, username, password, hostname, and port.
Continue the installation process until you get the confirmation message.
If you are an existing Acquia customer who does not use the Site Studio Configuration Management module, do the following steps:
(Optional) If you are already using the blt-site-studio plugin, remove it from your codebase by running the following command:
composer remove acquia/blt-site-studio
Remove the following lines from the blt/blt.yml file:
site-studio:
rebuild: true
package-import: true
cohesion-import: true
Note
If you do not leverage the blt-site-studio plugin but use custom scripts instead, ensure that you remove such references from your codebase.
Add the Site Studio Configuration Management module to your codebase by running the following command:
composer require drupal/sitestudio_config_management
Enable the module by running the following command:
./vendor/bin/drush en sitestudio_config_management -y
Add the following lines to the settings.php file:
$settings['config_sync_directory'] = '../config/default/sync';
$settings['site_studio_sync'] = '../config/default/site_studio';
Note
If your settings.php file already includes the paths for
the config_sync_directory and site_studio_sync parameters, ensure that you remove those.
Verify the configuration import and export commands by running the following commands:
./vendor/bin/drush cex
./vendor/bin/drush cim
These commands must automatically export or import Site Studio configurations along with Drupal configurations. These must be available in the paths defined in the previous step.
Important
Currently, the starter kit wizard uses drush site:install and drops
the database of any existing site. Therefore, you cannot use starter
kits after installation.
After you install Acquia CMS, you can develop your Drupal site and deploy your changes to Cloud Next.
This starter kit installs Acquia CMS to your Drupal site. An optional add-on content model is available during the installation process. For more information, see Community starter kit.
To install Acquia CMS through the Community starter kit:
Access your Drupal project and run the following command:
./vendor/bin/acms acms:install
Note
Existing users who want to prevent rebuilding Composer dependencies repeatedly can leverage separate build and install commands. For more information, see Using separate build and install commands.
In Please choose bundle from one of the above use case, select acquia_cms_community and press Enter.
For selection, you can use the Up and Down arrow keys.
In Do you want to enable demo content?, type yes to see the operation of Acquia CMS with a content model with demo content and Site Studio components with demo content. Otherwise, type the default value, no.
If you type no:
In Do you want to enable the content model?, type yes or no and press Enter.
This question includes all content types in the site.
In Would you like to enable the Acquia DAM modules?, type yes to leverage Acquia DAM modules. Otherwise, type no.
In Would you like to add GDPR functionality to the site?, type yes to leverage community-contributed GDPR modules with Acquia CMS. Otherwise, type no. For more information about these modules, see General Data Protection Regulation and EU Cookie Compliance (GDPR Compliance).
In Please provide the Google Maps API Key, type the Google Maps API key and press Enter.
The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have
already configured the environment variable with the
export GMAPS_KEY="<your_key>" command. Also, you can skip
this step if you do not have the key.
Specify the database information, such as name, driver, username, password, host, and port.
Note
To prevent failed installation, ensure that you:
Run a MySQL server on the system or use the correct host name or port number when trying to connect to the server.
Check that the TCP/IP port you are using is not blocked by a firewall or port blocking service.
Check that the database server is running.
Check that the database exists or the database users have sufficient privileges to create the database.
Enter the correct database name, username, password, hostname, and port.
Continue the installation process until you get the confirmation message.
Important
Currently, the starter kit wizard uses drush site:install and drops
the database of any existing site. Therefore, you cannot use starter
kits after installation.
After you install Acquia CMS, you can develop your Drupal site and deploy your changes to Cloud Next.
This starter kit preconfigures Drupal for serving structured, RESTful content to third-party content displays, such as mobile apps, smart displays, and frontend driven websites. For more information, see Headless starter kit.
To install Acquia CMS through the Acquia CMS Headless starter kit:
Access your Drupal project and run the following command:
./vendor/bin/acms acms:install
Note
Existing users who want to prevent rebuilding Composer dependencies repeatedly can leverage separate build and install commands. For more information, see Using separate build and install commands.
In Please choose bundle from one of the above use case, select acquia_cms_headless and press Enter.
For selection, you can use the Up and Down arrow keys.
In Do you want to enable demo content?, type yes to see the operation of Acquia CMS with a content model with demo content and Site Studio components with demo content. Otherwise, type the default value, no.
If you type no:
In Do you want to enable the content model?, type yes or no and press Enter.
This question includes all content types in the site.
In Would you like to enable the Acquia DAM modules?, type yes to leverage Acquia DAM modules. Otherwise, type no.
In Would you like to preconfigure a next.js site?, type yes to configure a Next.js website. Otherwise, type no.
If you type yes:
In Please provide the Next.js site url, type the Next.js site URL.
In Please provide the Site Name, type the name of the site.
In Please provide the .env.local file path, type the path of the .env.local file.
In Please provide the Google Maps API Key, type the Google Maps API key and press Enter.
The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have
already configured the environment variable with the
export GMAPS_KEY="<your_key>" command. Also, you can skip
this step if you do not have the key.
Specify the database information, such as name, driver, username, password, host, and port.
Note
To prevent failed installation, ensure that you:
Run a MySQL server on the system or use the correct host name or port number when trying to connect to the server.
Check that the TCP/IP port you are using is not blocked by a firewall or port blocking service.
Check that the database server is running.
Check that the database exists or the database users have sufficient privileges to create the database.
Enter the correct database name, username, password, hostname, and port.
Continue the installation process until you get the confirmation message.
Important
Currently, the starter kit wizard uses drush site:install and drops
the database of any existing site. Therefore, you cannot use starter
kits after installation.
After you install Acquia CMS, you can develop your Drupal site and deploy your changes to Cloud Next.
You can use Cloud IDE to create an Acquia-recommended Drupal project or add a starter kit to your existing Drupal project.
Create an Acquia-recommended Drupal project through Acquia CLI by running the following command:
acli new
Select acquia/drupal-recommended-project.
By default, the starter kit is already available in this project.
Create an Acquia-recommended Drupal project through CLI by running the following command:
composer create-project acquia/drupal-recommended-project .
By default, the starter kit is already available in this project.
Add the starter kit to an existing Drupal project by running the following command:
composer require acquia/acquia-cms-starterkit
After you create an Acquia-recommended Drupal project or add a starter kit to an existing Drupal project, you can install Acquia CMS by leveraging one of the available starter kits. Acquia recommends that you use the Acquia CMS starter kit wizard for downloading and building Drupal sites with Acquia CMS modules. With this wizard, you can set up your Drupal site using one of the three starter kits. You can install Acquia CMS by using one of the following starter kits:
This starter kit installs the following to your Drupal site:
Acquia CMS with Site Studio
A UIKit
It provides drag-and-drop content authoring and low-code site building. An optional add-on content model is available during the installation process. For more information, see Enterprise low-code starter kit.
To install Acquia CMS through the Acquia CMS Enterprise low-code starter kit:
Access your Drupal project and run the following command:
./vendor/bin/acms acms:install
Note
Existing users who want to prevent rebuilding Composer dependencies repeatedly can leverage separate build and install commands. For more information, see Using separate build and install commands.
In Please choose bundle from one of the above use case, select acquia_cms_enterprise_low_code and press Enter.
For selection, you can use the Up and Down arrow keys.
Note
The default value for this query is
acquia_cms_enterprise_low_code. Therefore, the system considers
the value to be acquia_cms_enterprise_low_code even if you do
not specify any value.
In Do you want to enable demo content?, type yes to see the operation of Acquia CMS with a content model with demo content and Site Studio components with demo content. Otherwise, type the default value, no.
If you type no:
In Do you want to enable the content model?, type yes or no and press Enter.
This question includes all content types in the site.
In Would you like to enable the Acquia DAM modules?, type yes to leverage Acquia DAM modules. Otherwise, type no.
In Would you like to add GDPR functionality to the site?, type yes to leverage community-contributed GDPR modules with Acquia CMS. Otherwise, type no. For more information about these modules, see General Data Protection Regulation and EU Cookie Compliance (GDPR Compliance).
In Please provide the Google Maps API Key, type the Google Maps API key and press Enter.
The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have
already configured the environment variable with the
export GMAPS_KEY="<your_key>" command. Also, you can skip
this step if you do not have the key.
In Please provide the Site Studio API Key, type the Site Studio API key and press Enter.
The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have
already configured the environment variable with the
export SITESTUDIO_API_KEY="<your_key>" command. Also, you can
skip this step if you do not have the key.
In Please provide the Site Studio Organization Key, type the Site Studio Organization key and press Enter.
The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have
already configured the environment variable with the
export SITESTUDIO_ORG_KEY="<your_key>" command. Also, you can
skip this step if you do not have the key.
Specify the database information, such as name, driver, username, password, host, and port.
Note
To prevent failed installation, ensure that you:
Run a MySQL server on the system or use the correct host name or port number when trying to connect to the server.
Check that the TCP/IP port you are using is not blocked by a firewall or port blocking service.
Check that the database server is running.
Check that the database exists or the database users have sufficient privileges to create the database.
Enter the correct database name, username, password, hostname, and port.
Continue the installation process until you get the confirmation message.
If you are an existing Acquia customer who does not use the Site Studio Configuration Management module, do the following steps:
(Optional) If you are already using the blt-site-studio plugin, remove it from your codebase by running the following command:
composer remove acquia/blt-site-studio
Remove the following lines from the blt/blt.yml file:
site-studio:
rebuild: true
package-import: true
cohesion-import: true
Note
If you do not leverage the blt-site-studio plugin but use custom scripts instead, ensure that you remove such references from your codebase.
Add the Site Studio Configuration Management module to your codebase by running the following command:
composer require drupal/sitestudio_config_management
Enable the module by running the following command:
./vendor/bin/drush en sitestudio_config_management -y
Add the following lines to the settings.php file:
$settings['config_sync_directory'] = '../config/default/sync';
$settings['site_studio_sync'] = '../config/default/site_studio';
Note
If your settings.php file already includes the paths for
the config_sync_directory and site_studio_sync parameters, ensure that you remove those.
Verify the configuration import and export commands by running the following commands:
./vendor/bin/drush cex
./vendor/bin/drush cim
These commands must automatically export or import Site Studio configurations along with Drupal configurations. These must be available in the paths defined in the previous step.
Important
Currently, the starter kit wizard uses drush site:install and drops
the database of any existing site. Therefore, you cannot use starter
kits after installation.
After you install Acquia CMS, you can develop your Drupal site and deploy your changes to Cloud Next.
This starter kit installs Acquia CMS to your Drupal site. An optional add-on content model is available during the installation process. For more information, see Community starter kit.
To install Acquia CMS through the Community starter kit:
Access your Drupal project and run the following command:
./vendor/bin/acms acms:install
Note
Existing users who want to prevent rebuilding Composer dependencies repeatedly can leverage separate build and install commands. For more information, see Using separate build and install commands.
In Please choose bundle from one of the above use case, select acquia_cms_community and press Enter.
For selection, you can use the Up and Down arrow keys.
In Do you want to enable demo content?, type yes to see the operation of Acquia CMS with a content model with demo content and Site Studio components with demo content. Otherwise, type the default value, no.
If you type no:
In Do you want to enable the content model?, type yes or no and press Enter.
This question includes all content types in the site.
In Would you like to enable the Acquia DAM modules?, type yes to leverage Acquia DAM modules. Otherwise, type no.
In Would you like to add GDPR functionality to the site?, type yes to leverage community-contributed GDPR modules with Acquia CMS. Otherwise, type no. For more information about these modules, see General Data Protection Regulation and EU Cookie Compliance (GDPR Compliance).
In Please provide the Google Maps API Key, type the Google Maps API key and press Enter.
The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have
already configured the environment variable with the
export GMAPS_KEY="<your_key>" command. Also, you can skip
this step if you do not have the key.
Specify the database information, such as name, driver, username, password, host, and port.
Note
To prevent failed installation, ensure that you:
Run a MySQL server on the system or use the correct host name or port number when trying to connect to the server.
Check that the TCP/IP port you are using is not blocked by a firewall or port blocking service.
Check that the database server is running.
Check that the database exists or the database users have sufficient privileges to create the database.
Enter the correct database name, username, password, hostname, and port.
Continue the installation process until you get the confirmation message.
Important
Currently, the starter kit wizard uses drush site:install and drops
the database of any existing site. Therefore, you cannot use starter
kits after installation.
After you install Acquia CMS, you can develop your Drupal site and deploy your changes to Cloud Next.
This starter kit preconfigures Drupal for serving structured, RESTful content to third-party content displays, such as mobile apps, smart displays, and frontend driven websites. For more information, see Headless starter kit.
To install Acquia CMS through the Acquia CMS Headless starter kit:
Access your Drupal project and run the following command:
./vendor/bin/acms acms:install
Note
Existing users who want to prevent rebuilding Composer dependencies repeatedly can leverage separate build and install commands. For more information, see Using separate build and install commands.
In Please choose bundle from one of the above use case, select acquia_cms_headless and press Enter.
For selection, you can use the Up and Down arrow keys.
In Do you want to enable demo content?, type yes to see the operation of Acquia CMS with a content model with demo content and Site Studio components with demo content. Otherwise, type the default value, no.
If you type no:
In Do you want to enable the content model?, type yes or no and press Enter.
This question includes all content types in the site.
In Would you like to enable the Acquia DAM modules?, type yes to leverage Acquia DAM modules. Otherwise, type no.
In Would you like to preconfigure a next.js site?, type yes to configure a Next.js website. Otherwise, type no.
If you type yes:
In Please provide the Next.js site url, type the Next.js site URL.
In Please provide the Site Name, type the name of the site.
In Please provide the .env.local file path, type the path of the .env.local file.
In Please provide the Google Maps API Key, type the Google Maps API key and press Enter.
The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have
already configured the environment variable with the
export GMAPS_KEY="<your_key>" command. Also, you can skip
this step if you do not have the key.
Specify the database information, such as name, driver, username, password, host, and port.
Note
To prevent failed installation, ensure that you:
Run a MySQL server on the system or use the correct host name or port number when trying to connect to the server.
Check that the TCP/IP port you are using is not blocked by a firewall or port blocking service.
Check that the database server is running.
Check that the database exists or the database users have sufficient privileges to create the database.
Enter the correct database name, username, password, hostname, and port.
Continue the installation process until you get the confirmation message.
Important
Currently, the starter kit wizard uses drush site:install and drops
the database of any existing site. Therefore, you cannot use starter
kits after installation.
After you install Acquia CMS, you can develop your Drupal site and deploy your changes to Cloud Next.
You can install Acquia CMS through the Cloud Platform user interface in the following scenarios:
You want to try Acquia CMS without spending time composing on your local development environment and pushing to the remote repository.
You want to use Acquia CMS as it comes and do not have much expertise with Composer.
You want to explore Acquia CMS without investing too much development time.
You prefer to install through the user interface instead of the command line.
You can install a basic Drupal distribution through the Cloud Platform user interface. Such a distribution does not have any Acquia CMS starter kit or add-ons. However, this method is unavailable on the Cloud Next infrastructure and must only be used for demo and trial applications on the Cloud Classic infrastructure. For more information, see Installing a Drupal distribution through the Cloud Platform user interface.
After installing a basic Drupal project, use the following steps to install a specific Acquia CMS starter kit along with add-ons to the project:
Run the following command:
composer require acquia/acquia-cms-starterkit
Sign in to the Acquia CMS site.
In the Acquia CMS administrative user interface, click Manage > Tour.
On the Tour page, click Get started.
Click Starter kit set-up.
On the Starter Kit Selection page, select a starter kit from the available options and click Save & continue.
Based on the selected starter kit, select the appropriate option for the questions to extend the starter kit with add-ons.
In Do you want to enable demo content?, select Yes to see the operation of Acquia CMS with a content model with demo content and Site Studio components with demo content. Otherwise, select the default value, No.
If you select No:
In Do you want to enable the content model?, select Yes or No.
This question includes all content types in the site.
In API key, specify the Site Studio API key.
In Agency key, specify the Site Studio organization key.
In Use Site Studio, select Enable.
Click Save and Import assets to import all the Site Studio packages.
If you are an existing Acquia customer who does not use the Site Studio Configuration Management module, do the following steps:
(Optional) If you are already using the blt-site-studio plugin, remove it from your codebase by running the following command:
composer remove acquia/blt-site-studio
Remove the following lines from the blt/blt.yml file:
site-studio:
rebuild: true
package-import: true
cohesion-import: true
Note
If you do not leverage the blt-site-studio plugin but use custom scripts instead, ensure that you remove such references from your codebase.
To add and extend the Site Studio Configuration Management module to your
codebase, access the Extend page or /admin/modules.
Locate the Site Studio Configuration Management module, select Site Studio Configuration Management, and click Install.
Add the following lines to the settings.php file:
$settings['config_sync_directory'] = '../config/default/sync';
$settings['site_studio_sync'] = '../config/default/site_studio';
Note
If your settings.php file already includes the paths for
the config_sync_directory and site_studio_sync
parameters, ensure that you remove those.
In Do you want to enable demo content?, select Yes to see the operation of Acquia CMS with a content model with demo content and Site Studio components with demo content. Otherwise, select the default value, No.
If you select No:
In Do you want to enable the content model?, select Yes or No.
This question includes all content types in the site.
The system redirects you to the Tour page where you can complete the installation process.
In Do you want to enable demo content?, select Yes to see the operation of Acquia CMS with a content model with demo content and Site Studio components with demo content. Otherwise, select the default value, No.
If you select No:
In Do you want to enable the content model?, select Yes or No.
This question includes all content types in the site.
The system redirects to the Tour page.
To enable Next.js starter kit, select Enable Next.js starter kit.
To enable the headless mode, select Enable Headless mode.
Click Complete.
The site is generated with the selected starter kit and add-ons.
Important
This procedure does not disable or uninstall any module that is already enabled or installed. This only enables or installs the modules required to set up the selected starter kit.
After you install Acquia CMS, you can develop your Drupal site and deploy your changes to Cloud Next.
You can install Acquia CMS through the Site Factory user interface in the following scenarios:
You want to try Acquia CMS without spending time composing on your local development environment and pushing to the remote repository.
You want to use Acquia CMS as it comes and do not have much expertise with Composer.
You want to explore Acquia CMS without investing too much development time.
You prefer to install through the user interface instead of the command line.
Before you start this procedure, ensure that you complete the steps mentioned in Setting up your Factory to set up your factory.
In the top menu, click Sites.
In the left sidebar, click the group in which you want to create your website.
Click Create a new site.
In Site URL, enter a URL for your site.
(Optional) If you do not see an option to select a profile:
Click Administration > Installation profile management.
Select the checkbox for the acquia_cms_minimal profile.
Make it your default profile.
Click Save Settings.
Select the acquia_cms_minimal profile and click Create site.
Your installation starts automatically. The system sends you an email after your site is ready.
After your site is ready, log in to your new site.
The system redirects you to the Tour page and displays the Starter Kit Selection page.
On the Starter Kit Selection page, select a starter kit and click Save & continue.
On the Extend Starter Kit page, select appropriate options for the questions to extend the starter kit with add-ons.
The site is generated with the selected starter kit and add-ons.
Important
This procedure does not disable or uninstall any module that is already enabled or installed. This only enables or installs the modules required to set up the selected starter kit.
After you install Acquia CMS, you can develop your Drupal site and deploy your changes to Cloud Next.
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