Installing an application through cPanel Softaculous plugin

Introduction

• This tutorial will describe the steps you need to install an application through the cPanel Softaculous plugin.
• Softaculous is an auto-installer that makes it easy to install web applications. It contains many CMS (Content Management Systems), like WordPress, Joomla, PrestaShop, phpBB, Magento, WHMCS, etc.
• In this article, we will use the WordPress web application as an example.

Requirements

To follow the steps, we will need:

• The login data of cPanel, present in the email with the administration data.

Steps

• First, we will log in to the CPanel control panel.

• Once you log in, we will go to the Software section and click on the Softaculous Apps Installer button.

• The next page will load the main interface of Softaculous auto-installer.
• On the left side of the page, you will have to search for an application in the Softaculous database, either in the Search field or by using categories in the navigation menu below the search field.
• The center of the page will contain Top Scripts, with the most frequently installed web applications.
• The WordPress application can be installed directly from Top Scripts or from the search menu. To search for the WordPress application in the Softaculous database, click on the Search field and write WordPress or any other application you want.

• After clicking on the app from the result, in this case, WordPress, we can install it.
• An app presentation page will open. Using the top buttons we will be able to view details about the selected application. For installation, we will click on Install Now.

• The next window will contain the fields required to configure the application.
  
• The first category will be Software Setup and will contain the following fields:

Choose Protocol - You will choose the protocol by which the application will work: HTTPS or HTTP, with or without www. For HTTPS variants, you will also need an SSL certificate installed on the domain.
Choose Domain - The domain you want to install the application. Here are all the domains and subdomains added to the cPanel console.
In Directory - The directory where we want the app to be installed. If we want to install in the direct path of the domain or subdomain, we will leave this field empty. If we want the installation to be done in a subdirectory we will pass its name.

• The second category will be Site Settings with the following fields:

Site Name - the name of the web page
Site Description - the description of the web page
Enable Multisite (WPMU) - WordPress Multisite is a built-in WordPress mode that allows you to create a network of multiple websites running on a single WordPress installation.

• The third category Admin Account will contain the applications administration data:

Admin Username
Admin Password
Admin Email

*Write your username and password in a safe place. These will be used later to log in to the administration side.

 

• In the fourth category Choose Language, you will choose the language you want:

• In the fifth category Select Plugin(s), we will choose which plugins we want to be installed in the application.

• The sixth category Advanced Options will contain other advanced application settings. These fields can be left to their default value:

Database Name - The name of the database can be changed.
Table Prefix - You can change the prefix of the tables in the database.
Disable Update Notifications Emails - If checked, you will not receive emails about the availability of new app updates.
Auto Upgrade - If checked, the app will automatically update.
Auto Upgrade WordPress Plugins - If checked, the app will automatically update plug-ins.
Auto Upgrade WordPress Themes - If checked, the app will automatically update the installed themes.
Backup Location - The location where we want to store backups.
Automated backups - How often do we want to create a backup of the application.
Backup Rotation - Is set by default to 1. When a new backup is created, the old one is deleted.

In the last category Select Theme, we will be able to select a theme for the web page.

The settings in the above steps can be changed after installing the application, from the WordPress administration side or from Softaculous.

To start the installation, click on the Install button. We can specify an email box to send installation details to the Email installation details to.

After the application has finished installing we will receive a message. This will also show the domain or subdomain where the application has been installed and the address through which we can access the administration side.

If we return to the homepage Softaculous, at the top of the page will be presented the number of installed applications, outdated installed applications, and backups.
We will click on Installations.

In the next window, we will see a list of all applications installed through Softaculous. This page will give us the ability to edit, delete, clone or create a backup of installed applications.