Installation & Configuration

Installing Trongate is refreshingly simple. There are no dependency managers, no build steps, and no scaffolding commands. The framework includes an intelligent Setup Wizard that handles configuration for you.

Before You Begin

Make sure you have the following up and running:

• PHP 8.0 or higher (8.2+ recommended)
• MySQL or MariaDB
• A web server (Apache or Nginx) with URL rewriting enabled

See the Minimum System Requirements page for full details.

1. Get the Framework

The framework lives on GitHub. You can grab it in two ways:

1. Download as ZIP — Visit github.com/trongate/trongate-framework, click the green "Code" button, and select "Download ZIP".
2. Clone via Git — From your terminal, run:

git clone https://github.com/trongate/trongate-framework.git

2. Place the Files in Your Web Root

Move the downloaded files into your web server's document root. If you're running XAMPP, this is typically htdocs. On MAMP it's htdocs, on LAMP it's /var/www/html, and on WAMP it's www. After placing the files, the structure should look like this:

trongate/
↵ config/
↵ engine/
↵ modules/
↵ public/
↵ uploads/
↵ .htaccess
↵ index.php

3. Run the Setup Wizard

Navigate to your site's URL in a browser. The Setup Wizard automatically detects that Trongate has not yet been configured and walks you through the process. Here's a 3-minute demonstration:

The wizard guides you through five easy steps:

1. Set your base URL — Tell Trongate where your site lives, then update config.php with the code the wizard provides.
2. Configure the database — Enter your connection details, test them with a click, then update database.php with the code provided.
3. Create your admin account — Fill in a username and password for your administrator login.
4. Set the default module — Choose which module loads when visitors first hit your homepage.
5. Finish and clean up — Delete the setup module (it's no longer needed) and head to your homepage. You're done!

Manual Configuration (Optional)

If you prefer to configure Trongate by hand, you can edit the configuration files directly:

Base URL

Open config/config.php and set the BASE_URL constant:

<?php
define('BASE_URL', 'http://localhost/trongate/');
define('ENV', 'dev');

Database Configuration (Optional)

If you'd like to have Trongate work with at least one database and you're opting for manual configuration then you'll have to create your database(s) first.

After you've created your database(s), open config/database.php and enter your database connection details. For example:

<?php
$databases = [
    'default' => [
        'host' => '127.0.0.1',
        'port' => '3306',
        'user' => 'root',
        'password' => '',
        'database' => 'trongate'
    ]
];

You can define additional database groups by adding more entries to the $databases array.

For more information about working with multiplate databases, see Working With Multiple Databases for more.